Volcano

Only emergency chief Jones and spunky seismologist Heche stand between Los Angeles and meltdown. The most striking aspect of this fun, old-fashioned disaster movie is the novelty of seeing the most familiar of backdrops used as a creative resource in its own right. Throwing in-jokes and tourist landmarks on to the fire with a pyromaniac's passion, Mick Jackson turns the city into a kind of postmodern theme park. Such is the lightness of touch, it's possible even to interpret the pat sermonising which mars the later sequences as a subtle joke - what would this kind of film be without moral closure? Jones and Heche work hard to dig up an emotional rapport from next to nothing, while the slow but inexorable progress of the lava makes for more suspense than the usual slam bang firework display.