Volcano 1997

Janet Maslin, New York Times: Like the substantially better Twister, this film insists on a thunderous, exhausting pace that inevitably becomes deflating. Read more

Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times: The coast may be toast, but it's the lava, covering everything like a malevolent tide of melted butter, that makes this a disaster picture that's tastier than usual. Read more

Entertainment Weekly: Read more

David Rooney, Hollywood Reporter: Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: This is one of the best pure disaster movies ever made (not that it has much competition). Congratulations to director Mick Jackson for a job well done. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: Volcano is an absolutely standard, assembly-line undertaking; no wonder one of the extras is reading a paperback titled "Screenwriting Made Easy." Read more

Gary Kamiya, Salon.com: A flatulent blast of superheated air from the seething bowels of Hollywood... Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: A host of characters is introduced in the opening scenes, but Volcano doesn't know what to do with them. It can't make us care. Read more

Time Out: Jones and Heche work hard to dig up an emotional rapport from next to nothing, while the slow but inexorable progress of the lava makes for more suspense than the usual slam bang firework display. Read more

Todd McCarthy, Variety: Never generates a head of true excitement, partly because the characters remain constructs designed to perform defined functions, and partly due to the time-worn hokiness of the whole disaster-film format. Read more