Fairly decent acting from an impressive cast list was not enough to save this disaster (of a) movie from a thoroughly boring and unoriginal script.
*** potential spoilers follow - not that there's much to spoil ***
The plot is fuller of holes than a Swiss cheese. For a start I'm not sure that an active volcano and an oil field on the same small island are compatible, but as I'm not a geologist I might be inclined to let that go. But there's much more.
There's the tidal wave that trashes the village up the coast when the hotel doesn't see so much as a ripple. Correct me if I'm wrong but wouldn't a tidal wave travel outwards from an eruption and trash the island next door?
There's the long shot of a volcano spewing fire full blast into the stratosphere, cut to the research station on the edge of the crater. OK it doesn't look to be the best place to be but judging by the previous shot it should be vapourised.
There's the overloaded helicopter that crashed, despite having taken of even more heavily loaded (at least 3 people fell off). Oh yes, and it had just arrived even more heavily loaded. All it would have taken to make this less ludicrous was an additional four words in the script, (It's out of gas!) but obviously time ran out for the script-writers some time before they had finished the job.
And where did that blonde woman get that awful pink dress. The group that left the hotel to reach safety on the other side of the island were told they were travelling through rough country and to wear sensible clothes. I don't believe that was the best she could do.
And last but not least, the plot driver for the whole film was the head-in-the-sand attitude of hotel owner. He refused to leave,insisting that the lava could not reach that far, an that the hotel was the safest place to be. Quite a few others followed his lead. We never saw the lava reach the hotel. It was destroyed when the volcano blew its top again, shooting out a few tons of fiery rock which arced high in the air and, much against the odds, scored a bullseye. It seems the hotel owner was right, the odds were better on staying, even if they didn't come off.
All in all, one to miss. But why, you might ask, if it was that bad, why did you watch it for long enough to find all these faults. I wish I knew.
*** potential spoilers follow - not that there's much to spoil ***
The plot is fuller of holes than a Swiss cheese. For a start I'm not sure that an active volcano and an oil field on the same small island are compatible, but as I'm not a geologist I might be inclined to let that go. But there's much more.
There's the tidal wave that trashes the village up the coast when the hotel doesn't see so much as a ripple. Correct me if I'm wrong but wouldn't a tidal wave travel outwards from an eruption and trash the island next door?
There's the long shot of a volcano spewing fire full blast into the stratosphere, cut to the research station on the edge of the crater. OK it doesn't look to be the best place to be but judging by the previous shot it should be vapourised.
There's the overloaded helicopter that crashed, despite having taken of even more heavily loaded (at least 3 people fell off). Oh yes, and it had just arrived even more heavily loaded. All it would have taken to make this less ludicrous was an additional four words in the script, (It's out of gas!) but obviously time ran out for the script-writers some time before they had finished the job.
And where did that blonde woman get that awful pink dress. The group that left the hotel to reach safety on the other side of the island were told they were travelling through rough country and to wear sensible clothes. I don't believe that was the best she could do.
And last but not least, the plot driver for the whole film was the head-in-the-sand attitude of hotel owner. He refused to leave,insisting that the lava could not reach that far, an that the hotel was the safest place to be. Quite a few others followed his lead. We never saw the lava reach the hotel. It was destroyed when the volcano blew its top again, shooting out a few tons of fiery rock which arced high in the air and, much against the odds, scored a bullseye. It seems the hotel owner was right, the odds were better on staying, even if they didn't come off.
All in all, one to miss. But why, you might ask, if it was that bad, why did you watch it for long enough to find all these faults. I wish I knew.