Kelly Roark: "Paper beats rock, but scissors beat paper."
Tommy: "I'm not paper; I'm lava... what beats lava?"
Kelly Roark: "My dad... I hope!"
"The coast is toast" went the tagline in this red hot disaster movie featuring Tommy Lee Jones as an emergency services chief trying to save the good citizens of Los Angeles from erupting tar pits.
Triggered by an earthquake, these unleash a torrent of molten lava which do for a gang of workers in a storm drain in McArthur Park. Soon the whole city is under threat from the river of fire coursing down Wilshire Boulevard. And there's the big fear a volcano may be forming underground.
Inventive special effects - the lava was primarily made of methylcellulose, the thickening agent used in fast-food milkshakes, and the ash was made mostly of ground newspaper - plus able playing from Jones and Anne Heche lift this above the norm.
