Terror Peak

Former WONDER WOMAN actress Lynda Carter finds herself down on her luck in this makeshift disaster movie about a family caught in and around an erupting volcano. The only thing this film has going for it is that it's a Kiwi production, so the New Zealand scenery looks fantastic and there are various Maori supporting characters in the story for novelty value. Other than that it's business as usual.

Most annoyingly, TERROR PEAK plays it safe throughout and none of the peril sequences convince because you know everybody's going to make it. The usual gamut of poor special effects and worse acting make this an entirely familiar outing for the genre, and even Carter's worthwhile efforts in the acting department can't help it. What hurts it the most is that Carter's screen daughter is given the most obnoxious personality ever and has such a prominent role in the proceedings; big mistake. Plus there's an odd timbre to the audio which makes all the voices sound too-loud and theatrical.

I usually say nothing if I can't say anything good; however, in this case, I make an exception. A very poor movie; tried and tested story (i.e. unoriginal), every volcanic cliche in the book, no eruptions of brilliance, highly questionable effects and a vast range of technical inconsistencies.

New Zealand never fails to impress by its scenery: pity about some of the actors! The most notable effects were those in the latter part of the movie when memebers of the cast were running to their airlift point (that was strangely devoid of any sign of ash, darkness or other tell-tale signs of volcanic activity): the said effects were strangely reminiscent of those used by Tim the Magician in Monty Python's Holy Gail. Even more surprising was the loss of the top half of the volcano prior to any major eruption occurring.

After this, even 'Volcano' looks polished, professional and credible!

The only reason to watch this film (aside from the beautiful scenery of my home country) is for NZ actor Antony Starr, who moves on to bigger and better things with the fantastic TV Series "Outrageous Fortune". The rest of the film is terrible. I mean, 'Terror Peak' is obviously computer graphics, for there is no giant volcano that close of Auckland, and if there were, and it was erupting like in this film, they would need to evacuate more than just the local village which is what happens in this film.

Lynda Carter is painful to watch as a retired vulcanologist who has come to NZ for a honeymoon with her new husband and her daughter, who funnily enough is played by a New Zealand actress, Emily Barclay. The poor girl fails to pull off an American accent. Another NZ actor, Peter Elliot of "Shortland Street" fame plays a Scotsman. Go figure - that is if you want to waste your time.

The New Zealand Scenery was beautiful. The Production values were bad, but probably not so bad, I'm sure the budget wasn't huge. No worse than Bay Watch, Xena, or other syndicated series. Former seventies sex symbols Carter and Stevenson headline as newlyweds.

The one thing setting this low budget disaster picture apart from myriads of others is its New Zealand setting ,which at least ensures we have some attractive scenery to look at when the main activity gets a little predictable .

Lynda Carter plays a vulcanologist who is in New Zealand with her second husband and daughter by a previous marriage .He is the owner of an adventure holiday company scouting the island for a possible new venture when a volcano long believed dormant erupts trapping the daughter and a young Kiwi guide below ground .Carter organises the overall rescue attempt while the husband -played by Parker Stevenson -tries to rescue the trapped couple .

Stirred into the brew are the owner of the local tourist lodge and his former partner ,a Maori -and these play a key role in the climax of the movie .There is also some rather half-baked mysticism in the form of a Maori prophetess and this does not really work too well

There is nothing new here -we even have the standard ploy of the authorities refusing to give creedence to warnings of impending catastrophe until it is almost too late ,and the bringing together of the family group in the face of danger

Budgetary restrictions are evident in the scenes of eruption and the acting is no more than adequate but it is a passable time waster