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.)
Sony recently released three new posters for Roland Emmerich’s upcoming disaster extravaganza 2012. You can see them all over on SlashFilm, among other places. This looks like it’s going to be awesome and ridiculous all at once. I can’t wait!
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 mood for a disaster flick not made in Hollywood? Check out the trailer for Haeundae, a South Korean contribution to the genre, billed as the nation’s first big budget disaster movie. Yay!
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.
Roland Emmerich is hell-bent on destroying the world – again. After having poor old Earth pummeled by evil aliens in Independence Day and then frozen solid in The Day After Tomorrow, Mr. Emmerich is back with 2012, slated for release this November. The first full-length trailer went online today, and if you’re a disaster movie fan I think you might get a bit excited.
I’m not sure that I really consider Knowing to be a proper disaster movie, but since it’s been discussed as such by several reviewers I guess I ought to mention it nevertheless. 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.