Movie Review: Miami Magma

Miami Magma a.k.a World on Fire a.k.a Swamp Volcano 

Active Entertainment, Bullet Films, Syfy, USA, 2011. 

Near Miami evil oil company drills too deep and hits a magma reservoir. The oil rig explodes. Oil company CEOs Jacob Capilla (Brad Dourif) and Ray Miller (Cleavant Derricks) try to cover up the accident, because they were drilling illegally. Vulcanologist Antoinette Vitrini (Rachel Hunter) plans a field trip to nearby swamp that she suspects to the location of an ancient super volcano. Hence the alternative name "Swamp Volcano!" Her sister Emily (Melissa Ordway) is a student who has a crush on Antoinette's research partner Brandon (Griff Furst). The results of the field trip are confusing. Also one unlucky student gets left behind and he is boiled in hot water, however no one seems to even notice that he disappeared. 

Antoinette Vitrini

Emily

Ray Miller and Jacob Capilla

Antoinette's old flame Dr. Brad Turner (J.D. Evermore) appears and has some news. Brad reveals that Holter oil company is drilling near lava tubes and they have also hacked into Antoinette's geological data. Then the volcano starts to erupt and hot steam breaks havoc at bikini contest. Meanwhile the oil company bosses twirl their moustaches and pump more oil. Antoinette wants answers and tries to hack oil company computers with a hacking device that is probably the worst hidden spying device in the history of cinema. Oil company sends hired killer Butch Sanderson (Miles Doleac) after her. 

Brandon Rice

Dr. Brad Turner

Lava starts to rise and the city is threatened. Antoinette's team tries to stop the volcano with National Guard. However evil Ray Miller still tries to cover up the whole mess.

Miami Magma!

The acting is decent but the story is usual catastrophe film stuff. However there are some twists in the story. Some disaster scenes could be cool if they weren't realized so half-heartedly. Also the fate of some disaster victims is left annoyingly open. For example what happened to the girl who tried to escape the steam tsunami by diving underwater. Did she survive or not? The science is silly with Syfy physics and unrealistic lava effects. The cinematography is decent with nice aerial views of Miami. As far as the Syfy-productions go this is quite average, not so bad it is good but not a good movie either. 

Rating: Bad (for a low budget TV-movie) 

Starring:  Anna Adair, Stacey Asaro, Cleavant Derricks, Joseph Diaz, Miles Doleac, Brad Dourif, J.D. Evermore, Griff Furst, Lauren Graham, Rachel Hunter, Mayra Leal, Lawrence LeJohn, Hector Machado ,Bryan Massey, Wallace Merck, Melissa Ordway, Crystal Rivers, Roger J. Timber, Angela Meredith
Furst, Owen Davis, Emily D. Haley, Nick Jones Jr., Vlado Mihailov, Melody Noel, Tony Severio, Atanas Srebrev 

Director: Todor Chapkanov