Volcano

Volcano casts Tommy Lee Jones as Mike Roark, an emergency-management director who must spring into action after downtown Los Angeles is besieged by molten-hot lava – with the film detailing Mike’s efforts at directing the deadly liquid away from the city. It’s a somewhat thin premise that’s employed to decidedly erratic effect by director Mick Jackson, as the movie, written by Jerome Armstrong and Billy Ray, progresses through a skeletal storyline armed with a whole handful of palpably underwhelming subplots. (The best and most obvious example of this is everything involving a local black man and the racist cop determined to arrest him.) It’s clear, then, that Volcano is at its best during the expected scenes of mass destruction, with, especially, the initial devastation wreaked by the title occurrence standing out as a clear and obvious highlight in the proceedings. Jones’ predictably gruff performance proves effective at infusing the narrative with a much-needed down-to-earth feel, while the movie’s eclectic supporting cast, which includes John Carroll Lynch, Don Cheadle, and Michael Rispoli, often elevates some of the movie’s more overtly repetitive sequences. The fairly anticlimactic final stretch ensures that Volcano concludes on a less-than-engrossing note, which is a shame, really, given the movie’s relatively promising first act and ongoing proliferation of appealing elements.

**1/2 out of ****