More mayhem (yawn) at the movies
JANET SMITH
Dante's Peak, directed by Roger Donaldson, starring Pierce Brosnan and Linda Hamilton, is now playing at Richport Cineplex Odeon.
Audiences still feeling windblown from Twister and waterlogged from Daylight will find it hard to get excited about yet another high-tech disaster movie.
Dante's Peak's special effects are often stunning, but the script is a tired replay that can't live up to the volcanic eruptions.
Pierce Brosnan plays volcanologist Harry Dalton who's concerned the long-dormant mountain over the town of Dante's Peak is about to blow. From here, the rest of the disaster formula falls into place. The concerned scientist's efforts are frustrated by a conservative superior and the businessmen of the town. Linda Hamilton plays the love interest, Rachel, a harried single mother who's the unlikely mayor of the town and a part-time cappuccino shop clerk. There's a granny, children, and a dog (see Daylight), a cute robot and a team full of gen-X-ish scientists (see Twister).
The actors, especially feisty Hamilton, are surprisingly realistic, given the script, but these types of movies depend on stupid people. The town folks seem downright pestered by the volcanologists. Rachel's ex-mom-in-law refuses to leave her remote cabin, even as she's choking on volcanic ash. And Dalton's boss won't take action in spite of ground quakes and a hotspring that boils a young couple like chicken soup. Haven't these people noticed? The town's called Dante's Peak.
All this, of course, is foreplay to the eruption. The computer-generated effects are on par with Twister. Some of the best scenes are the snowstorm of white ash, the river of molten lava chasing Dalton's truck, and the explosion of smoke and fire over the quaint turrets and brick storefronts of the North Cascades town. Trees get blown over like toothpicks and bridges curl up like pipe cleaners, but, thanks to the summer's hit tornado movie, these visual stunts look familiar.
If Hollywood put a fraction of the resources it devotes to special effects into scripts, these films might be more memorable. I hate to hold Jurassic Park up as a role model for screenwriting, but it's a special effects movie that at least had offbeat characters and a committed exploration of scientific ethics.
For now, though, audiences can expect more of the same. Volcano is set to open this spring.
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