Dante's Peak

Reviewed by: Joe Blenkle

Rating:

Cast: Pierce Brosnan, Linda Hamilton, Charles Hallahan, Grant Heslov and Elizabeth Hoffman

Studio: Universal Pictures

Producer: Gale Anne Hurd and Joseph Singer

Director: Roger Donaldson

Screenplay: Leslie Bohem

MPAA Rating: PG-13

Release Date: Feb. 7, 1997

Running Time: 112 Minutes

	Dante's Peak photo by Ben Glass (c) 1997 Universal Studios, Inc. All Rights Reserved

    Shades of Mount St. Helens. Universal's new volcanic disaster film Dante's Peak opened two weeks ago and exploded up the list of top movie grossers for the week, climbing to No. 2, edged out by only Star Wars Special Edition.
    While critics panned the film, the audiences love the action-packed adventure that stars Pierce (James Bond) Brosnan as a U.S. Geological Survey scientist and Linda Hamilton as the mayor of a small town that lives in the shadow of Dante's Peak, a long dormant volcano in the Northern Cascade range.
    Brosnan plays Harry Dalton, a volcanologist, who is called to investigate reports of seismic activity around Dante's Peak.
    He convinces Mayor Rachel Wando (Hamilton) that a danger exists, but before the town can be warned, Harry's boss comes in and thinking Harry is jumping the gun, urges caution before the town is put into a panic.
    Unfortuantely for the people of Dante's Peak, Harry is right. An eruption is building and by the time a town meeting is called to warn the residents, it's too late.
    An earthquake interupts the meeting, sending the residents into a panic and the worst is yet to come, as Dante's Peak soon lets lose with its initial eruption, sending a choking clock of volcanic ash into the sky.
    Of course by now, a romance has developed between Harry and Rachel, and the two must battle the terrible fury of the volcano to save Rachel's two children and escape the town before the inevitable explosive eruption consumes the town and everything around it.
    Dante's Peak has been compared to the movie Twister, but I found it to be much more exciting than that film, with edge of your seat thrills throughout.
    The special effects in Dante's Peak are superb. All the volcano effects, from explosions to ash clouds to lava flows are computer generated and look incredible. It's hard to believe they aren't real.
    Brosnan and Hamilton develop an on-screen chemistry as the movie develops, with neither of their characters prepared to act on their feelings until one awkward moment at Rachel's house - which is then interrupted by one of her children.
    But excitement is the main draw of this movie, as Harry and company come across everything from acidic lakes to raging rivers to the pyroclastic cloud sent out as the volcano finally blows in a spectacular eruption.
    Only Harry's ingenuity can save them as they try to outrace the oncoming super-heated cloud of gas and ash that is engulfing the town of Dante's Peak. Return to The Movie Corner