Dante's Peak (2007, HD DVD)

Over the years, many disaster movies have been made, some much better than others. I have seen and enjoyed several of them myself. In 1997, two different movies dealing with volcanoes were made. If I remember right, Dante's Peak was the first of them to be released.

Harry Dalton specialized in volcanoes. He knew first hand how deadly they could be after the woman he loved died when they waited to long to leave when one was erupting. Four years later, Harry was sent to the small town of Dante s Peak to check on the dormant volcano there.

Once there, Harry believed things were serious enough to take action. The City Council and his boss Paul didn t agree and felt that Harry was over reacting. The mayor, Rachel, was stuck in the middle. Harry continued to believe that the town was in danger. He grew closer to Rachel and her two children as the evidence mounted that the volcano was becoming active again.

Before seeing Dante s Peak, I really didn t know much of anything about volcanoes. Really all I knew was that lava was involved and they were very destructive. I thought that what was going on was believable and it seemed realistic to me. After I saw the movie, I did some research online on volcanoes. What I read at the time said that the things shown in the movie were fairly accurate. There could be the types of warning signs shown, just usually not all of them and some, like what happened with the water for the town, would take longer to happen. There were some scientific explanations provided for what was going on. Those explanations seemed believable and made sense to me. I liked that there was some scientific information shared without the movie going overboard with them.

The first few minutes of Dante s Peak showed what happened when Harry and Marion waited too long to leave when a volcano was erupting. Those few minutes did help to add development to Harry and helped show why he was so determined to help the town. Some time was taken to establish the situation and show just how nice the town was before the action started. That did provide some time to get to know the characters. The action that was in the movie was connected to the volcano and what was going on with it. The action did keep things interesting and provided a few suspenseful moments. I didn t think that the movie was predictable overall even though there were a few predictable things that happened. Some kind of special effects were used for some sequences involving the volcano. I did think the effects were well done and looked realistic.

Even though Marion was barely shown or talked about in Dante s Peak, it was made clear that she and Harry had a strong relationship before her death. The two had worked together, though it wasn t said exactly how long they had worked together or known each other. Four years later, Harry did seem ready to move on with a new relationship when he met Rachel. She was a single mother who hadn t even heard from her ex-husband in years. She hadn t had a lot of luck with her love life either, but she was also willing to explore the attraction that was between her and Harry. She even made the first move in inviting him to dinner. They both seemed a little unsure of how to proceed with the relationship. It was very clear that they were interested in each other without there being any actual sex scenes. That aspect of the movie was more of a subplot since the movie was more focused in on what was happening with the volcano. The hints at the romantic interest between Harry and Rachel didn t detract from the main plot in anyway.

Harry had been investigating volcanoes for years. He was good at his job even though his boss didn t always believe him. He was more concerned with saving lives than playing political games. I really liked Pierce Brosnan in the part and felt that he made Harry a likable, believable character. Rachel was a single mother trying to raise her kids while also running her business and carry out her duties as mayor of Dante s Peak. She was a loving mother and kind woman. Linda Hamilton was good in the part.

Graham and Lauren were Rachel s children. They seemed well adjusted and happy overall. They did so something very stupid at one point, but they were still likable and not annoying. Jeremy Foley and Jamie Renee Smith handled the parts well. Ruth was their stubborn grandmother who I didn t like that much. She loved her grandchildren, but she did keep making little digs at Rachel about why her son had left the marriage. Elizabeth Hoffman was fine in the part. Charles Hallahan was good as Harry s boss Paul. I didn t like how he kept dismissing Harry s concerns, but Paul was likable for the most part. The rest of the team were around without being very developed.

Main Cast

Pierce Brosnan - Harry Dalton
Jeremy Foley - Graham
Charles Hallahan - Paul
Linda Hamilton - Rachel Wando
Elizabeth Hoffman - Ruth
Jamie Renee Smith - Lauren

Roger Donaldson - Director

DVD Information

I first watched Dante s Peak in the theater when it was released. It is available on DVD and I picked up a copy a few years ago when I found it in the bargain bin at Wal-Mart. My copy is the collector s edition and has the widescreen version of the movie. I don t know if there is a full screen version available as well. There is a commentary with the director and production designer, biographies for the cast and filmmakers, the theatrical trailer, and a featurette on the making of the movie.

Dante s Peak was an entertaining disaster movie that is worth watching for fans of this type of movie. Fans of Brosnan or Hamilton may also enjoy the movie.

This is a movie I would have given three and a half stars too. Since I can t, I rounded up to four.

Pierce Brosnan Movies
After the Sunset ~ Die Another Day ~ Laws of Attraction ~