It’s really a shame that, as with Dying of the Light, it’s unlikely we’ll ever see what director Gee Malik Linton’s original movie was like although I have read some have seen his cut. Instead, we get a hodge-podge mess of a film slapped together by the studio and the result was an utter mess of a film.
Volcano isn’t exactly a memorable disaster movie as it utilizes every cliché in the book but Tommy Lee Jones, Anne Heche and, to a lesser extent, Don Cheadle, each give admirable performances slugging through stilted dialogue and utterly laughable situations. Still, it’s passable entertainment but don’t go in, or leave, with anything more than what it is.
The Rum Diary is the kind of film that doesn’t linger after it’s over. It’s not bad enough to mock or good enough to recommend, it kind of is just… there. Depp delivers another good performance but even he can’t save an undercooked screenplay.