Terror Peak

i have just watched this movie on television, and i have to admit that i think i have just wasted two hours of my life.

half way through the movie i thought to myself "where is this going"? the storyline was very weak and unrealistic.

the main characters kept going on about "evacuating a village" - well i cannot recall seeing this village they spoke of at all through the movie, and if i did it was obviously not interesting enough to remember. one cannot feel empathy for the village if one has no emotional attachment to it - and i certainly didn't.

the story mainly focuses on two teenagers getting caught in a cave and trying to escape. why on earth they went into a cave in the first place instead of running away from an erupting volcano like most normal people would is beyond me! one of the teens is a girl, who's only purpose in the movie seems to be to scream and cry annoyingly at the first sight of danger! towards the end of the movie i began to hate her character.

another character breathes through an inhaler every 5 minutes, making one think that he is dependent on it, however during the eruption he loses his inhaler, but still carriers on breathing fine without it. i think this element of the story was pointless.

there is also a spirit woman that pops up onto the screen ever so often, this is completely unrealistic and stupid. any elements of truth that the story has is demolished by this character! seriously, during a volcanic eruption what person would seek out a primitive elderly woman for help? apparently the characters in this film!

also, the end of the movie is a joke. i was screaming at the television screen in fury when i saw it! if you don't want to be informed of the ending then i suggest that you stop reading this NOW! anyway, somehow a helicopter outruns a volcanic eruption on little fuel and safely lands. the characters then get out and dance around hugging each other in happiness. in reality, the eruption would probably extend to areas 100s of miles away from the volcano itself, so why they think they are safe after flying a relatively short distance i don't know! the characters even evacuated a village 15 miles away, so why they think they are safe i don't know! at the start of the movie one of the characters even states that the mount saint Helen's eruption had effects on the land 150 miles away! so why they think they have escaped this eruption when they are still so close to the volcano (i estimate 1 - 2 miles) astounds me!

unless you have nothing better to do (and i mean NOTHING!) then this film is definitely for you!

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

Apart from ... Peter Elliott as Patrick. At first I thought it was a bad Scottish accent. Then I thought ... 'No!' It's a bad Northern Irish accent. And by the end of the film (I watched it, on and off, for two hours) I decided I preferred it 'Off'.

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.