I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

Irwin Allen brought the 1970s disaster-film cycle to an inglorious end with 1980's "When Time Ran Out". As usual, Irwin signed several prominent actors to the production, including Paul Newman, Ernest Borgnine, Jacqueline Bisset, William Holden, James Franciscus, Red Buttons, Barbara Carrera, Burgess Meredith, and even Alex Karras.The film opens and proceeds according to Allen's established formula. First, everyone is vacationing at an island resort and all is well. Then, a volcano violently erupts, endangering the resort and causing the smart people to flee for their lives. Third, a group of brave survivors fights huge odds to escape, losing many members of their little band to gruesome deaths (including predictable falls into molten lava). In a usual Allen plot device, the slimy villain (in this case James Franciscus) dies a spectacular death.Allen's last disaster epic received horrible reviews, bombed at the box office, and disappeared from theaters in a big hurry. There's a reason for that—it just isn't very good. Still, it's fun to watch this great cast and to try to guess who's going to die next. You know that Newman and Bisset will survive, and you know that Franciscus won't, but the survivors' trek is entertaining. Maybe if you find this movie in the DVD bargain bin for $2.99, it might be worth watching.

Wow, what can I say? Never have I seen such an appalling movie come out of a major studio. How this film ever got into theater's is simply beyond me. Direct-to-video would have been more appropriate with the director opting for an "Alan Smithee" credit to spare the embarrassment. There is not a single redeeming value to be found in this horrendous piece of clap-trap. The acting is deplorable, the script is inane, the sets look like left-overs from Fantasy Island, the dialog is awful (and, at times, unintentionally hilarious) and the "special" effects are unspeakably bad. To approach this movie with the expectation of seeing a good feature film is utter lunacy. The only way to watch this movie is to take it for what it is. A joke.Let's begin with the special effects, shall we? According to IMDb, When Time Ran Out... was filmed on a budget of over 20 million dollars. You will have a VERY hard time believing this after witnessing the not-so-special effects presented here. They could not possibly have cost more than a few dollars. For the daytime shots, the volcano is a painting matted onto the frame, with black diesel smoke being emitted from behind it. During nighttime, the volcano is shown via stock footage, which doesn't even resemble the original volcano seen during daytime. And don't even get me started on the climactic scene in which the resort explodes in a massive fireball. Let's just say I've seen more convincing special-effects in episodes of Bewitched.The script? Horrendous. From dialog to storyline, the script is riddled with clichés and fails to deliver anything even closely resembling quality entertainment. I actually cringed when some of the characters delivered their lines. Try not to laugh as Holden spouts lines such as "Nicki dear, we have to get out of here, the volcano's pouring lava this way!". James Franciscus's overblown dialog is particularly amusing ("There's not going to be any evacuation!!"). The scene that takes the cake for being the most cringe-worthy is the beach scene with Newman and Bisset. This scene will have you searching frantically for your remote to hit fast-forward.As many other users have already said, the plot recycles ideas from many of Allen's previous disaster movies and relies HEAVILY on clichés. And since the budget for special effects was clearly non-existent, the director opted to film endless footage of actors reacting to off-screen calamities while blaring melodramatic music in the background. In fact, about half this movies running time is composed of actors making faces into the camera. The scene in which the all-star cast journeys to the other side of the island by car is particularly noteworthy. It consists of 10 full minutes of actors sitting in cars, staring into space or at each other, while trying hard not to actually say anything. Somebody actually got paid to write this?As you may have already guessed, many aspects of the movies storyline are utterly absurd. Here are a few examples that will have you roaring with laughter or just leave you scratching your head…1) There is a laboratory perched right ON THE LIP of an ACTIVE volcano. Who would spend millions of dollars to build this?! As expected, the place is vaporized when the volcano erupts.2) The volcano will occasionally spew meteor-like lava balls which only hit the luxury hotel. Furthermore, the lava balls do only minor damage while the all-star cast is in the hotel, but when they have reached a safe location the lava balls cause the entire hotel to explode, killing everyone inside. Very inconsistent.3) The volcano creates a tidal wave which comes TOWARDS the island. It ravages every part of the coastline except where the luxury hotel is located. How convenient.4) The all-star cast is forced to cross a rickety bridge over a river of what is apparently cold lava (a scene that takes a FULL 20 MINUTES to complete). Anyone who took high school physics class would know that the bridge and anyone/anything on it would be incinerated by the heat radiating from the magma but clearly logic is not a concern in this movie. Why they have to cross the damn thing is never explained either. Action for the sake of action I suppose. Once they cross it, they walk a few feet to a cave where they hide out for the rest of the movie.5) Jacqueline Bisset adopts a completely different hairstyle midway through the film. Just how long did the production stall on this thing?! The acting in this movie is appalling. Newman barely acts and looks extremely uncomfortable just being there. Bisset fails spectacularly at trying to act sexy (it looks more like she has gas) and the way she delivers many of her lines is awkward. Holden, a legendary actor, gives what is no doubt the worst performance of his career. Franciscus overacts to the point of insanity and the rest of the cast is not even worth mentioning. They're just a bunch of television stars who are used to appearing in crap like this.The cinematography is pathetic. Our director, James Goldstone, has seemingly achieved the impossible: making a tropical island look ugly. Seriously, this movie has almost no visual appeal to it, making it all the more painful to endure. It's also blatantly obvious that many of the "outdoor" scenes were filmed on a sound-stage.Shockingly, When Time Ran Out… was nominated for an Academy Award (for best costume design anyway). Despite the (undeserved) nomination, this movie is not recommended unless you are looking for a few unintentional laughs. The only good thing that can be said about this travesty is that it (mercifully) ended the "disaster movie craze" of the 1970's. For that reason alone, this movie gets 2 stars instead of 1.

I just saw this film again on TV after many years, i had forgotten how bad it really was........probably the most star studded cast in the worst movie i have ever seen.........full of third rate special effects and unintended comic moments.......poor Ernie Borgnine,now gone to that big studio in the sky, is forced to wander around blindfolded thru the whole film, looking embarrassed just to be there......and so much seemed to be borrowed from better films like "Poseidon Adventure" and "Towering Inferno" like the scene where the helicopter is hijacked and then predictably, crashes, killing all aboard....or the interminable crossing of the creaky wooden bridge, which proves to be a deathtrap for about half of the survivors...........and when the entire resort hotel explodes from a single fireball at the end of the film like a bomb, its just hilarious.

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!