Dante's Peak Rating: Release Date: 10 February, 1998 Retail Price: $34.98 Sorry, this product is not currently available. Cast: Pierce Brosnan Linda Hamilton Lee Grant Jason Lee Complete Cast (9 total)

Dante's Peak Reviews

---

Dante's Peak (1997)
Director: Roger Donaldson
Cast: Pierce Brosnan, Linda Hamilton, Charles Hallahan, Jamie Renee Smith, Jeremy Foley, Elizabeth Hoffman, Grant Heslov, Kirk Trutner, Arabella Field, Brian Reddy, Paul Dreyfuss.
Running Time: 104 minutes
Rated PG-13 for disaster related peril, language and some gore.

In 1997 two disaster films, "Volcano" and "Dante's Peak" galloped toward the Hollywood finish line in the hopes of becoming the first Volcanus Eruptus to explode into movie theaters. "Dante's Peak" won that race by a nose with it's release date coming in February, and Volcano's coming in April. In the end it doesn't matter which film won the race as both are nothing more than a couple of tired old nags that belong in the glue factory. In the 1970's, Hollywood gave us a satchel full of disaster films such as this, as most of those were usually filled with an underwhelming all star cast placed smack dab in the middle of some impending doom whether it was jetliners with holes poked in them, skyscrapers lit up like a blow torch, overturned ocean liners, or earthquakes rocking the California coast. In the 1990's, we were still getting the disaster films, but the all-star has been casts seem to have been done away with. Instead we get a few well known cast members sleep walking through an exercise in how to survive nature's peril. In "Dante's Peak" they throw Pierce Brosnan who is moonlighting from his "007" job along with "Terminator" cast off Linda Hamilton at us to gawk at. Brosnan should have just taken the time off and Hamilton should have looked for another gig.

Resident volcano expert Harry Dalton (Brosnan) comes to the town of Dante's Peak to find out whether or not the local volcano is still dormant or is ready to pop it's cork. Harry, you see, was in love with another volcano expert he worked with who just loved to get up close and personal with them. Unfortunately for Harry, she gets bopped in the head during one such explosion and that's the end of her. Linda Hamilton is the mayor of Dante's Peak. Unlike her character of Sarah Connor in the "Terminator" films, who took action when things weren't looking too good, as mayor and widow Rachel Wando she does nothing much more than run around the mountainside looking worried and fretting about her kids and her mother-in-law who lives on the mountain. The mother-in-law, Ruth, is played by Elizabeth Hoffman, and is supposed to be just like that guy who stuck around Mount St. Helens till the bitter end refusing to move from his home. Here it just enables the writers to throw in the idiotic plot development where the kids and Rachel have to go and rescue her just as Dante's Peak is spewing ash and lava all over the countryside. It's supposed to add suspense and excitement, but only serves to up the stupid level. For one thing, Ruth is annoying enough that we don't care whether she is rescued or not, and second, the two kids (Jamie Renée Smith and Jeremy Foley) have a high annoyance level of their own and we end up rooting for Dante's Peak instead of them.

There are truly some ridiculous scenes in this film. These are the moments we would usually just overlook and go on if we were at least being entertained somewhat by the proceedings but since we are not, they stand out like the Rock of Gibraltar. We get people in a jeep riding a lava flow, Pierce Brosnan paddling a boat with his hand in an acid filled lake and not being any worse the wear for it, we get a couple of cute dog moments, we get a ridiculous scene of our cast trying to outrun a cloud of ash in a jeep and so forth and so on. Also on hand is Charles Hallahan as Brosnan's doubting Thomas boss Paul Dreyfuss who is made to believe in the eruption only when it's too late to do anything about it. There's always one such character in these types of films, but at least Hallahan's doubts come from logical assumptions instead of the blatant idiocy usually given these characters. At least that was refreshing if nothing else is. There is nothing about "Dante's Peak" that you'll believe for one second. Everything about it is below par, and not worth one second of your time.

Formula disaster movie
This movie is a good disaster movie with all the elements of a disaster movie. There are all the stereotype disaster characters form the "I'll ride it out" to the "You are scaring my customers". I do not want to go too much into detail as you will lose the shock value. I can tell you it involves a volcano and a budding love story.

More Customer Reviews (3 total)

Find more DVD's in: Action & Adventure > Disaster Films Action & Adventure > Action Stars Action & Adventure > Action Stars > Pierce Brosnan Action & Adventure All Categories (7 total)