DVD REVIEW: DANTE’S PEAK

Shane | 10 October 2017 | Reply

DVD REVIEW: DANTE’S PEAK
Shock Entertainment
August 2017
Reviewed by Shane Pinnegar
6 1/2 /10

Dante’s Peak runs just about every disaster movie trope at the viewer: Pierce Brosnan’s vulcanologist (that’s a volcano expert, dudes) Harry Dalton, detects activity in Dante’s Peak – a long dormant volcano in the American hinterland, and tries to convince the town’s councillors to evacuate.

Mayor Rachel Wando (Linda Hamilton) is on board – safety first – but the rest of the pompous and greedy local politicians vote to hush hush the news up, either not believing Dalton at all, or not believing the danger is sufficient to evacuate. Little do they know…

Naturally, Dalton’s last true love died in another volcano disaster – and Hamilton is oh-so-cute, and he falls for both her and the two kids her deadbeat ex left her with. There’s even a completely implausible but really exciting scene where Dalton and Wando drive their 4WD over a molten lava flow, and we watch the tyres burst into flames half a dozen times without cooking them or the rest of the car before they get through it, even if they are driving on rims by this stage.

Despite all the clichés, Dante’s Peak is a solid action film with some seemingly believable science for the most part. I’d just try to stay off the lava flow next time.