WHEN TIME RAN OUT... (1980)

Note to self: never build a resort hotel next to a volcano.

Holden and Newman are back together again, baby!!!  Hell yeah.  This time, instead of fighting a towering inferno, they're fighting, well, actually they're just running like hell from a pissed off volcano.  And that's about it.  The End.

WHEN TIME RAN OUT... is alright.  I don't like the three dots at the end of the title, but the location photography in Hawaii is beautiful and the build-up stuff is fun.  William Holden is a rich dude and very busy, so when his hotel manager guy, James Franciscus, tells him everything is okay, he believes him.  So what if the volcano right next door to the hotel is smoking and lava's bubbling like it's a fucking witches cauldron.  That's nature, baby!

And the volcano ain't the only thing blowing it's load around here...Holden proposes to his secretary (Jacqueline Bisset), but she's secretly seeing local oil man (Paul Newman); Franciscus is cheating on his wife (Holden's goddaughter) with a hotel employee who happens to be engaged to another employee who is secretly Franciscus' illegitimate half-brother!!!  What the hell?  That's a lot to take in.  It's awesome and so pointless!  I love it.

Poor looking special effects, medium pace that actually gets slower as the film goes on, random tidal wave, Jacqueline Bisset in a low cut t-shirt, people crowding a helicopter like it's a zombie movie, zero nudity, a glass-bottomed elevator thing that actually lowers people down into the volcano(!!!), lava bombs, silly story.  Honestly, the best thing about WHEN TIME RAN OUT... is the cast.  The movie's not very good (it kinda feels like an old made-for-TV movie), but it's fun watching all of these big names running around.  (Red Buttons' speed walk is goddamn hilarious!)  I have no regrets about watching it and will most likely watch it again occasionally...at least the first two acts.  The third kinda stunk. 

Rumor has it WHEN TIME RAN OUT... had a budget of $20 million and brought in less than $4 million at the box office.  Ouch.

Post-review thoughts: I have absolutely nothing to back this up, but while watching the film, I kept thinking to myself that the character of Mona seemed like it would be perfect for Shelley Winters.  The actress even seemed to act a little bit like Shelley, at least to me.  It wasn't until later that I discovered the actress, Sheila Allen, was actually producer Irwin Allen's wife.

THE TOWERING INFERNO (1974)

THE TOWERING INFERNO never got quite as epic as the posters promised, but it is a fun ride and the 165-minute run time flies by.

Paul Newman is the architect for a new 138 floor skyscraper in San Francisco.  The building is his baby, he knows it inside and out, but then right before the big grand opening with a party in the Promenade Room on the top floor, he discovers that some of the electrical wiring he demanded was replaced with shoddy second-rate stuff that can't withstand the awesome load of such an awesome building!  Oh shit.  Naturally, a fire breaks out on the 81st floor.  This traps the partiers on the 135 floor, so now at the 43-minute mark enters badass fire chief Steve McQueen to do what bad ass fire chiefs do: fight fires, talk sternly, save lives left and right, tie himself to a pole, stare down an elevator shaft, ride on a wire underneath a helicopter, talk to O.J. Simpson without suffering a 14 cm-long (5.5 inches) gash across their throat, set off massive explosions with C4, get drenched in water, pat people on the shoulder and repeatedly bitch at Paul Newman for building skyscrapers too damn tall!  When will you ever learn?!!

Out of all the 1970's disaster movies I've seen, THE TOWERING INFERNO is probably the most exciting.  And the one I revisit the most.  Quick pace, good special effects, above average acting, the term "breeches buoy" used a lot, McQueen barking orders all over the place, control panels full of lights, McQueen and Newman with the exact same amount of lines, C4, awesome supporting cast.

Required viewing for fans of vintage disaster movies. I'd absolutely love to see a serious reboot of this story. Even an animated version that tries to match that badass poster artwork would be awesome!