The 1997 film Volcano directed by Mick Jackson, stars renowned actor Tommy Lee Jones. Jones plays Mike Roark; an Emergency Management Department worker, in Los Angeles California. The job of the director of E.M.D is related to the possible event of a natural disaster and/or major emergency. Additionally, the Director has the power to control and command all resources in the city. Suddenly, there was a giant earthquake that almost relocated all of LA, and E.M.D director Mike Roark had to postpone his vacation to help with easing the citizens out of their frantic panicking. The E.M.D. calls a geologist to assess the damages, then Dr Amy Barnes (played by Anne Heche), warns Mike that there could be a slight chance that a volcano might form under the sewer tunnels. Then another earthquake unleashes lava that has formed under LA, and could destroy the city and everything with it. Roark and Barnes must now find a way to get the situation under control before it destroys the homes and lives of all civilians.
It’s definitely an interesting “what if?” movie, if that’s what you’re wanting to watch. This movie is seemingly very intense for a PG-13 rating, consisting of many heart pounding moments. However, sometimes the characters are not written as well as they should’ve been, and the movie didn’t receive much popularity as it was released the same week as another volcano movie, Dante’s Peak. Tommy Lee Jones overall was the best part of this movie, and when you watch it you’ll see that this movie’s crew was only interested in Tommy Lee Jones while everyone else’s character was thrown together. Though, this movie overall had very good special effects. It was amazing to see all of the stunts they did with stuntmen and cars and buildings that involved fire. I give this movie a Bronze Bar overall, and you could fall asleep and wake up without losing the story line. And with that being said, I will see you the next time you want to come back to the movies.