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Volcano
Metascore
55 out of 100

Mixed or average reviews - based on 22 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 7 out of 22
  2. Mixed: 12 out of 22
  3. Negative: 3 out of 22
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  1. The A.V. Club
    Reviewed by: John Krewson
    90
    Deft filmmaking that allows the special effects to help, not be, the story combines with an actual script to make Volcano a smart, self-aware, and most of all fun disaster movie.
  2. Los Angeles Times
    Reviewed by: Kenneth Turan
    80
    But a great sense of pace is a wonderful thing, and director Jackson and his crew (who made good use of hand-held and Steadicam shots and reportedly averaged an impressive 30 to 40 camera setups a day) move so quickly from shot to shot and location to location that viewers have a limited time to dwell on the film's predictable implausibilities.
  3. ReelViews
    Reviewed by: James Berardinelli
    75
    In fact, this is one of the best pure disaster movies ever made (not that it has much competition). Congratulations to director Mick Jackson for a job well done.
  4. Dallas Observer
    Reviewed by: Peter Rainer
    70
    Watching this film is a little bit like getting mauled and tickled at the same time. The filmmakers have given the whole shebang a hefty levity, and that's not easy to accomplish in a full-scale disaster movie.
  5. Newsweek
    Reviewed by: David Ansen
    70
    The secret of Volcano's success as a better-than-average disasterama is its nonstop pace.
  6. Variety
    Reviewed by: Todd McCarthy
    70
    A furiously paced popcorn picture whose outrageous implausibility is somewhat amusing, Volcano delivers enough spectacular action to get it off to a hot B.O. start, although like the lava in the picture, it may not flow quite as far as anticipated.
  7. Entertainment Weekly
    Reviewed by: Owen Gleiberman
    67
    I had a pretty good time at Volcano. The reason I didn't have a better time is that the characters aren't just schlocky, they're boring.
  8. TV Guide
    Reviewed by: Maitland McDonagh
    60
    The fun is in the mayhem, and there's plenty of it.
  9. Empire
    Reviewed by: Neil Jeffries
    60
    But for anyone willing to swallow a large pinch of salt there is much to enjoy in the film's numerous nail-munching, white-knuckle set-pieces variously employing firetruck ladders, subway trains and a finale so ridiculous that it just... might... work.
  10. The New York Times
    Reviewed by: Elvis Mitchell
    60
    In Volcano, the thrills are so well wrought that they eventually lose their novelty and become numbing.
  11. Chicago Reader
    Reviewed by: Bill Stamets
    60
    Unfortunately, Volcano is also faithful to Hollywood's legendary lack of originality.
  12. Christian Science Monitor
    Reviewed by: David Sterritt
    50
    This disaster film has action from the get-go; but its awesome special effects hide a laughably corny plot, and for a picture about terror from the depths, its characters are ridiculously shallow.
  13. San Francisco Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Mick LaSalle
    50
    With its fake-looking technology and empty characters, Volcano eventually becomes as obvious as its what-if premise.
  14. San Francisco Examiner
    Reviewed by: Walter Addiego
    50
    Congratulations to director Mick Jackson and writers Jerome Armstrong and Billy Ray for liberating themselves from the tedious demands of believability.
  15. The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
    Reviewed by: Liam Lacey
    50
    In a few sound bites, we get the picture and the picture's motto: the smug and selfish coast is an order of disaster-flick toast waiting to burn.
  16. Salon.com
    Reviewed by: Gary Kamiya
    50
    A flatulent blast of superheated air from the seething bowels of Hollywood, features all the usual idiocies -- implausibility on an epic scale, bogus "human interest" elements, plot developments that offer all the surprises of a Bob Dole speech.
  17. L.A. Weekly
    Reviewed by: F. X. Feeney
    50
    Here, the volcanic villain behaves like a smart terrorist, taking over almost immediately and holding a collection of excellent actors (Tommy Lee Jones, Anne Heche, Don Cheadle) hostage for two hours of "real time."
  18. Washington Post
    Reviewed by: Eric Brace
    50
    You hope against hope that the lava flowing through the city will wipe out Los Angeles and everyone in it, if only to prevent them from making more movies like this.
  19. Washington Post
    Reviewed by: Rita Kempley
    40
    While disaster yarns aren't known for subtlety, there are limits, and Volcano giddily goes beyond them.
  20. Chicago Sun-Times
    Reviewed by: Roger Ebert
    38
    This is a surprisingly cheesy disaster epic.
  21. Austin Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Marc Savlov
    30
    Crucial to the nature of the disaster film -- and something that Irwin Allen knew so very well -- is that films of this sort depend on an emotional hook, a peg of normalcy to hang the chaos from. Volcano offers no such hook, and as a result it plays like some La Brea dinosaur risen from the tar, all effects and no heart.
  22. Slate
    Reviewed by: David Plotz
    30
    Volcano is just another $100 million genre movie, and a pretty lousy one, to boot.
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User Reviews

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User Score
6.0 out of 10

Mixed or average reviews- based on 8 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 2 out of 3
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 3
  3. Negative: 1 out of 3
  1. hoops2448
    3
    Volcano is a shallow, effects heavy disaster movie that looks and feels like a Roland Emmerich film, which is not meant as a complement. Volcano just feels empty of emotion, common sense and character. It substitutes all of it for special effects that are now incredibly dated leaving a film with very few redeeming features. That being said, Tommy Lee Jones is always reliable in almost anything he is in and is a entertaining lead. He is let down by Anne Heche who isn't bad, but she is miscast with her never meshing with the film. That may be because the script is awful but it's probably the fact the film feels chaotic and she is always bizarrely chirpy. In fact the films chaotic feel actually makes the whole film seem messy which isn't helped by the fact the story is borderline nonsensical. Overall it's a film that hasn't held up over time due to some terrible writing, casting and special effects. All in all it's really really bad.… Full Review »
  2. BrandonL.
    10
    Excellent movie. Tommy Lee Jones' best film to date. Also, it's the best disaster film ever, even better then "The Day After Tomorrow."
  3. KyleM
    6
    Good special effects. could've easily been better. its no dantes peak.
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