Super Eruption

This one's nearly as entertaining as AIRPLANE VS VOLCANO! SUPER ERUPTION is a good natured SyFy Channel-made disaster movie about a volcano erupting at Yellowstone National Park, although it was actually filmed in Bulgaria with a mainly British cast. Whichever way you look at it, it's a film with an involved storyline, lots of entertaining actors, and plenty of incident to propel the narrative along.

Lame CGI effects are the bane of this sub-genre but to be fair they're not too shabby here and could have been - and often are - a lot worse. The narrative is actually well written for the most part and I loved the extra sci-fi twist thrown in along the way. The last third is a little weak but the early scenes generated enough fun for me not to mind too much.

Actors involved in the shenanigans include likable ex-DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES star Richard Burgi, making a fine double act with British TV actress Juliet Aubrey. The ubiquitous MyAnna Buring (THE DESCENT) puts on a relatively convincing American accent throughout, while Alex Wyndham (ROME) bags the minor role of a park ranger. SUPER ERUPTION is no classic, that's for sure, but when you've seen enough of these low rent disaster flicks you'll learn to appreciate even a middling production like this one.

Yet another volcano disaster film and made by the Syfy channel?! Never really stood a chance did it?

Thing is this is slightly tweaked. What do you get when you cross a volcano movie with Frequency (2000)? You get Super Eruption which isn't as bad as you'd think.

It tells the story of an eruption occurring underneath Yellowstone park and the usual attempts at stopping it through pseudo science.

Super Eruption however has a scifi twist to it which both makes it more interesting and considerably less credible. The concept makes you think but it's 100% guaranteed to cause a migraine or two.

The decent cast keep the movie from falling into mediocrity, and though it is just another scyfy original it's certainly watchable.

The Good:

Cast do a good job

Some interesting ideas

The Bad:

Poor sfx

Usual levels of baffling stupidity

Things I Learnt From This Movie:

Would Yellowstone erupting actual cause the end of the world? Let's not find out

Before the opening credits, rugged park ranger Richard Burgi (as Charlie Young) parachutes into a hellish countryside to rescue his pretty blonde daughter MyAnna Buring (as Claire) and her muscular young boyfriend Alex Wyndham (as Josh). The attempt appears to fail as lava covers the screen. After the credits, we meet our fourth principal player, Disaster Management Agency (DMA) volcanologist Juliet Aubrey (as Kate Brooks). She is helpless as volcanic activity covers North America and the rest of the world. Earth is about to explode when we flashback, "Two Days Earlier." Yellowstone National Park is peaceful until Mr. Wyndham finds a sexually-inclined couple scorched by a sudden blast of hot water. This is interesting as Rafael Jordan's story then proceeds like a horror movie, with the volcano as its monster. However, a disconnected science-fiction time-travel angle and cheesy special effects make it look too silly.

**** Super Eruption (3/8/11) Matt Godd ~ Richard Burgi, Juliet Aubrey, MyAnna Buring, Alex Wyndham

Why, oh why, do I keep finding myself watching SyFy original movies. I guess it's for the same reason I keep eating Bicky Burgers. You know it's not good for you, that it'll give you zits and heartburn. But damn it, it's just easy too swallow. However after sitting through it, you do have watchers guilt. You could have spend the same amount of time to watch Sunset Blvd again. Or Rear Window. Or really anything else not made by the SyFy channel.

Super Eruption is the unholy child of Dante's Peak and Frequency. Two movies I like very much. It's a cross made without any talent for screenwriting (often it feels like whole chunks of the movie are missing- like how did they get from here to there... could be I fell asleep. Could be bad writing. ) The special effects are far from special. They look like they were made by my grandmother using the Paint program on her Windows 95 computer.

The actors are there, enjoying the Bulgarian sights, possibly evaluating their life's choices. Pretty much what I'm doing, every time I finish one of these things.

Over the years for some reason disaster movies have found a fan base like you wouldn't believe. Most of them are a bit cheesy and make little to no sense, but still manage to attract stars as well as fans. The latest Super Eruption stars Richard Burgi with a title that pretty much speaks for itself, but does it explode with enough force to please the hardcore fans of this genre?

Super Eruption follows two Yellowstone Rangers that are forced to fight to save the day against a super volcano that erupts after thousands of years of being dormant. As with most of these movies the story is a mix of possibility and the absurd in hopes to create an edge of your seat disaster flick, but fails to ever really step out of average. The story throws way too much in too fast that it felt like it was rushing to get to the eruption aspect and then never really delivers anything. The effects are pretty cheap and looked like something off the SyFy channel, but minus the cheesy fun. Bergi is always great and does a fine job here with what he is working with, but the rest of the cast are average at best. As mentioned previously the effects should have been the showcase to make a movie like this work, but they didn't offer too many of the fun moments you expect and when they did it just didn't seem like they really pushed it for that great effect.

Obviously there isn't a great expectation of this film being a major blockbuster and is geared towards a specific audience, but those people look for a certain type of cheese and fun which this film lacks. There are sure to be those that love it and cannot wait to add it to their collection, but if you don't normally check these kinds of films out you will most likely be disappointed.