Directed by:
James GoldstoneCinematography:
Fred J. KoenekampComposer:
Lalo SchifrinCast:
Paul Newman, Jacqueline Bisset, William Holden, Edward Albert, Red Buttons, Barbara Carrera, Valentina Cortese, Veronica Hamel, Alex Karras, Burgess Meredith (more)Plots(1)
Fictitious disaster drama taking place on a South Pacific island resort, where an active, but supposedly non-dangerous, volcano is about to erupt near a brand new oil rig site, and ruin the livelihoods of all the inhabitants. The participants include: a wildcat oil driller and his ex-PR girlfriend (who left him but came back just in time to almost be annihilated by the once-dormant volcano); the wildcat oil driller's lying and adulterous partner; the millionaire hotel owner and his beautiful god daughter (married to the lying and adulterous partner); a hard-boiled detective tailing a Casper Milquetoast swindler; a retired high-wire husband and wife acrobatic act; and many more. (official distributor synopsis)
(more)Reviews (2)
For the entire hour (including commercials), I had been looking forward to the volcano finally erupting. When it did a lot of people perished, incredibly crazy special effects started appearing on the screen and the whole movie finally started developing. The giant tsunami wave that was headed for the city was the best thing to be seen in this movie. It seemed that the director was playing with the movie the way Ed Wood used to back in the day. But it went only downhill from there and the ending was traditional. The only significant strength of the movie is Paul Newman and Jacqueline Bisset.
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This is the movie equivalent of the "lava game", where you and your friends had to climb up some monkey bars, and if your feet touched the ground you were out. So compared to other disaster movies, unfortunately When Time Ran Out offers very little attractions to make the audience feel any sort of fear for the characters. If I did not feel nostalgic about this movie from my childhood, I would have probably been even stricter. At least the all-star cast makes this movie worth watching.
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