Dante’s Peak
1997  PG-13  ACTION  1h 49min
CAST— Pierce Brosnan, Linda Hamilton, Jamie Renée Smith, Jeremy Foley, Elizabeth Hoffman, Charles Hallahan, Grant Heslov
MUSIC— James Newton Howard  DIRECTOR— Roger Donaldson

     A throwback to disaster films of yesteryear, this is a seismic actioner that forsakes the traditional human antagonist in favor of a massive magnetic mountain. Pierce Brosnan plays your average volcanologist sent to report on seismic activities in the NW. There he meets the plucky mayor of Dante’s Peak (Linda Hamilton), a single mother trying to raise two tenacious youngsters. It seems the residents of Dante’s Peak have been sitting on a time bomb in the form of a seemingly dormant volcano, one that’s begun to belch billowing smoke. Soon the town is beating a hasty retreat across a collapsing landscape, with Brosnan and Hamilton desperate to locate her kids. As their window of escape rapidly closes the tension surprisingly mounts. Although slow to start, this is one that pays off, all due to the massive effects, culminating in the final moral: always heed the advice of your local volcanologist. You’ll be glad you did.
OUR RATING— ** ½