Volcano
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation | Release Date: April 25, 1997 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
54
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 22 Critic Reviews
Positive:
7
Mixed:
12
Negative:
3
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
90
The A.V. ClubJohn Krewson
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. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesKenneth Turan
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. Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
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. Read full review
70
Dallas ObserverPeter Rainer
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. Read full review
70
NewsweekDavid Ansen
The secret of Volcano's success as a better-than-average disasterama is its nonstop pace. Read full review
70
VarietyTodd McCarthy
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. Read full review
67
Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman
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. Read full review
60
Chicago ReaderBill Stamets
Unfortunately, Volcano is also faithful to Hollywood's legendary lack of originality. Read full review
60
The New York TimesJanet Maslin
In Volcano, the thrills are so well wrought that they eventually lose their novelty and become numbing. Read full review
60
EmpireNeil Jeffries
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. Read full review
60
TV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonagh
The fun is in the mayhem, and there's plenty of it. Read full review
50
SalonGary Kamiya
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. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalle
With its fake-looking technology and empty characters, Volcano eventually becomes as obvious as its what-if premise. Read full review
50
San Francisco ExaminerWalter Addiego
Congratulations to director Mick Jackson and writers Jerome Armstrong and Billy Ray for liberating themselves from the tedious demands of believability. Read full review
50
Washington PostEric Brace
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. Read full review
50
Christian Science MonitorDavid Sterritt
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. Read full review
50
L.A. WeeklyF. X. Feeney
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." Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam Lacey
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. Read full review
40
Washington PostRita Kempley
While disaster yarns aren't known for subtlety, there are limits, and Volcano giddily goes beyond them. Read full review
38
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
This is a surprisingly cheesy disaster epic. Read full review
30
Austin ChronicleMarc Savlov
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. Read full review
30
SlateDavid Plotz
Volcano is just another $100 million genre movie, and a pretty lousy one, to boot. Read full review
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