Dante’s Peak (1997)
Plot: U.S. Geologist Harry Dalton (Pierce Brosnan) is dispatched to a small town to investigate the extinct volcano that lies opposite. However when he finds that it is only dormant, and about to go off, he finds it hard to get the word out - until it finally happens.
Review: It’s often the case in Hollywood where two people develop the same idea at the same time, only with a couple of significant changes. Think the recent competing Snow Whites, or American president in trouble movies.
In 1997 that idea was a natural disaster; a volcano, to be precise. But while the Tommy Lee Jones vehicle (the imaginatively titled Volcano) set its action in a big city, Los Angeles, the action in Dante’s Peak was set in an eponymous small American mountain town. The action was on a much smaller level too; with less loss of life to worry about, the story is mainly about people evacuating to a safe distance, rather than having to try and deal with a large bodycount. This means we can focus on in-feasibly handsome geologist Harry, his love interest, town Mayor Rachel Wando, and their battle to save her kids from the lava.
It’s not overstating it to say the story is predictable; it’s not exactly a think-piece, or great drama of our times. The biggest question is whether the dog will survive, or be killed of to add pathos. It isn’t necessarily bad at what it does, just a little bland and predictable. Nothing here is going to set the world alight. But it’s hard to find anything to particularly lay into. It does its job with a family-friendly story and scientifically dodgy set-up, and then tells it straight forward and with little surprise. Brosnan is fine, Hamilton is fine, and the supporting cast are often quirky but hardly memorable.
Nobody set out to make Inception with this one but that’s fine; neither film is likely to be everyone’s cup of tea. This one is a bland one which is probably good for a laze Sunday afternoon, but don’t expect and great excitement.
