Dante's Peak (1997)

The first Volcano movie of the year (1997), followed by Volcano, this one had better box office, probably because audiences weren't in the mood for another Volcano movie just a couple of months later. It still wasn't that great for this one and only international grosses kept the expensive FX-filled film from losing money. Pierce Brosnan, the James Bond of the late nineties, plays the expert geologist sent to the 2nd "most desirable" small town in America, where Linda Hamilton (Ms. Terminator herself) plays the mayor.
Brosnan's character has some heavy baggage - his wife was killed 4 years prior during some other eruption; he also made a bad call some years ago, so his boss (Charles Hallahan) has to rein him in when he starts to warn the town council that there may be a problem with their nearby mountain. Two hiking lovebirds have been killed when their dip in a local hot spring turned.. way too hot, but the focus is: do not be alarmist. As we who watch many disaster films know, this was the proper time to be alarmist, sure enuff.  
I can't help but like some of this set-up, an old-fashioned man meets woman (and her kids) story, almost idyllic in spots, set against the background of impending disaster. When the mountain actually first explodes, it's abrupt and took me by surprise. Some of the disaster FX here are impressive - especially that shot of the freeways collapsing, with all the vehicles. And, the aftermath, when we're shown that a once nice town has been pulverized and flattened, is chilling in its suggestion of nature's awesome destructive power - easily as powerful as the biggest A-Bomb.
But, offsetting this is the usual stupid - even crazy - behavior to push the plot along; the two kids take the prize - stealing a truck to get grandma (Elizabeth Hoffman), who seems quite suicidal in her later scenes. Brosnan's invincible truck is a bit too much at the point when not even real lava can stop it (the gas tank should have exploded). Overall, though, it's not bad for tense excitement and carnage. Besides Volcano, the other past volcano film was When Time Ran Out in 1980. BoG's Score: 7 out of 10