Dante's Peak (1997)

When unsual seismic activity is detected in a charming Pacific Northwest town, a volcanologist (Pierce Brosnan) is called in to investigate. Certain that a long dormant volcano is about to erupt, he convinces the town's mayor (Linda Hamilton) to take action. The race is on to start an evacuation of the town before the impending eruption. Directed by Roger Donaldson (NO WAY OUT), this disaster film was one of two big budget volcano disaster movies released in 1997. The other was VOLCANO with Tommy Lee Jones. This was marginally the better of the two. Handsomely shot by Andrzej Bartkowiak (PRIZZI'S HONOR) in wide screen Panavision, the movie is quite entertaining until the last half hour when it hits a wall and never recovers. Alas, other than the two leads, there aren't many characters in the movie. In disaster films like TOWERING INFERNO and POSEIDON AVENTURE, there are a multitude of characters to invest our emotions with and to care about their fate. Here, the minor characters are ciphers and worse, they're stupid and do dumb things including two bratty children who put the adults in harm's way. Who cares if they live or die? The special effects are first rate, I'll give it that. With Charles Hallahan and Elizabeth Hoffman.