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Amazon.co.uk Review
The first of 1997's volcano disaster movies (the second being Volcano) was arguably the better of the two but both of them made for passable entertainment with some spectacular special effects to serve as icing on the stale cake. After all, Dante's Peak doesn't pretend to be anything more than an updated variation on a whole catalogue of disaster movie clichés. Despite all that, it's reasonably enjoyable. It's an added bonus that the script is just smart enough to allow Pierce Brosnan and Linda Hamilton to play their roles with straight faces, never condescending to the audience of the formulaic story. He's a volcano expert from the US Geological Survey, and she's the mayor of a cosy Washington State town perched beneath a volcano that's about to blow. Tell-tale signs are everywhere, so evacuation must be carried out immediately. Of course, not everybody's eager to leave and even some of Brosnan's colleagues think his alarm is premature. This sets the stage for massive ash clouds, rivers of raging mud and molten rock, flattened forests and death-defying escapes by Brosnan, Hamilton and some (but not all) of her family, friends and townsfolk. So what if it's all pretty flaky ... and can a four-wheel-drive vehicle travel over fire and molten lava without bursting its tires? Don't ask too many questions and you'll find Dante's Peak to be (if you'll pardon the pun) a total blast. --Jeff Shannon
Special Features
2.35 Anamorphic Wide Screen
DVD 9
Czech\French\German\Hungarian\Italian\Polish\Spanish
English
Region 2
Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround English
Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround
Production Notes
Cast And Film Makers Notes
Trailer
Danish\Dutch\English\Finnish\French\Greek\Norwegian\Swedish
DVD 9
Czech\French\German\Hungarian\Italian\Polish\Spanish
English
Region 2
Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround English
Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround
Production Notes
Cast And Film Makers Notes
Trailer
Danish\Dutch\English\Finnish\French\Greek\Norwegian\Swedish
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
9 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Format:HD DVD
The 'old-fashioned' disaster movie scenario enjoyed a brief resurgence in the latter half of the 90s. After the success of Twister and ID4, films like Hard Rain, Titanic, Armageddon and Deep Impact followed in its wake. Like the two competing asteroid movies, Dante's Peak was in competition with the imaginatively named Volcano as THE Lava flow of 1997. Which one is better? Well, comparing the two is like comparing an atomic blast to a popping pimple.
Pierce Brosnan is Harry Dalton, a Vulcanologist (or James Bond in disguise if you want) who predicts a major eruption in the quaint Pacific-Northwestern town of Dante's Peak. No one wants to listen to him since the town has just been named the 2nd most desirable place to live in America and is in the early stages of a thriving economy. It's the politics from Jaws all over again. Despite being shouted down by his superiors, Harry sticks around to keep his eye on the imposing mountain and woo Mayor Wando (Linda Hamilton), who is the only one who believes the 4000-year dormant volcano might blow its top.
If you've seen one disaster movie, you've seen 'em all in terms of character importance. Yes, it's bloody obvious who is going to die, some of these people might as well have a death clock counting down stuck on their foreheads. And the panicking idiot mobs don't deserve anything less firey. When will nameless extras learn that following the crowd isn't the best way? I guess this is the weakest part of Dante's Peak, it never really distances itself from that single, eternal cliché of disaster films.
But the film is really nothing but a showcase for special effects and it does them surprisingly well. Made before the extreme popularity of CGI, Dante's Peak has a lot of real-life destruction, in-camera effects and stunt-work. Yes, there is a fair bit of CGI and for a 10-year-old film they still hold up really well. All Volano (Zzzz...) had to offer was a very, very slight lava flow and an unintentionally hilarious scene with a melting man but with Dante's Peak we get earthquakes, boiled skinny dippers, lakes of acid, ash blizzards that create a unique atmosphere, thunder and lightning, red hot boulders raining down from the sky, mudslides, lava (of course), a massive pyroclastic cloud and lots of deep, deep bass sound effects.
It's not a life-changing film by any means, but as disaster movies go it's one of the best, has an occasionally spooky score and entertains really well despite Brosnan taking it all so seriously. I would have given it a higher rating if they killed the dog (more original) and deleted the annoying Grant Heslov's utterly pointless character.
The Blu Ray presents the film is gorgeous 1080p 2.35:1 with a brilliant DTS HD-MA sound design. None of the extras from the DVD have been ported over. Why?
For picture and sound alone it's a definite must-have for Blu Ray fans.
Pierce Brosnan is Harry Dalton, a Vulcanologist (or James Bond in disguise if you want) who predicts a major eruption in the quaint Pacific-Northwestern town of Dante's Peak. No one wants to listen to him since the town has just been named the 2nd most desirable place to live in America and is in the early stages of a thriving economy. It's the politics from Jaws all over again. Despite being shouted down by his superiors, Harry sticks around to keep his eye on the imposing mountain and woo Mayor Wando (Linda Hamilton), who is the only one who believes the 4000-year dormant volcano might blow its top.
If you've seen one disaster movie, you've seen 'em all in terms of character importance. Yes, it's bloody obvious who is going to die, some of these people might as well have a death clock counting down stuck on their foreheads. And the panicking idiot mobs don't deserve anything less firey. When will nameless extras learn that following the crowd isn't the best way? I guess this is the weakest part of Dante's Peak, it never really distances itself from that single, eternal cliché of disaster films.
But the film is really nothing but a showcase for special effects and it does them surprisingly well. Made before the extreme popularity of CGI, Dante's Peak has a lot of real-life destruction, in-camera effects and stunt-work. Yes, there is a fair bit of CGI and for a 10-year-old film they still hold up really well. All Volano (Zzzz...) had to offer was a very, very slight lava flow and an unintentionally hilarious scene with a melting man but with Dante's Peak we get earthquakes, boiled skinny dippers, lakes of acid, ash blizzards that create a unique atmosphere, thunder and lightning, red hot boulders raining down from the sky, mudslides, lava (of course), a massive pyroclastic cloud and lots of deep, deep bass sound effects.
It's not a life-changing film by any means, but as disaster movies go it's one of the best, has an occasionally spooky score and entertains really well despite Brosnan taking it all so seriously. I would have given it a higher rating if they killed the dog (more original) and deleted the annoying Grant Heslov's utterly pointless character.
The Blu Ray presents the film is gorgeous 1080p 2.35:1 with a brilliant DTS HD-MA sound design. None of the extras from the DVD have been ported over. Why?
For picture and sound alone it's a definite must-have for Blu Ray fans.
14 of 16 people found the following review helpful
Format:VHS Tape
Dante's Peak is, first, last and foremost, a disaster movie, and consequently it has been comparatively forgotten. But it is a very good disaster movie, one that, whilst containing all the key cliches and stereotyped disaster-flick elements, still manages to be inventive, exciting and visually amazing.
Pierce Brosnan (!!) plays a volcanologist sent to monitor seismic activity on a long-dormant volcano in the Cascade mountains (Mount St Helens, anyone?). Then scary things start to happen (I won't say what they are) and he becomes convinced that the volcano is going to erupt. Of course, nobody believes him, especially not his colleagues, who seem more interested in drinking cups and cups of Linda Hamilton's character's coffee. He still persuades them to call a town meeting to discuss escape plans. And, during the meeting, guess what happens...
Nothing happens and they all go home.
No, I was kidding.
The actors are generally very good, with Brosnan and Hamilton playing the lead roles without going over the top. The film also has a terribly sinister scene where they are all in a metal boat singing to cheer the kids up and they realise that some bad, bad things are happening to their boat. It's really quite scary.
Aside from the occasional blot on the geological copybook with some things happening that are scientifically impossible, Dante's Peak is great-and the special effects are incredible.
Pierce Brosnan (!!) plays a volcanologist sent to monitor seismic activity on a long-dormant volcano in the Cascade mountains (Mount St Helens, anyone?). Then scary things start to happen (I won't say what they are) and he becomes convinced that the volcano is going to erupt. Of course, nobody believes him, especially not his colleagues, who seem more interested in drinking cups and cups of Linda Hamilton's character's coffee. He still persuades them to call a town meeting to discuss escape plans. And, during the meeting, guess what happens...
Nothing happens and they all go home.
No, I was kidding.
The actors are generally very good, with Brosnan and Hamilton playing the lead roles without going over the top. The film also has a terribly sinister scene where they are all in a metal boat singing to cheer the kids up and they realise that some bad, bad things are happening to their boat. It's really quite scary.
Aside from the occasional blot on the geological copybook with some things happening that are scientifically impossible, Dante's Peak is great-and the special effects are incredible.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Blu-ray
MAIN FEATURE:
VIDEO: 1080p High Definition Widescreen 2.35:1
AUDIO:
DTS-HD Master Audio English 5.1
DTS Surround 5.1: French, Italian, German, Spanish, Japanese
DTS 2.0: Brazilian Portuguese, Latin American Spanish, Russian
SUBTITLES: English SDH, French, Italian, German, Spanish, Japanese, Brazilian Portuguese, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Greek, Korean, Latin American Spanish, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Swedish, Thai, Turkish, Traditional Mandarin
EAN: 5050582797893
ASIN: B0041G67VU
VIDEO: 1080p High Definition Widescreen 2.35:1
AUDIO:
DTS-HD Master Audio English 5.1
DTS Surround 5.1: French, Italian, German, Spanish, Japanese
DTS 2.0: Brazilian Portuguese, Latin American Spanish, Russian
SUBTITLES: English SDH, French, Italian, German, Spanish, Japanese, Brazilian Portuguese, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Greek, Korean, Latin American Spanish, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Swedish, Thai, Turkish, Traditional Mandarin
EAN: 5050582797893
ASIN: B0041G67VU
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Getting close to the show
The best of the slew of 90s disaster movies that cropped up after Twister did blockbuster business, Dante's Peak may offer surprisingly little lava but it's certainly the most... Read more
Published 18 days ago by Trevor Willsmer
Big Movie
I Like this is Movie , Beatiful and Extreme , Great Actors , Pierce and Linda Hamilton is Very Nice.
Great , Great and Great , Audio Portuguese is Good .
Great , Great and Great , Audio Portuguese is Good .
Published 3 months ago by Renato
Above average disaster movie
As disaster movies go, this is a good one. The scenario is Volcanoligist Harry Dalton, played by Pierce Brosnan, (and yes, the Mr. Read more
Published 5 months ago by Dodster
Dante's Peak
A real 'rainy day' movie. A must have for any DVD collection. Full of action and a few 'one liners' delivered perfectly by Mr Bronson. Easy viewing for all the family.
Published 8 months ago by Mrs. Laura Braley
thrilling adventure
Outstanding and thrilling drama with a well documented background on geophysics. The tempo of the movie is fast and the climax is reached at the end when you can see those things... Read more
Published 8 months ago by C. C. Montes
Volcano disaster,
Another genre u love or hate. Man meets girls, disaster happens, and thru it all a future occurs. The same story, just different back ground. Read more
Published 9 months ago by celtdownunder
dante's peak
a very good film full of action from the start linda hamiltons best film qiuck delivery of the film as well
Published 9 months ago by topcat
Dante's Peak
Dante's Peak is a good disaster movie made better by the quality of the picture and sound offered by BD.
Published 9 months ago by wizardhealer
dantes peak blu ray
been after this blu ray for months, its usually sold out in hmv everytime i look, a great pic in hd was deffo worth the money
thanks
thanks
Published 10 months ago by paul deakin
very entertaining
Compared to other films about volcanic eruption such as volcano (with tommy lee jones) this is the best there is. Read more
Published 11 months ago by Sam
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