I wonder how many people will be confusing the RING OF FIRE mini-series with that RING OF FIRE movie starring Jewel (which I wonder if it is better than the unrelated mini-series I am reviewing here).  The RING OF FIRE mini-series has flaws and takes an hour to get going after a very slow first hour and some clichés like the father- daughter conflict and the hero having an inoperable aneurism in his head.  The father Oliver Booth (Terry O’Quinn) is head of a big oil company that wants to drill really deep under a picture perfect Oregon small town while his daughter is part of an environmental group that wants to shut down the drilling.  Meanwhile, someone working at the drilling site is worried that they’re drilling too deep which comes to the attention of Booth’s daughter and Dr. Matthew Cooper (Michael Vartan)- the expert who says the drilling site is safe.   It all leads the drilling starting a volcanic chain reaction which is start of the volcanic chain of volcanoes known in the world as the Ring of Fire.  If the Ring of Fire erupts, it is an extinction level event (ELE) and it is up to Dr. Cooper to find a way to vent the first series of eruptions in the area of the small Oregon town.  Meanwhile, the son of Booth’s daughter is out on a field trip and a school bus of kids gets trapped.

RING OF FIRE is at its best when the disaster drama happens, but the first hour is just a drag and sometime the mini-series gets a little too melodramatic.  I do wish they had written a better wrap up to the conclusion and edited together a better conclusion to part one of the two part mini-series.   Terry O’Quinn and Michael Vartan are great in this one, but I wish they had hired someone better to write the script and maybe even edit down the whole thing by 20 to 30 minutes.   The real star of RING OF FIRE is all the chaos that erupts about an hour into part one and the effort to survive this disaster.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

Just previews (before the main menu) and a sneak peek of the first ten minutes of EVE OF DESTRUCTION which are more exciting than the first ten minutes of RING OF FIRE

FINAL ANALYSIS:  RING OF FIRE does have its moments as a mini-series even though it is a little too slow for the first hour and rely on too much melodrama (instead of a better script and/or tighter editing).

This DVD review is (c)6-9-2013 David Blackwell and cannot be reprinted without permission.  Send all comments to feedback@enterline-media.com

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