ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times

DATE: Friday, April 25, 1997                 TAG: 9704250028
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: 1    EDITION: METRO 
                                             TYPE: MOVIE REVIEW
SOURCE: MIKE MAYO THE ROANOKE TIMES 

`VOLCANO' EXPLODES WITH CLICHES

Been there, done that. "Volcano" goes where so many disaster movies have gone before.

"Volcano" lacks even the first hint of originality.

Instead, it recycles stock characters and situations from other disaster flicks, and combines them with lava erupting into the streets of Los Angeles. At times, it's entertaining on a dopey level. More often, the action is so obvious and cliched that it becomes unintentionally laughable.

A crackling introductory montage of L.A. street scenes sets a quick pace. Without further ado in Jerome Armstrong's paint-by-numbers story, a moderate earthquake shakes things up, and several sewer workers are mysteriously burned to death. Our crack team of heroes swings into action.

Mike Roark (Tommy Lee Jones), the brave and resourceful director of the Office of Emergency Management, checks out the sewer. Emmit Reese (Don Cheadle), Roark's brave and resourceful assistant, manages things back in the office. Dr. Amy Barnes (Anne Heche), a brave and resourceful seismologist, intuitively suspects that something more is involved. Max, Roark's brave and resourceful dog, wags his tail.

Director Mick Jackson (``L.A. Story,'' ``Clean Slate'') gets completely professional performances from his cast, and he makes sure that the action is never confusing - bone-headed, yes, but not confusing.

When the lava makes its big entrance, Mat Beck's special effects are inventive. Manhole covers blast off; lava bombs rain down like mortar fire; palm trees burst into flames; ash falls as thick gray snow. Eventually, the action is reduced to a big puddle of lava oozing down a street and our heroes' efforts to contain it, and that's when it becomes difficult not to giggle.

The humor itself isn't a real flaw. This stuff isn't meant to be taken seriously. But in the second half, the staleness of the material becomes deadly. The hero outruns another slow-motion explosion; the dog escapes the lava; the child wanders off. Been there, seen that. A dozen times.

Who cares how brave and resourceful they're all supposed to be?

Volcano

**

A 20th Century Fox release playing at Crossroads Cinema and Salem Valley 8. 100 minutes. Rated PG-13 for subject matter, violence.

LENGTH: Short :   50 lines
ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO:  Tommy Lee Jones and Anne Heche star in "Volcano." color.