vchimpanzee The movie does not start well. The writing, acting and sound are all about as bad as it gets, suggesting the entire movie may end up being a disaster. Not true. But the long-dormant Iceland volcano with an unpronounceable name starting with "Troll" does erupt suddenly and quickly, with terrible consequences for the people we didn't likely enjoy watching.University geology professor Dr. Peter Shepherd is teaching a class. After the bell rings, geochemistry graduate student Bree says she wants to join him on an expedition to another Iceland volcano. She knows he lost the one person who would know chemistry, and despite his protests, she perseveres and ends up on the team, which includes Kai, Christopher (there is a C.J. in the credits, so I guess that's him), Jacques, and others whose names I don't remember. Bree is too perky and enthusiastic to be believable as an intelligent scientist, but that will change later.Once again, a long-dormant Iceland volcano comes back to life way too quickly, but this time, rescuers arrive in time. Something serious is going on. In the first of many newscasts with ominous footage and an anchor lacking in personality (who we don't see), we learn thousands died. One theory for these volcanoes and others is natural gas drilling in the area. But many more of the world's best-known volcanoes are erupting suddenly and causing catastrophic damage. Surely this is not a man-made phenomenon.Well, maybe it is. Another theory is that the sum of all human activity has caused something to happen in Earth's core, and unless it is stopped, all life on Earth could vanish.Peter visits his former mentor Oskar, a creepy bald man in a wheelchair who has an accent and has quit the U.S. Geological Survey because his boss and former student Dr. Kincaid is impossible to deal with. Oskar has predicted Fuji will erupt next and he wants to be there. Yes, he knows the risks if Fuji behaves like the other volcanoes did. And from the sound of the next newscast we hear, much of Japan is gone. No, we only see the mountain blow its top and the nearby results.Peter's ex Natalie works at Yellowstone, where Old Faithful is failing to live up to its name. Could this be connected? Shepherd and Bree talk about his relationship, and later Peter and his wife have a talk.Peter and Bree appear before a government committee and present the far-fetched theory. Kincaid is not impressed and says only that volcanoes behave a certain way and give warnings, unlike the ones that have recently erupted. As Kiliminjaro and others come to life causing catastrophic destruction (Rome is essentially gone), Kincaid and those who doubted have to admit something must be done. By the way, we don't see these other events except for some news footage.Peter and his team go to Ecuador to study what can be done to predict and deal with the eruptions. Somehow they end up in Colombia at a copper mine guarded by a man with a gun who speaks no English. Weird things have happened there. Once they are in the mine, the team gathers the information they need, and then we see more excitement. This time the terrifying events last a while and we get some suspense. One question: if this tunnel is not on a map, why does it have electric lights? Did our team put them there? I doubt it.It is time to take action. Peter has enough information to go to the U.S. Navy. Other nations join in the fight. The President of the United States addresses the nation. Though he is no Kiefer Sutherland, he does a good job. But could it be too late? And is Natalie in danger?This is on the level of a TV-movie, but not as much of a disaster as some disaster movies. The actors playing Peter and Bree are actually pretty good, once Bree is no longer perky (or perhaps you can count her perky behavior as good acting). The writing is about on the same level as the typical movie of this type, but the last half-hour or so is quite exciting. Some actors with only a few lines seem like they are sitting around the table reading their lines for the first time.The visual effects are competently done but not spectacular. In most scenes we see only the minimum necessary to communicate what is happening, but toward the end we get a little more detail. Violence is not graphic (unless you count people catching on fire, but even then you can't really see anything) but several people surely die. In one case we are told the person died. This isn't bad enough to be good, but it's good enough not to be bad.

Michael O'Keefe A far fetched contrivance. Professor Peter Shepard(Xander Berkeley),in his dedication to volcanology, realizes that unexpected volcanic activity spanning the globe, is earth's way of signaling a warning of imminent catastrophic danger nearing mankind to extinction. Shepard and a group of his students take a field trip to gather information to devise a plan to ward off disaster and save the planet. This low budget made-for-cable action drama at times depends on ridiculous situations and painfully awkward dialogue to move the story along. The CGI is not exactly top notch and neither is most of the cast. Players of note: Amy Jo Johnson, Reiko Aylesworth, David O'Donnell, George R. Sheffey and Michael Durrell.

Jack Well, this isn't the worst Sci-Fi Channel Original Production that I've seen, but it may just be the most boring. We start with a college professor and a few students going to explore a volcano in Iceland. Of course the volcano erupts, and they barely escape with their lives. Turns out the professor knows some genius who has worked out a theory of how all the world's volcanoes will start erupting, and we see the scenario played out via the usual cheap looking computer generated special effects. Loads and loads of cheap looking computer generated effects. Toss in the stupendously clichéd government bureaucrats who don't take the threat seriously, some utter nonsense about how humans have caused the Earth's core to expand, and a breathtakingly dull subplot concerning the professor's ex wife, and that about wraps it up. Oh wait, I almost forgot the environmentalist speech at the end, where we're supposed to learn from our mistakes...and some other stuff. Sorry, I'm afraid I nodded off there for a minute. I'm sleepy after sitting through this thing.Overall, you've got a pile of characters we couldn't care less about, a plot that's identical to a dozen other really crappy disaster movies, a script that sometimes sounds as if it was written by someone who wasn't a native English speaker, and there you have it. These film makers really need to hire a consultant to at least give them enough technical insight into their subject matter so that it doesn't make the average layman laugh at the absurdity of it.Edit: Kind of funny, I apparently wrote this review on January 26, and here it is February 6, and I can't remember ever having seen this movie.

Joanna Poe Yet another example of a made-for-cable film that started with a workable premise and a couple of really good actors, but managed to screw it all up. Low budget isn't always a bad thing, but somehow the biggest deficit here is in the imagination column. Absurd situations, ridiculous plot oversights and contradictions, supporting actors who just recite lines, and awkward dialogue make this painful to watch. When you find yourself awake and channel-surfing at 3AM, if you happen across this, go ahead and take a look, but don't go out of your way to find it otherwise. Honestly, the Sci-fi channel has talented people at its disposal, couldn't they have managed one more script treatment before production started? At least buy the poor writer a thesaurus and a geology textbook!