Beneath the famed La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles, a vent in the Earth's crust
has unleashed a raging volcano, raining a storm of deadly fire bombs and
an endless tide of white-hot lava upon the stunned city. An unprepared city
faces its worst terror as the fiery lava-flow insidiously creeps across
traffic-choked streets and wreaks havoc below ground in the labyrinthine
tunnels that snake beneath the city.
The Office Of Emergency Management (O.E.M.) is a permanent division of the city
of Los Angeles and in the event of an emergency or natural disaster, its
director has the power to control and command all the resources of the city.
The man in the (literally) hot seat is Mike Roark (Tommy Lee Jones) who
is as confused as anyone as to how such an improbable event can happen in his
fair city and immediately summons the help of resident know-it-all Dr. Amy
Barnes (Anne Heche) who explains the processes of a volcano as the film
goes by.
I'm glad of one thing about this film - the two lead characters do not embark
on a whirlwind romance as a result of their chance meeting, which is the norm
for most Hollywood fare, such as the other recent Anne Heche film, Six Days
Seven Nights, despite the fact that Ms. Heche is one of Hollywood's most
famous lesbians and currently the beau of US comedienne Ellen DeGeneres.
However, I do have a couple of reservations when it comes a certain cliche used
here: that of a character either selfishly giving up their own life to save
someone else (chapter 13: where the foreman of the underground rail network has
a chance to save himself, but instead rescues a train driver and lets himself
sink into the lava feet first in one of the most gruesome scenes I've witnessed
in a 12-certificate film) or just giving up the will to live (chapter 20: where
the army guy is trapped at the bottom of the towering hospital about to be
demolished in a desperate bid to stem the tide of lava. If he put his mind to
it he could at least try to get out, but like the death of Tiffany in Eastenders
anyone in the surrounding area just stands about leaving the fated character to
get on with the inevitably-avoidable).
A brilliant transfer brings the red-hot lava, fireballs and other assorted
CGI effects to life, out of the cinema and into your front room. A pin-sharp
1.85:1 picture replicates the original cinema ratio and it's anamorphic with
no artifacts on view. The average bitrate is a good 6.43Mb/s, often hovering
around 7Mb/s.
I could describe the sound as 'explosive' and that might seem like a pun, but
the audio couldn't be any better, making this a demo disc to show to your
friends. For an example of the best you can check out most of
the chapters such as "Wake-Up Shake" (ch.7), "Fire in the Sky" (ch.8),
"The Coast is Toast" (ch.10), "Lava in the Red Line" (ch.13)
and "A Disposable Skyscraper" (ch.20). Even the opening credits stamp their mark
as the outside scenes of happy shoppers are intercut with underground activities
getting ready to burst out and say hello.
Extras :
Chapters and Trailer :
There are 23 chapters during the 100-minute film which is good and the disc
is coupled with the original theatrical trailer.
Languages and Subtitles :
There's just one language on this disc - English, but it is available in Dolby
Digital 5.1. Subtitles come in 11 flavours: Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Finnish,
Portuguese, Hebrew, Polish, Czech, Hungarian, Icelandic
and English for the hearing impaired.
Menu :
The main menu is animated and scored and looks, at first, very good indeed.
However, when you click on an option, as the film's title flashes at your
eyes, it's so jittery. The other menus are static and silent though.
Overall, the fact that such an event would be incredibly unlikely in the given
location may cause the words "artistic licence" to shout out loud, but this is
surprisingly a very engaging and gripping film from start to finish, despite
its implausibilities.
DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TXW32R4 32" widescreen TV
connected to either a Creative Dxr2 DVD-ROM player or Microsoft Xbox and
played through a Sony STR-DB930 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
Since Nov 2005: Intel Pentium D 830 3.0Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 128Mb nVidia GeForce 6700XL, Windows XP
Since Aug 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.66Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb GeForce4 MX440 graphics, Windows XP
Since May 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.6Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb ATI Radeon 9600TX graphics, Windows XP
Since Jun 2002: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, 64Mb ATI Radeon 8500LE
Since May 2000: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, Voodoo 3 3000 AGP
