ROGER DONALDSON
Bil’s rating (out of 5): BBB.5.
USA, 1997. Universal Pictures, Pacific Western. Screenplay by Leslie Bohem. Cinematography by Andrzej Bartkowiak. Produced by Gale Anne Hurd, Joseph Singer. Music by John Frizzell. Production Design by J. Dennis Washington. Costume Design by Isis Mussenden. Film Editing by Conrad Buff IV, Tina Hirsch, Howard E. Smith.
Pure Hollywood fluff, this disaster film about a volcano erupting in a town that has been declared by the President as the ‘Second Best Place to Live in America’ is genius when compared to the similarly-themed Volcano starring Tommy Lee Jones. Linda Hamilton is the Mayor (and General Store Owner, how quaint can you get) of the aforementioned town who refuses to believe it when geologist sexpot Pierce Brosnan arrives and tells her that the giant mothra of a mountain that provides a beautiful backdrop to her house is actually getting ready to wipe the entire local population off the face of the earth. Naturally, it happens before anyone’s ready to leave, so there’s lots of deliciously frightened extras getting crushed under telephone poles, and if you find that entertaining, this is your film! Others might cry foul when they see a twelve year-old successfully navigate a 4×4 truck up an ash-soaked, quaking mountain. Either laughing at it or with it, though, you’ll enjoy yourself.
