Solemplex
To me, this movie is perfection.
StyleSk8r
At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.
Juana
what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.
bettycjung
3/14/18. I have forgotten how suspenseful these old disaster movies were, even formulaic as they were. Why mess with what works? Irwin Allen was always good with that: A love triangle, a helicopter, a loss of one or two of the big stars and you got yourself a hit. While many of the big stars featured were mostly past their prime, that was okay when the disaster was actually THE STAR of the movie. Catch it for nostalgia's sake.
FlashCallahan
Before Monday 26th May 2014, I had no idea that this film existed, so as soon as I saw the synopsis, the cast, and the fact that it was on at a really peculiar time, had me very intrigued.It's another one of those wonderful disaster movies that were made in the seventies and the early eighties which were hugely popular to begin with, and them became just like their budgets, not very big.And here the lack of budget is evident.To summarise it quickly, lots of famous people take a holiday on an island with an active volcano. The owners reckon that the volcano is safe, but Paul Newman lands his helicopter there, wearing the same clothes he had on in The Towering Inferno, and the volcano loses it.and that's the film.Is it good? no, but for heavens sake, it's a lot of fun to watch.it's the case of Allen making each obstacle just that little more difficult to get past, and ensuring he's always got a lot of high wattage bulbs at hand, to shine them in actors faces, depicting hot rocks hurtling toward them.it's the Poseiden adventure with a tan, and Newman looks totally bewildered as to why he did this movie, for the duration of the film.The rest of the cast are pure filler, but it's funny to watch Mr Miyagi fall slowly into a red lake.A wonderful find, especially if you like literal disasters.But a lot more fun than Dante's Peak and Volcano
darthquincunx
Time should have ran out on the making of this movie as it is yet another waste of good talent by Irwin Allen. The plot is predictable and formulaic, it is basically the Poseidon Adventure on a volcanic island. You have the intrepid group fleeing from the volcano, warning the rest to come with them but scoffed at. Sound familiar? Well that is exactly what happened in the Poseidon Adventure. You have your token victims picked off one by one but unlike the Poseidon Adventure where the danger was every present and it was claustrophobic, fleeing from lava flows, the danger was just not there. A real Paul Newman turkey, this one, not sure why he did it because it certainly did not enhance his reputation.
mac-hawk
I was a cinema projectionist at the time of this release and it came out at the end of the 'disaster movie' era in the seventies (in the UK).I ran this at a press screening and it was obvious from the first minute this was a disaster movie of it's own kind. What initially was mildly amusingly bad soon went to so bad it's funny but thereafter, and very quickly and for most of the film, it reached that rare distinction of 'so bad, it really is baaaaaaaaaaaaaaad'.OK, so I've seen lots of rubbish films but what sticks in the mind with this one is the level of money and the cast involved. I had/have no expectations that some cheap budget film with no-name actors in it might be awful but this had a decent cast and money thrown at it and for that simple reason I personally regard it a THE WORST FILM I HAVE EVER SEEN.Avoid like the plague
