Dante's Peak

How long will truck tires last on top of molten lava? A surprising amount of time, apparently, according to this wild and wildly improbable disaster movie. Pierce Brosnan stars as a government geologist who shows up in a small Washington town to check out an active volcano, and in doing so gets in the way of the local-development agenda of the mayor (Linda Hamilton). Mother Nature soon levels the playing field, however, quite literally, as the pair and sundry kids and others try to keep ahead of the volcano's many spin-off problems. Roger Donaldson (The Bounty) directed, and if the film is remembered for nothing else, its special effects are unnervingly realistic, no doubt drawn in part from research into the Mount St. Helens disaster. The DVD release has a widescreen presentation, director commentary, behind-the-scenes material, and optional French and Spanish soundtracks, plus optional Spanish subtitles. --Tom Keogh