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[SinDelta]

The 90s had a lot of competing films. You had Armageddon and Deep Impact, then you had another pair of disaster movies about volcanoes, Dante's Peak and Volcano.

I've grown to prefer Dante's Peak over the years. Several scenes from both movies stand out to me. Both movies have pretty good sound tracks and visuals.

Volcano
Going into the creepy as fuck LA water ducts and and having to flee a oncoming wall of superheated volcanic gasses/magma. Literal stuff of nightmares.
Stan's sacrifice to save the conductor. Stuff of nightmares. One of the worst deaths I've seen in a blockbuster.

Dante's Peak
The couple going into the hot springs. Really fucking bad way to go.
The volcanology team having similar chemistry like the tornado chasers in Twister.
The boat beginning to sink into a lake of acid. Stuff of nightmares.
Dante's Peak exploding. Holy shit.

The one really dumb and unfortunate thing about this move - Driving the truck over the lava and not dying horribly.

 

[Chiggs]

Dante's Peak is the superior film, with a better overall cast, better visual effects, and a more plausible scenario. The mountain suddenly exploding was really quite something in the theater, and I would argue that the stubborn grandmother's death was just as agonizing as the "lava walk" scene in Volcano.

 

[ManaByte]

Dante's Peak had James Bond. It wins.

 

[T8SC]

Vs

 

[IDKFA]

Dante's Peak by a very large margin.

 

[Davey Cakes]

Dante's Peak really freaked me out as a kid. The hot spring scene in particular. Nightmare scenario.

 

[Hawking Radiation]

Dante's Peak by a country mile

The part in Volcano where the guy jumps first feet into the lava and then proceeds to toss the train driver body is just all kinds of hilarious. I always laugh at that part. The lava acted like creatine mixed with crack cocaine and gave him temporary super human abilities

 

[xrnzaaas]

don't hate me xD

 

[SinDelta]

don't hate me xD

I'll give 2012 kudos for having some of the best apocalyptic scenarios ever on screen. (Yellowstone Eruption, Mega Tsunamis).

 

[Codes 208]

Twister

 

[Fbh]

Dante's Peak is better in every way.

They just had these movies on that "VFX artists react" series on YouTube. Volcano has some cool stuff but some of the effects in Dante's Peak still look amazing today

 

[Tranquil]

Volcano

But I have bad taste in movies.

 

[Happosai]

Dante's Peak. I saw it on DirecTV pay-per-view shortly after it was released. I had the VHS release with a bonus "making of" featurette as an added bonus in the late 90's. After years of nearly forgetting the movie and moving to Mexico, I found it on DVD labeled "El Pico De Dante." Same movie, just the Latin American release. It was nice to watch it years later and finding my wife saw it years ago too on public television long before we knew each other.

I'm sure Volcano had something good about it but I don't remember it that well. I saw it once but about 15-minutes in. For a competing movie, I recall it having a different story.

 

[Torrent of Pork]

LA getting fucked up is like nasty clown porn for me, it wins by default.

 

[GymWolf]

Volcano for me, i love lava.

 

[lachesis]

I think I saw both, but I don't remember anything from either one of them!
Strange... I watched Deep Impact and Armageddon - and remember both pretty well. Hmm...

 

[octiny]

I give Dante's Peak a watch every few years. Holds up well, good movie.

 

[Kev Kev]

dantes peak was way better

 

[dispensergoinup]

I've seen neither of these films but that's about to change, thanks OP!

 

[AJUMP23]

Both of these are bad. The one where the LAVA is in LA is worse.

 

[MastaKiiLA]

Volcano is an awful awful awful awful awful awful awful awful awful awful fucking awful movie. OMG! I like bad movies, but Volcano is a disaster of a disaster flick.

So, Dante's Peak by default.

The problem with volcano films is that you really just have to get away from the thing, which is a makeable distance, unless you somehow took a bunch of ambien and slept through the start of the eruption. 2012 was a fun watch, because the volcanism was merely a backdrop to have the characters travel literally across the world to encounter multiple disasters. Dante's Peak isn't a good movie IMO, but it's watchable. Unlike Volcano which is one of the worst disaster movies I've ever seen. And I had the misfortune of paying to see it in the theater.

 

[rorepmE]

DP





it's miniatures btw, still holds up.

 

[Happosai]

I'll give 2012 kudos for having some of the best apocalyptic scenarios ever on screen. (Yellowstone Eruption, Mega Tsunamis).

I think the big difference between a 2009 film and something from around 1997 like Dante's Peak was that Hollywood was still filming using half-practical/lesser-half CGI. I think the darker look of traditional film vs. digital photography made the effect more real. To me that's why I can't really compare modern film effects to those being used 23 or more years ago. The mud slide scenes, parts of Dante's Peak, and some perspective shots of the town were constructed on a set.

Other note, did they ever remaster either films? Dante's Peak or Volcano? I don't recall ever seeing HD/UHD releases.

 

[Pegasus Actual]

I vote

 

[Pagusas]

Curious, did Twister have a competitor? I don’t remember one, but maybe it was just because the film was so good it destroyed it rival film.

 

[GamingKaiju]

Dante’s peak and it’s not even close.

 

[MadAnon]

Curious, did Twister have a competitor? I don’t remember one, but maybe it was just because the film was so good it destroyed it rival film.

I remember as a kid seeing a tornado movie on TV way before I saw Twister for the first time. It had a very similar story where they try to get some kind of machine into a tornado, if I remember correctly. After looking around it turned out to be a movie called Tornado! https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0117942/

Released basically at the same time as Twister.

 

[MastaKiiLA]

Curious, did Twister have a competitor? I don’t remember one, but maybe it was just because the film was so good it destroyed it rival film.

Into the Storm came out in 2014, and was its own kind of campy fun, just like Twister.

 

[INC]

Dante peak all day

 

[Great Hair]

Watched both, do not remember anything about them.

Volcano is far more entertaining of a watch. Tommy Lee Jones getting pissed off at the earth’s crust is priceless.

Spoiler

 

[xrnzaaas]

Into the Storm came out in 2014, and was its own kind of campy fun, just like Twister.

Into the Storm was a lot of dumb fun (the fire tornado lol), Twister is still a much better movie overall imo.

 

[QuantumZebra]

DP is the better film, Volcano is more fun to watch because it's dumber.

Ohhh I just thought of more dueling disaster films:

- Deep Impact
- Armageddon

They even have the same vibe, with DI being the more serious film and Armageddon being the popcorn epic (complete with Aerosmith and nuking asteroids!)

 

[Art.Menegatti]

Dante's Peak had James Bond. It wins.

And Sarah Connor.

 

[Happosai]

Curious, did Twister have a competitor? I don’t remember one, but maybe it was just because the film was so good it destroyed it rival film.

It did but the competitor was a made-for-TV movie called "Tornado" I recall. Tornado was pretty low-budget compared to Twister but based of the story on the real events of the creation of the T.O.T.O. device (which really existed). In Twister, they changed TOTO to Dorthy. There was also the TV movie "Night of the Twisters" but I don't think that was ever intented to be a competitor.

 

[EverydayBeast]

 

[Happosai]

I live near a very active volcano. So, I've seen some of it first hand.

 

[ArtemisClydeFrog]

This thread made me go watch Dante's Peak for the first time and it slapped, way better than Volcano from what I remember. Although the kid driving up an exploding volcano while he can't see a foot ahead of the truck because of the thick ash everywhere was absolutely ridiculous. Lots of cringe in the movie but it was hella entertaining.

 

[SantaC]

Dantes peak had peak Brosnan, and also had better atmosphere.

Great movie.