I'm mad about old-school 70s/early 80s disaster movies. In fact, I've seen so many of them that they are all starting to look alike, and even developed a sort of five points rating scale to determine exactly how cliched but entertaining they are. Make no mistake, though, as the scale doesn't reflect film quality, and is only an indicator of how film in question qualifies as fantastic entertainment with all the joyous clichés and stereotypes.
Condition #1: without producer Irwin Allen, there wasn't a budget for special effects and thus no movie. It's a genuine Allen flick, all right. However, "Cave-In!" is a TV-production, so obviously it's less spectacular and less fierce than the legendary producer's big-screen hits. The collapsing caverns aren't very convincing, and the body count is quite low, so I'll give it half a point simply for the "Irwin Allen presents..." label. Condition #2: all disaster movies star one major star (Charlton Heston and Paul Newman were prime choices) and a long list of "secondary" stars (like Ernest Borgnine, Leslie Nielsen...). Again, for reasons linked to the TV-movie status, there isn't a major star, but Leslie Nielsen is present and, especially near the end, rises to the top as a genuine hero. Besides him, the only impressive name in the cast is Ray Milland. The lesser known actors and actresses (Dennis Cole, Susan Sullivan, James Olson...) still do their best, so I'll be very generous and hand out a score of 0.75 for this aspect. Condition #3: The characters are usually split into two camps with completely opposite ideals and/or initiatives. This condition isn't applicable here. The group trapped in the underground caverns is too small to be split in two, and their situation doesn't allow for anyone to deny the danger or to minimalize the impact. There is a fugitive criminal in the group, though, and he causes some additional trouble. 0.25 points. Condition #4: Regardless what type of disaster we're dealing with, variants of the exact same perilous situations are always applicable. Pass, for sure! In order to escape from the caves, the group must swim through mazes, cross ramshackle bridges and walk through hot-water geysers. Full point! Condition #5: always remember that, when the situation appears to be at its worst, it can and will still get even worse! Well, yes, but I don't want to grant the point here, since none of the complicating factors have anything to do with the collapsing caverns. All the lead characters struggle with personal issues that get illustrated via dull flashbacks. The tour guide and the senator have a romantic history together, Leslie Nielsen is a suspended cop who allegedly didn't do enough to save the life of his partner and Ray Milland is a tyrannical father who sabotages all the potential relationships of his daughter. Nice try, but not nearly disastrous enough.
If we sum it up, "Cave-In!" scores 2.5 out of 5 on rating scale for disaster movies. I'll round it up to 3, because there's an exclamation mark in the title, which always helps to emphasize the seriousness of a disaster even more. What does the rating mean? Absolutely nothing, expect that "Cave-In!" is worth seeing even though there are far better disaster movies available out there.
