User Reviews

"Vulkan" or "Volcano" is a German film from 2009 made for the small screen, so two more years and this one will have its 10th anniversary. It was directed by Uwe Janson and written by Alexander M. Rümelin and despite these two probably not being too famous even here in Germany, they still have a decent collection of films under their belts. The cast, however, includes many names that German film buffs will immediately recognize such as Lauterbach, Kölberlin, Catterfeld, Rohde, Redl, Riemann, Aleardi... and even if some of these have hardly no screen time at all, you will recognize their faces instantly I'm sure. This is basically two films in one as this one consists of two movies of 90 minutes (approximately) each. The title already gives away that this is the story of a volcano in the Eiffel and how disaster strikes when he erupts again after thousands of years. Well.. you can say that German films about environmental catastrophes are nothing special usually and this one here fits the description too. But it is also not as bad as some others. I still believe this could have been kept at 2 hours with cutting out lots of the insignificant stuff, especially from the second 1.5 hours that felt oh so shockingly forgettable given what just happened at the end of the first film. About the first film it needs to be said the way that the writer tried to combine human tragedies like the girl stuck down there or the alleged sexual abuse by Rohde's character was more than clumsy. The writing is one problem, but it also shows somehow that most of the names in here, most of the actors are really more known for charisma and recognition value and not for great range. As a whole, if you love disaster films, then maybe you can check this out and if you don't expect too much, then you won't be disappointed. Everybody else can skip it though. I give it a thumbs-down.

I am really into volcano, natural mass destruction films. I am usually very wary of direct to TV films, as they usually contain bad effects, sub par acting... But in this case this 3 hour movie had a good enough acting, and above all really good effects (keeping in mind that this is a direct to TV film). The nuclear like explosion looks great as the town destruction scenes do. Obviously the events aren't realistic...but you can't expect realism from a natural disaster movie.... All in all, I find this movie has all it needs to be an entertaining experience, where cinematography, effects and acting are good enough keeping in mind that this is longer than many Hollywood features and I am sure the budget was lower. Natural disaster movie buffs won't be disappointed (although you will bite your tongue in some scenes, trying not to yell at the actors... asking them to cover their mouth not to shallow volcanic ash...)