Dante's Peak (2007, HD DVD)

It became common times in the late 90's when the natural disaster movies started to come out thanks to a new era of special effects. Twister became pretty successful, and Volcano was kind of an unbelievable take on the formation of a volcano from underneath a city. Dante's Peak came out as well in 1997, and it starred Pierce Brosnan as a Volcanologist named Harry Dalton who worked for the United States Geological Survey (USGS) on a much needed vacation. He's called in by his boss, Paul, to check out some unusual seismic readings at Dante's Peak, which had just been awarded the "World's Second Most Desirable Place to Live". When he gets there, he takes some precautionary steps by talking with the mayor of the city Rachel Wando (Linda Hamilton, the butt-kicking mother from Terminator) about why he's there, and that it's just a safe step to make sure the town is safe. When Harry finds two roasted teenage bodies in a hot spring on the mountain, he begins to believe that the Volcano isn't dormant, and that it's going to erupt soon. He gets his boss to send out a team of Geologists to monitor the mountain, but after nothing suspicious occurs after a week or so, they decide that the mountain is fine and so they get ready to pack up and leave.

Just as they decide to leave, the volcano begins to erupt, and the whole town tries to evacuate the city in utter chaos, while Harry and Rachel drive back up the mountain to find Rachel's kids. Dante's Peak is pretty believable while still keeping the viewers entertained, but it's got its inconsistencies when it comes to the science of volcanoes. Dante's Peak did an awesome job with the special effects, and most of the movie was pretty much on track with the signs before the eruption like the earthquakes before the eruption, the seismic activity that led the USGS to send Harry in the first place, and the ash falling down on the town, though in my opinion, I think that the special effects got a little over exaggerative with the amount of ash that fell. Also, the scene with the two teenagers in the hot spring at the beginning when the lava erupted underneath it could have been believable, but I agree with some other people that those people most likely wouldn't have been in the hot spring when that happened. Also, the sulfur dioxide in the town's water supply was very believable, and the Pyroclastic cloud from the eruption was also spot on scientifically speaking.

Dante's Peak had a lot of irregularities about a volcanic eruption that if they hadn't been in the movie, it probably would have been a lot more dull to watch. Obviously to keep it from being a marketing flop (they are trying to make money obviously), a lot of these inconsistent scenes aren't believable at all. For one, when Harry gets in a boat on the lake that's on the mountain as the volcano's exploding, the acid didn't eat all the way through the boat by the time he made it all the way across to the other beach. That scene wasn't very believable at all because the amount of heat would turn the water into acid, which would have eaten away at the boat and the propeller long before they made it to the other side. Yet, the scene was entertaining enough from a marketing stand point. Scientifically wise though, I don't think so. The major scene in the movie that only a blonde would believe is when Harry drives a truck over molten lava, which has several inconsistencies in it alone. The MOLTEN LAVA, which is almost 3000 degrees Fahrenheit, would have popped the tires the moment they reached the lava and melt the wheels, and not to mention the heat from the lava that would cause the gas in the truck to combust and explode. Once again, the validity of that happening in a volcanic eruption is impossible, but from an entertainment aspect, it was quite funny to watch.

For a natural disaster film, Dante's Peak is very entertaining with big actors like Pierce Brosnan and Linda Hamilton, and does a nice job keeping the movie interesting. The special effects weren't exactly amazing, nor were they groundbreaking (as the effects in Twister already took that honor), but they still provided some pretty eye candy. Some of the eruption scenes were even taken from video of the eruption of Mt St. Helens, which Dante's Peak was heavily based on. There was some nice chemistry between Harry and Rachel, though I'm glad that the romance was kept to a minimum so that we didn't have another Titanic scenario on our hands. Some of the film was scientifically valid, while other parts of it (like driving over molten lava without popping any tires for instance) were so ridiculously unbelievable, yet entertaining. Whatever you do, don't believe that you can drive over molten lava and go up and try it at the nearest eruption near you.

happy viewing