So here it is, the film that is arguably the major classic of the disaster movie genre. Certainly, The Towering Inferno is the finest example of the 70’s style of disaster cinema: big all-star cast, multiple storylines, a spectacular central event, and an all-around massive production (Inferno was at the time the biggest film produced on the 20th Century Fox lot by virtue of its 57 sets and four camera crews.)
Preceded by Dante’s Peak, Volcano was “the other” volcano movie of 1997. It is by far the dumbest of the two. It is also, by far, the most entertaining. Volcano serves up loads of quite good looking lava porn at a brisk pace, turning downtown L.A. into a flaming hell.
Kind of old-ish news, but principal photography is reported to have wrapped earlier this summer on Megafault, which is scheduled to premiere on Syfy this fall, with a DVD release to follow shortly after that.
In the late 90’s disaster movies seemed to come in pairs (see Armageddon/Deep Impact), and so 1997 brought us not one but two volcano movies. Dante’s Peak was the first one to hit theaters.
Director Alex Proyas does serve up a couple of interesting disaster scenes, but the whole affair is so glum it almost turns into self-parody.
It’s Charlton Heston versus a huge earthquake in this 1974 disaster movie classic.
Though rarely referred to as a genre flick – and if so, most often categorized as a romance – the biggest movie in the world is nothing but a very, very expensive disaster movie. Yes, that would be James Cameron’s Titanic, which not only became the highest-grossing movie ever to date but also scooped the Oscars with 11 wins, giving Cameron himself opportunity to proclaim himself “king of the world”. Whatever you might think of this film – and as celebrated as it is it does have its detractors – you can’t argue with the craftsmanship.
Deep Impact is “the other asteroid movie” of 1998, even though it was released before Armageddon. Sporting a smaller budget and a bigger cast, it is the more restrained of the two, though not necessarily a hugely superior picture. Personally, I do like this one better, even though it is severely underdeveloped in the disaster scene department.
A big hit at the box-office, Michael Bay’s Armageddon certainly doesn’t score many points for subtlety or realism. Nor is it very successful as a disaster movie.
Snakes on a Plane was massively hyped before its arrival, mainly due to its funny title. Having finally seen it, I’m kind of glad that I didn’t spend a bunch of money on seeing it in the cinema, since the actual movie is nowhere nere as fun as it ought to be.