Collector's Edition DVD

Studio Line

Picture/Sound/Extras (A/A-/A-)

If you've read my review of The English Patient, you may recall that the only reason I saw the film during its theatrical run was because I owed my then-girlfriend/now-fiancee (from now on known as the "TG-NF") a favor. Why was this so? Well, a few weeks earlier, we had vaguely discussed going to see Dante's Peak during its opening weekend; however, we ended up doing something else instead. Since she didn't seem all that hot about it, I decided to take in a matinee during the week.

This decision did not sit well with the TG-NF - not well AT ALL! She was quite displeased with my choice, an anger that was inflamed by the fact a friend who had recently committed to see The English Patient with her instead went with someone else. Thus, I saved my sorry butt by taking in that snoozefest.

The worst part of this equation revolves around the fact that I suffered all this stress over Dante's Peak. If it had been Face/Off or something great, that'd be one thing, but Dante's Peak was quite a stinker! I left that theater shaking my head. If anything, the TG-NF owed ME for sparing her the agony of witnessing that mess!

With all this as background, you may wonder why I'm about to review the Dante's Peak DVD. After all, why would I rewatch a film that I so clearly disliked? Well, folks, I'm a sucker for special editions, and the package that the god people at Universal assembled for Dante's Peak looked sweet enough to entice me.

Now that I've seen the film one more time, I must alter my opinion of Dante's Peak. It's not nearly as bad as I originally believed. Two years down the road, I'm not even really sure WHY I hated it so much the first time. I think it was that old demon "expectations": it looked really cool and exciting, but it turned out to be fairly dull and it lacked many of the pyrotechnics I thought I'd see in a volcano movie.

The rather dull and lifeless characters didn't help, either. While I like Pierce Brosnan and Linda Hamilton, they may want to stick to their respective franchises, because neither made a positive impression here. I think Brosnan's quite good as Bond, because he can play characters who are cocky and suave. In Dante's Peak, however, his role requires him to be all warm and heartfelt and all touchy-feely; the guy just can't pull off those emotions. Hamilton's perfectly okay in her part as the mayor, but unfortunately she has little to do other than hand out coffee (literally); her character's a nonentity, and even more accomplished actors would have a hard time putting any really life into the role.

While I'm on the subject of the characters, my second viewing definitely made me remember one reason I so disliked this movie: the character of Hamilton's ex-mother in law. For one, this role existed simply to create a reason for the leads to stay within harm's way of the volcano; she's nothing more than a plot device - if she didn't refuse to leave the mountain, Hamilton, Brosnan, et al, simply would have abandoned town and the movie'd be over. This was a pretty pathetically artificial way to manipulate some excitement, and it shows.

Mostly I hated that woman because the character was one of the least likable people I've ever seen. I spent much of the film rooting for her to die, but when it finally happened, even THAT disappointed me: she and Hamilton get all mushy and the old lady apologizes for her nastiness. Man, couldn't they have just let her die WITHOUT dignity? It would have been much more entertaining!

The best character in the film is the one who revealed how artificial our group's attempts to leave the mountain really were. That would be Roughy the dog. We last see Roughy as our group starts to flee the old lady's burning shack; Roughy just takes off on her own. Good for her, because she apparently was much smarter than the humans. We follow them as the go through hell and acidic water to make it down the mountain, and they lose the old lady along the way. Finally, they make it to the bottom and are about to drive off when who do they see by the side of the road? Roughy, no worse for wear than a little burnt fur! Why didn't those losers stick with HER? That dog clearly RULES!!!

Anyway, my reassessment of Dante's Peak now lets me see it as a passably entertaining film. It lacks the rock-em-sock-em excitement I'd expected, but it does okay for itself. Really, the model for it seems to have been Jaws. It follows a very similar structure. The first half of the film hints at The Problem and allows the audience sporadic glimpses of it, all while a Lone Crusader attempts to warn the citizenry of the doom to come; blinded by potential economic loss, the citizenry ignores The Problem and denies its existence. By the mid-point, the severity of The Problem has become evident to even the most stubborn and it's up to the Lone Crusader to then take action.

However, what happens during that second half of the film when we see action taken differs greatly between Jaws and Dante's Peak. Mainly this is because while both Lone Crusader (now abetted by others) and The Problem spend fairly equal amounts of time acting aggressively in Jaws, during Dante's Peak, only The Problem gets to have any fun; the Lone Crusader and his cohorts just get to run away from the problem. Yes, this is realistic - much more so than the absurd but fun measures taken in Volcano - but it just ain't that interesting. Our heroes simply rarely seem to be in all THAT much danger.

Despite my still somewhat negative (though much better than it was) take on the film itself, Universal has done a bang-up job with their DVD release of Dante's Peak. First of all, the picture quality is exceptional. I watched it right after Starship Troopers; although the latter film has a fine picture transfer, it paled in comparison to Dante's Peak. The image was virtually immaculate throughout, no small feat considering the high number of problematic filming conditions during this picture; low light, colored lights, you name it - it all comes through flawlessly. Colors are bright and bold, though always accurate, and the entire image takes on a nearly three-dimensional quality.

The Dolby Digital 5.1 sound mix was also terrific, though not quite as good as the picture. A nice sound environment comes through and surrounds are used fairly effectively when appropriate. I experienced significant subwoofer envy at times, because I'll bet the deep volcano-rumble scenes would really slap me upside the head. Call me petty, but the only reason I downgraded Dante's Peak to an "A-" for sound was because I felt that the surrounds should have been MORE active; at times, quite a lot of volcanic debris and destruction occur on screen, but the rear channels don't reflect this as well as they should. I look forward to comparing this mix to that of Volcano when it comes out on DVD next month; if memory serves, it utilizes the surrounds in a tremendously aggressive manner and should put this soundtrack to shame.

One area in which I KNOW the Dante's Peak DVD will outshine the release of Volcano is its supplemental materials. Unless Fox has a change of heart, Volcano will include a trailer - that's it. Dante's Peak, however, was issued through Universal's Collector's Edition series, and it contains a wealth of extras.

While I dearly love audio commentaries - they're easily my favorite kind of supplement - the track during Dante's Peak from director Roger Donaldson and production designer Dennis Washington left me cold. It's quite dry and technical and it lacks any real insight about the film. Yes, we learn a lot of the "hows" behind the making of the film, but I wanted to know about the "whats" and especially the "whys." Audio commentaries provide filmmakers the opportunity to enlighten viewers about all the processes that go into making a movie, not just to talk about special effects. I recognize that Dante's Peak doesn't offer itself up for close examination like a film such as Boogie Nights, for example, but the commentators certainly could have done better than this.

Most prominent among the other supplemental materials is a 60 minute "making of" documentary. It's pretty decent, because although it covers much of the same technical territory as the audio commentary, it can acually show the behind the scenes machinations; this adds a compelling element lost during the audio track. While Universal has produced better documentaries, this one's still interesting and informative.

The Dante's Peak DVD also contains an okay trailer, some special effects compositing scenes, one storyboard sequence, production notes, and biographies of the director and three cast members. In regard to the latter, my question is: where's the bio for Roughy? That dog RULES!!!

(My obsession with Roughy actually compelled me to watch the entire credit sequence for further mention of her. Unfortunately, Roughy receives no billing. However, I did notice that at one point Pierce's last name is misspelled "Bronson." Also, the crew of Dante's Peak had some really cool names. Here are some actual names of actual crew members who actually worked on this actual movie: Jeff Frink; H. Durk Tyndall; Gee Dhiensuwana; Syndi Tracton; Gintar Repecka; and my favorite, Bambi Sickafoose.)

Overall, I have to recommend the DVD of Dante's Peak simply because it excels in so many areas. Picture and sound are excellent, and although some of the supplemental materials were less than scintillating, Universal did a great job of compiling extensive extras so they deserve a lot of credit. If you liked the movie, this DVD's a no-brainer; it's a shining star of the format. Even if you disliked the movie, as I did, this DVD's worth a shot; I enjoyed it much more than I thought I would.