When Time Ran Out... (1980)

Too much of everything

Absolutely the worst movie.

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

You gotta hand it to Irwin Allen, he believed he could continue producing disaster themed movies in the 80's, even though everyone knew that the genre's best days were long behind it. Right up to 1983's Cave In, he strived to capture the heady heyday of Messrs Poseidon Adventure and Towering Inferno in the 70's. When Time Ran Out saw him throw all his budget on a star cast and hoped that would be enough? It wasn't.Plot basically follows standard disaster movie formula, a bunch of people are introduced to us, each with on going "issues" that keep the human interest factor on the high heat. Then a disaster strikes, in this case a volcano erupting on a Pacific Island, cue panic, arguments and little groups forming as they go about their attempts to survive death's scythe. Some will make it, some will not, but hopefully there will be great edge of seat drama in the process.When Time Ran Out has a couple of good sequences that stop it being a flat out stinker as such, some Helicopter shenanigans and a finale involving a crumbling bridge over a molten lava river, are enjoyable, especially when you got the likes of Paul Newman, William Holden and Burgess Meredith taking it all seriously! But the cheap photographic effects are laughable and really take you out of the movie, with the repeat shot of the volcano erupting looking like a Bunsen Burner alight behind a painting being particularly cheesy.It has always been a much maligned genre anyway, but there were some great films produced that brought joy to many film fans (myself included), unfortunately When Time Ran Out is one entrant that has left an indelible garbage stain upon disaster movies. 5/10

In my rankings of Newman's output, this is rock bottom. I'm a big fan and my heart goes out to the man, retrospectively, because he will have known from day one that he had become embroiled in the turkey of all turkeys. Almost every aspect of the film is woeful. The set, the melodrama, the 2-dimensional characters, the frankly appalling acting from almost everyone. Newman stands head an shoulders above the others, but even he looks uncomfortable the whole way through as cliché is piled on cliché. Do you know, the climax is an interminable crossing a wooden bridge over a lava flow with people falling through slats and every other predictable event you can imagine. But the funniest moment is after that when the survivors are in a cave and one of the female bit parts is standing there as if she's at a cocktail party. They must have all have been giving up by then.

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 watched this movie when I was a kid and I was fascinated by the special effects and acting. I've heard some bad reviews about it but the critics who gave it bad reviews were probably time wasters. I would say the best part of the movie is when the hotel blows up at the end, HOW SPECTACULAR! The acting was good, the special FX were good and the plot was excellent. I haven't read the book but haven't been able to get hold of it. I think every-part of this movie counts and every scene is greater than the last. I like this movie because 1) it is a disaster movie, which I worship, 2) it is about a volcano, which is a recipe for disaster, and 3) the acting is just super.