Truly Dreadful Film

Sadly Over-hyped

It's no definitive masterpiece but it's damn close.

Fantastic!

Before Monday 26th May 2014, I had no idea that this film existed, so as soon as I saw the synopsis, the cast, and the fact that it was on at a really peculiar time, had me very intrigued.It's another one of those wonderful disaster movies that were made in the seventies and the early eighties which were hugely popular to begin with, and them became just like their budgets, not very big.And here the lack of budget is evident.To summarise it quickly, lots of famous people take a holiday on an island with an active volcano. The owners reckon that the volcano is safe, but Paul Newman lands his helicopter there, wearing the same clothes he had on in The Towering Inferno, and the volcano loses it.and that's the film.Is it good? no, but for heavens sake, it's a lot of fun to watch.it's the case of Allen making each obstacle just that little more difficult to get past, and ensuring he's always got a lot of high wattage bulbs at hand, to shine them in actors faces, depicting hot rocks hurtling toward them.it's the Poseiden adventure with a tan, and Newman looks totally bewildered as to why he did this movie, for the duration of the film.The rest of the cast are pure filler, but it's funny to watch Mr Miyagi fall slowly into a red lake.A wonderful find, especially if you like literal disasters.But a lot more fun than Dante's Peak and Volcano

Lately and for no apparent reason, I find myself to be quite massively obsessed with disaster movies from the 70's decade. These flicks guarantee spectacular action and thrills but, admittedly, it's also a sub genre that can all too easy be labeled as inferior and derivative. It's undeniable that you can summarize practically all 70's disaster movies by listing just a handful of recurring trademarks. #1: without producer Irwin Allen, there wasn't a budget for special effects and thus no movie. #2: all disaster movies star one major star (especially Charlton Heston and Paul Newman were prime choices) and a long list of "secondary" stars (like Ernest Borgnine, Leslie Nielsen,…). #3: The characters are usually split into two camps with completely opposite ideals and/or initiatives. The camp with the lead star is obviously the triumphant camp. #4: Regardless what type of disaster we're dealing with, variants of the exact same perilous situations are always applicable. #5: always remember that, when the situation appears to be at it worst, it can and will still get even worse! Not coincidentally, "When Time Ran Out" answers to ALL the above trademarks and thus ranks as the ultimately clichéd disaster flick. This shouldn't come as too much as a surprise as the film was released in 1980, which is more than half a decade after the disaster movie hype was at its peak. Paul Newman stars as the robust macho workman Hank Anderson drilling for oil on a Pacific island that is particularly famous for its tropical holiday resort run by the stubborn and obnoxious island patriarch Brian Franciscus. Everyone's victorious when Newman and C° hit the black gold jackpot, but he warns about the oil's pressure causing the island's volcano to regain activity. Almost everybody disregards Hank's warnings, even when the volcano does erupt and spits out flaming balls of fire. Anderson eventually gathers a small group of intelligent people to flee towards higher grounds, but the majority of tourists and workmen stupidly remain at the resort to await a certain and painful death. "When Time Ran Out" is a bad movie mainly because the characters are walking, talking caricatures and never cease to take really stupid decisions. Take Brian Franciscus, for example. He refuses to leave or even stop the drillings because he desperately wants to prove to his father that he's a successful businessman and resort owner. But his father is dead and all that remains of him is a stern portrait on the wall. The tourists are even worse. Franciscus initially assures them the volcano will not erupt. He was wrong. Later on, he assures them the volcano won't be spitting out any fireballs. He was wrong again. Finally he claims the volcanic lava will never reach the resort and these idiots still believe him! Wouldn't it be smarter to stay close to the guy who has been right about the volcano since the beginning? I guess not, since only the actors with a slightly bigger paycheck accompany Paul Newman on the perilous journey across the island. I didn't think it was possible, but the script becomes even dumber from then onwards. There's a tidal wave approaching the island even though it should go the other direction and into the ocean and Newman's group shrinks in number due to some textbook clichés like steep rocks and ramshackle wooden bridges over lava rivers. If all this isn't trite enough for you just yet, we still have some additional clichés on sale, like the elderly who sacrifices his life to rescue a child, the triangular relationship between the hero, the millionaire and the hot rebellious girl and the ridiculously abrupt ending. There is one remotely ingenious sub plot that is worth mentioning, however. Ernest Borgnine plays a cop indiscreetly following around a fraudulent banker, but during the environmental disaster they become close friends and dependent on each other. In conclusion: "When Time Ran Out" is literally a disaster of film. It's a volcanic eruption of derivative ideas, predictable moves and cheesy effects. But, on the other hand, I didn't get bored for one second throughout the entire 121 minutes of running time and that alone might be worth a recommendation!

When Time Ran Out... (1980)* (out of 4) Irwin Allen had a string of disaster hits but things started to fall apart with THE SWARM, which was followed by the questionable BEYOND THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE. The final nail in the coffin came with this truly embarrassing work that managed to get several Oscar-winners cashing a check. What we basically have here is a reworked version of THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE where a group of people must try and reach safety after a mammoth volcano goes off. The dummies stay back at a hotel, which we all know if going to kill them while the smart ones, led by Paul Newman, must try and reach safety across the island. Not only do we get Newman but the cast includes William Holden, Ernest Borgnine, Red Buttons, Jacqueline Bisset, Edward Albert, Alex Karras, Burgess Meredith and Pat Morita. I've heard that a majority of these stars were under contract to Allen for one final picture so that might explain why they put their name on this mess but of course it could be because of the paycheck. Either way, this disaster film is a complete disaster from start to finish and I must admit that I'm very happy to have only watched the 108-minute version on the DVD. I had previous seen the extended version but the shorter version is always going to work best because of how bad the film is. For starters, the story is pretty much a straight rip of THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE and features many of the same plot points including Meredith's character filling the shoes of Shelley Winters' from that film. We get Newman doing the Hackman role and we even have Borgnine playing a cop here. Even if the story wasn't so poor, the real shock here are the special effects, which are pretty bad. The blue screen is so obvious especially in scenes showing off the volcano. Just check out the tidal wave sequence, which is a real head scratcher because we don't see very much of it and what we do see appears to have the actors standing still and someone throwing a bucket of water on them. The director doesn't have any luck at building suspense even though we get three extremely long and at times laughable sequences. One happens towards the start of the film when three men, including Newman, go down in the volcano. Another happens during the tidal wave but the biggest and most questionable happens at the end when all the survivors must walk across a bridge that is falling apart as lava flows beneath it. This should have made for a great sequence but instead it goes on so long that you can't help but lose interest and hope that people start falling. The performances are among some of the blandest that the great cast have ever turned in but, according to legend, apparently Newman started up his Newman's Own brand with the money he made off of this. In the end, this is certainly one of the worst disaster movies out there but fans of the cast and genre will probably still want to check it out just so they can talk about how bad it is.

I really can't see why this movie gets such low ratings. The suspense is great, the special effects very good, the story decent, and it was a very enjoyable presentation on my 150" screen watching the new 2:35:1 widescreen DVD version, which was finally released a week ago (Feb.15 or so). All of the cast does a very good job, and this movie is MUCH better than many others getting even a 5 or 6 rating. I urge all of those who have not seen it to give it a chance, it's much better than some of the so-called "reviews" on here and is worth the 2 hours and 15 minutes. I'd like to see Hollywood make some more like this, with special effects today, disaster pics could be awesome. Plus, nothing like having an all-star cast unite for such a picture. To me, this film and The Swarm are much better than their IMDb ratings.