Dante's Peak

Dante’s Peak is a moderately impressive but quite bountiful adventure with beautiful natural scenery and likeable characters. And without gunfire. It’s technically flawless and sufficiently intelligent. A very pleasant film to relax with. Watching on the big screen or your souped-up home cinema upgrades it to an adrenaline rush of almost Twister proportions. (16.06.2003)

A typical representative of the seventies disaster movie, but this one is two decades younger. Dante’s Peak has all the attributes that you would expect; the technical side is absolutely brilliant, even in today’s terms (one of the most impressive combinations of miniatures and CGI of the nineties), but also it takes too long to get going, has one-dimensional characters (luckily they don’t give us any wannabe funny characters, hi there Twister), an animal in distress and loads of sometimes more, sometimes less amusing clichés. It’s pleasant to watch, there are even some thrills, but don’t expect anything more than a relaxing watch. For the simple reason that there is nothing more than that to see here. (19.01.2007)

An superb catastrophe thriller with the great Pierce Brosnan in the main role, lots of good special effects and wonderful locations. It is the beautiful landscapes that make Dante’s Peak so cute and cozy, even with a dormant volcano nearby. This just makes the shots of the devastated, ash-covered town all the more terrifying. The best catastrophe movie of the nineties. (17.09.2006)

A harmless Hollywood game that cleverly channels its limited ambitions into the realm of imaginatively adventurous family films. Marginally in the style of Twister, with worse visuals and less catchy action, but with equally likeable heroes and more believable heroic scenes designed to entertain at home with the volume well to the right, but without (with only one exception perhaps) trying to make fools of the audience (as the equally old Volcano did). Considering the qualities, the rating here is really very misguided.. 80% (31.07.2014)