This is not your fathers volcano film. It would be hard to review this movie without comparing it to that other volcano flick, Dante's Peak, but you know what, I'm not going to. In many ways, Volcano is the superior film. The first thing you need to do before seeing this movie, is to get past the premise. An earthquake in Los Angeles, opens up a fissure underground, which in turns leads to a volcano exploding in downtown L.A. Once you get past that, Volcano turns into a pretty fun film. It sort of reminded me of Speed in these sense that it's non-stop action. It spends a few minutes in the beginning setting up the story, then it just keeps hitting you all the way through. There's no stupid love story that takes up time halfway through. There's no mandatory sex scene. Just a bunch of people trying to fight an exploding volcano. Tommy Lee Jones, and Anne Heche lead the fine cast, but in truth, they're only around because someone had to be. A couple of good looking leads never hurt a film. The real star of the film is the special effects. Very realistic lava flows, explosions, things melting. Rent Volcano, if only to enjoy watching L.A. go down in flames. Sure, in reality it's cheesy, but it keeps you entertained, and isn't that the point of movies?

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