Terrible acting, screenplay and direction.

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

American cinema loves to destroy things, the bigger the better. In this case, the thing to be destroyed is Los Angeles, with a huge volcano rising right in the middle of the city. Its a very traditional disaster film, true to its genre, in which the improvised hero saves the day with total heroism, in a situation off total despair. The only two real characters here are the Volcano and the City because no character is truly developed, not even the hero. They are faces, people who do things. Sometimes they're there just to scream hysterically, be scared, to die, to show cowardice or to create situations in which the hero will shine. Because of this, the work of the actors is just OK, including Tommy Lee Jones. It would be impossible for any actor to shine with such empty characters. The strongest part of the film are the action scenes, stuffed with special effects. Some are so far-fetched that we're forced to think that guy should be on the luckiest day of his life to survive in that unbelievable way. But anyone who is expecting a CGI show will be disappointed: they're not always good and seem a bit dated in the eyes of the current audience. But it's a 1997 movie... everything has its time and, of course, with today's technological breakthroughs, our eyes will not see this movie the same way we watched it twenty years ago. Even so, there are some scenes and sequences where the film is powerful and emanates a pleasant tension that makes us uncomfortable. Not everything is bad, predictable or cliché.

Volcano is one of those rare 90s disaster movies. It could have been better, but it is what it is. The acting is well-done, the ash raining down looks realistic, however some volcano eruption scenes are clearly taken from documentary footage and simply added into this flick, special effects in the 90s wasn't as advanced as it is today so it makes sense why some of the scenes look so cheap.It's a good thing that Volcano isn't a CGI-fest, because they would not be able to pull that off, the story's main focus is more on the characters.Volcano has a positive trait, it shows teamwork / a city working together in the midst of danger.The directing and dialogue is great. Volcano is better than a lot of disaster movies of today.

Just getting over the aftershock of the 1994 Northridge Earthquake, the Los Angeles area now had to deal with other major issues. If it wasn't drive-by shootings, it was the destruction of old historical buildings to put in mini-malls as well as the expansion of the red line into Beverly Hills, a fight that would eventually cease and leave the end of the line in Hollywood. But there's magma forming underground, and that is even a bigger problem for an already freaky city where film crews didn't even have to leave town to get to.MacArthur Park really will be melting on the dark if something isn't done, and when the bubbles start a brewin' in the La Brea tar pits, trouble is definitely on the way. At the helm of the investigation into what's bubblin' up is a straight faced Tommy Lee Jones (assisted by Don Cheadle) who quickly puts two and two together, getting a two minute warning of pending disaster. The result is the return of the disaster movie genre, off the box office roster since the mid 1970's.I have fond memories of seeing this at the Beverly Connection cinema, right across the street from where much of it took place. To say that the audience reaction to this was just a little weird is an understatement. The conclusion brought the volcano literally under my seat, adding a ton of fun to my film going experience. This is a mixture of disaster, only the slightest of family subplot interference, growing intensely as it moves on, and featuring a feisty Carole Lombard like performance by Anne Heche as a geological expert.Released almost simultaneously with the similar but more rustic "Dante's Peak", this never slips up like more recent disaster films that crossed the line on credibility, although the character played by Gaby Hoffman (as Jones' teenaged daughter) starts to get on ones nerves after a bit due to her selfishness. There's also a bit with a racist cop that could have been done away with. Scenes of genuine tragedy happen with two trapped firemen in an overturned truck and an MTA employee trapped underground are gruesome and caused violent shaking when I saw this again. I happen to prefer "Dante's Peak" over this, but this has comedy, tension, conflict, a little bit of romance, a bit of real L.A. history that I experienced, and none of the excess garbage that pretty much ruined the new wave of disaster films that came out following the millennium.

In LA, emergency manager Michael Roark (Tommy Lee Jones) and geologist Amy Barnes (Anne Heche) investigate an earthquake and then realized that it is a volcano forming in the city. Therefore, it is a race against time for Roark to stop the volcano from consuming all of LA.As with many disaster films, you have to suspend reality and use your imagination to enjoy some good sci-fi fun in this movie. There are some cheesy acting, courtesy of Heche, but Jones makes up for it. It is fun watching the protagonists attempt to carry out their mission to save the city and, while the plot and story are simple, the fast-paced momentum will give you some edge-of-your-seat excitement. There's also a good dose of drama and action that keeps the film interesting.So, it's not a realistic film or one to make you think seriously, but a good popcorn sci-fi flick for you just to sit back and enjoy.Grade B-