Paul Newman only bothered to be in "When Time Ran Out..." (ominous points make any title better) because he needed funding for a salad dressing company, so you can imagine how riveting his performance is. He reacts to the mayhem of a volcano eruption with the shocked grimace of someone who could really go for a salad just about now. In fact, every name actor in this movie completely phones it in. Most of them were there against their will because they signed a wonky deal with producer Irwin Allen, but come on, you still have to do your job. Burgess Meredith is the only one that really tries, so he deservedly gets to play a pivotal part in the movie's (ridiculous) climax. After they got all the stars on board there clearly wasn't any money left for the special effects, so the volcano action is mostly left to your imagination, bits of stock footage and one of those stupid background photos they used before stupid CGI was commonplace. Thankfully, all of this is put together so incompetently that you just can't help but laugh and have a good time. "When Time Ran Out..." starts of a little bit too slow to be a full-blown "so bad it's good"-movie (almost nothing happens in the first hour), but once the volcano erupts you get an absolute feast of terrible dialogue, mom&pop store explosions, forced suspense and marvellous genre clichés. Sorry Paul Newman, I'm going to have to recommend this.
Review of When Time Ran Out...
