Review of Dante`s Peak

Video

Dante’s Peak was often regarded by many as the better of the two similar films that came out at around the same time, the other being ‘Volcano’ starring Tommy Lee Jones. It is a blockbuster action vehicle for Pierce Brosnan (to get him away from the 007 image) with the usual compendium party pack of special effects, noise, action and more special effects.

The picture quality is excellent – images are sharp and clear, with a nice colour balance and contrast ratio. There are a whopping 38 chapters on this disc, for a movie only 1 hour 49 minutes in length. The movie features several stunning sweeping aerial shots, which come across very well on a projector.

The special effects are good, although the models used in the helicopter crash sequence made me smile! The scenes where everything is covered in the volcanic ash can be a little overly dark at times, but I could not make up my mind whether this was the transfer, or everything really was actually meant to look as dark and gloomy as it appeared.

Audio

I was quite disappointed with the 5.1 soundtrack initially on this disc. The impact and punch in the audio seemed to be a little lacking, but later on as the film got going, this seemed to improve. When the volcano blew it’s top, the subwoofer was pounding away, and any earlier fears of a bad audio transfer disappeared.

Features

This disc comes with several worthwhile extras. Firstly although the menus are static, there is a 60 minutes documentary entitled ‘Getting Close to the Show’ which is very entertaining and informative. It really brings home just what is involved in the making of a big budget Hollywood special effects movie.

A full length commentary from the director and the production designer is included on the disc, again which is entertaining to listen to.

A comprehensive set of production notes on the filming and the actors round off a well presented, comprehensive disc.

Conclusion

This is a fun film, and in my opinion far better than Volcano. The special effects are very good overall, and you can appreciate just how good, when you see the making of documentary showing the techniques and models used.

Pierce Brosnan does a convincing job of the ‘I can play other characters apart from Bond you know’ role, and Linda Hamilton makes a welcome appearance in the lead female role.

The disc is well presented and has a nice collection of extras. For those of you with DTS sound systems, there is another Region 1 version available.