Dante's Peak Critic Reviews

Dante's Peak is predictable from start to finish, but the video-game style action and effects never let up long enough for you to remember how absurd it all is. It's a blast.Read the full review

While the plot is thin and there's little action till the big blow some 60 minutes into the film, a volcano offers a greater variety of thrills than your basic cyclone ever could.Read the full review

Older youngsters not threatened by PG-13 levels of intensity might pester Mom and Dad to let them see this cinematic fluff-head. For everyone else, it simply is what it is -- which, despite a budget that could feed Star Wars' Jabba the Hutt for life, isn't very much. [07Feb1997 Pg 04.D]Read the full review

Dante's Peak, written by Leslie Bohem and directed by Roger Donaldson, follows the disaster formula so faithfully that if you walk in while the movie is in progress, you can estimate how long the story has to run. That it is skillful is a tribute to the filmmakers.Read the full review

The special effects are suitably catastrophic, though they aren't much more clever than the computer tricks that turn up in beer commercials these days.Read the full review

It hardly helps, of course, to have no characters to root for. What is it about Pierce Brosnan? He's got dimples, grace, charm; he's not a movie star, exactly -- he looks as if he should be hosting something.Read the full review

Dante's Peak is customary for the genre, with convincing special effects sharing screen time with standard-issue characters and situations.Read the full review

Physicality of the second half, then, will keep the audience going, but it is not quite sufficient to camouflage the elemental silliness of storyline.Read the full review

"Twister" is a rush. Dante's Peak, on the other hand, is a bore. Oh, it has its moments, but most of them are concentrated in the final forty-five minutes. The first hour, which is all typical disaster movie setup, is interminable.Read the full review