Cheap Dante's Peak (DVD) (Pierce Brosnan, Linda Hamilton) (Roger Donaldson) Price

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Customer Reviews of Dante's Peak

Volcanologist Harry Dalton (Pierce Brosnan) is sent reeling, followong the death of his wife, while studying the Mt. Pinatubo eruption in Columbia. Soon after though, he finds himself back at work, called to a small Pacific Northwest town to investigate the rumblings of the local dormant volcano. Though he instantly fears the worse, he must convince the skeptical townspeople and his suspicious superiors who believe he is overreacting in the wake of his own tragic loss. The town's beautiful, widowed mayor Rachel Wando (Linda Hamilton) believes him, however, and soon they find themselves in a fight for surrvival, as "Dante's Peak" erupts ten miles high, raining ash and fire over everything in its path.

Director Roger Donaldson has helmed his share of thrillers over the years, with modest success, including 13 Days and The Recruit. For Dante's Peak though, he shows some "spunk" with the special effects for the film. They are quite good in the movie. Quite frankly though, that also oulines part of the problem here, while Brosnan and Hamilton are serviceable, it's the script that knocks Peak off its stride. While the actors and action compensate somewhat, things can still get overwrought and predictable at times.

The Collector's Edition DVD offers a fairly wide array of bonus material. The commentary by director Donaldson and production designer J. Dennis Washington is pretty solid but can also be dry at times as well. The documentary is a fairly typical excercise but offers interviews with Donaldson, Brosnan, Hamilton, Ilona Herzberg and vulcanologist David Harlow, and their thoughts. As a bonus you can hear the film's underscore, in stereo, on a separate audio track during the documentary. Production notes, the theatrical trailer, storyboards, production designs, on set still photographs, the original advertising campaign, and access to the shooting script top of the disc.

Despite the film's problems, if you have to choose between either volcano flick, Dante's Peak is the better way to go.

An explosive treat!
Dante's Peak seems like the ideal place to live... the serenity of the mountainous landscape and the friendly atmosphere seems to wipe out the fact that the town is nestled at the base of a dormant volcano. However, when the U.S.G.S. begins to pick up signals from the volcano that indicate a possible eruption, they send Harry Dalton (Pierce Brosnan) to investigate. While there, he befriends town mayor Rachel Wando (Linda Hamilton) and informs her of the risks. When he begins to get the city council into an uproar, his advisor shows up to cool things down and wards off any ideas of an eruption. But the symptoms begin to grow, and soon, ash and rock are flying in the sky as the mountain explodes upon the small township. It's a race for survival for Dalton and Wando, as they must search for Wando's children and get them out before the impending final showdown with the volcano. Digital Domain's special effects contribute so much to the story, making it real and placing its characters in real peril. Suspense, action, romance and a terrific cast make this disaster movie a winner. The DTS version is remarkable, and it is recommended that this be the version you buy.

Excellent movie with a realistic twist.
Many seem to have hashed "Volcano" which came out around the same time as "Dante's Peak" and it's a shame because both of them are highly realistic and te things that happen in them could literally happen in real life. Both of them are really excellent disaster flicks and are enough to really make you 'think' but even then they deliver incredible amounts of entertainment. In all honesty though, "Dante's Peak" is more realistic and has a more compelling twist to it due to the volcano's more destructive power.

In this case, a small town is thriving in the mountains of Washington state and has recently been declared one of the best places to live in in the United States. Dr. Harry Dalton, a scientist is sent to the vicinity to survey unusually high geological activity but one day he makes an alarming discovery that the volcano that the town sits on the base of, has come back to life and geological surveys have cofirmed that Dante's Peak is about to erupt in a cataclysmic eruption and wipe out the town and it's people. Rachel Wando, the town's mayor along with Dalton now must try to evacuate the town before the volcano erupts but their safety is stifled by their economic interests.

This is a really excellent and highly compelling movie. The special effects are absolutely thrilling and highly realistic and the movie's plot and script are very good. The lava and plumes of ash and dust are highly realistic looking and scary to watch as the volcano starts spewing out it's contents into the atmosphere and surrounding vicinity. The characters are excellent even though the acting could've been a little better but the acting for the most part is excellent by almost if not the entire cast.

I was thrilled to see this on the big screen because I have had a longtime fascination with volcanoes for almost my entire life and "Dante's Peak" succeeds in delivering a thrilling tone and is very enjoyable for most of its length. The DTS edition is absolutely incredible because the sound quality is a gargantuan improvement on both the VHS and older DVD editions and if you have a stereo system with speakers all around you, then hook them up and the surround audio speakers will make you feel almost like you're back at the movie theatre with the awesome sound quality.

If you can, get this movie whenever possible because it is a really excellent natural disaster thriller and delivers far more scares than these so called 'horror' movies because most of them are just mindless gorefests that are more gross than scary but "Dante's Peak" is scary because it is so realistic and such things could happen and could turn out much worse. For example Mt. Rainier near Seattle could erupt at any time and cause a lot of damage nearby and Seattle may be choked with dust if a full blown eruption occurs even though the city and most of its suburbs would pull through relatively unscathed apart from having a snow of volcanic ashes but it could cause social instability. Even Mt. St. Helen's caused a great deal of destruction and wiped out a large amount of forests around it. "Dante's Peak" is an excellent movie that should not be passed up. End of story.