Uriah43 With a budget of about $20 million and a cast that included Paul Newman, Ernest Borgnine and William Holden, this film should have been a blockbuster hit. Unfortunately, this was not the case. One reason for that may have been because there were too many big-name actors and not enough screen time to go around. As a result, certain characters weren't allocated enough time to develop in a meaningful way. For example, James Franciscus plays the part of a hotel owner named "Bob Spangler". He is married to "Nikki" (Veronica Hamel) and has a mistress named "Iolani" (Barbara Carrera). And while both of these actresses had interesting parts, neither of them were allowed to fulfill their potential in what little time they had. On the other hand, some actors got more attention than they deserved. The husband and wife high-wire team of "Rene Valdez" (Burgess Meredith) and "Rose Valdez" (Valentina Cortese) is a case in point. Not only did they not seem to fit in with the rest of the cast, but one of the ending scenes involving Rene Valdez was too obvious and pedestrian to merit being in a multi-million dollar film. Another big flaw revolves around the circumstances regarding another two characters: The first is "Mona" (Sheila Allen) who is the stereotypical helpless female that has to be coaxed and cajoled throughout the most harrowing parts of the film in order to survive. Quite annoying. The other character is an attractive blonde named "Marsha" (Glynn Rubin) who follows instructions without complaining and adds an interesting presence to the film. Unfortunately, Mona gets the character development and manages to survive while Marsha gets killed off within a very short time-frame. How disappointing. Add to that, the poor-quality special effects, boring scripts and weak directing (James Goldstone) and it's no wonder this film didn't generate excitement at the box office. And while Paul Newman, Jacqueline Bisset, James Franciscus and William Holden all performed their parts in a very professional manner, the rest of the cast simply didn't have the time or resources to elevate this movie to a satisfactory level. Again, this film should have been much better than it was and while it might help pass the time, there are other films out there that are much more entertaining.

Michael_Elliott 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.

mntwister I really can't see why this movie gets such low ratings. The suspense is great, the special effects very good, the story decent, and it was a very enjoyable presentation on my 150" screen watching the new 2:35:1 widescreen DVD version, which was finally released a week ago (Feb.15 or so). All of the cast does a very good job, and this movie is MUCH better than many others getting even a 5 or 6 rating. I urge all of those who have not seen it to give it a chance, it's much better than some of the so-called "reviews" on here and is worth the 2 hours and 15 minutes. I'd like to see Hollywood make some more like this, with special effects today, disaster pics could be awesome. Plus, nothing like having an all-star cast unite for such a picture. To me, this film and The Swarm are much better than their IMDb ratings.

zardoz-13 "Rollercoaster" director James Goldstone's "When Time Ran Out," with Paul Newman, William Holden, Edward Albert, Ernst Borgnine, Veronica Hamel, Red Buttons, and Jacqueline Bisset, qualifies as just another Irwin Allen disaster movie. By this time, Allen's disaster movies had been nothing but disasters. While this one boasts a terrific cast, "When Time Ran Out" amounts to a tiresome bore. Interestingly enough, this was Irwin Allen's final theatrical feature film.The action occurs on an island that suspiciously resembles a cross-between of Hawaii and a studio backlot set. A papier-mâché volcano smolders ominously in the background for most of the film until it erupts. Sadly, the Carl Foreman & Stirling Silliphant screenplay, based on Gordon Thomas & Max Morgan Witt's novel "The Day the World Ended," never erupts.Oil man Hank Anderson (Paul Newman) warns tycoon Shelby Gilmore (William Holden), Kay Kirby (Jacqueline Bisset), and everybody else booked in Holden's luxury resort motel to clear out while the getting's good. Bob Spangler (James Franciscus) claims that Anderson doesn't know what he's talking about. Spangler insists that the volcano won't blow. Not surprisingly, the volcano does blow, and Gilmore along with a host of others escape to higher ground after crossing a rugged obstacle course. In one scene, they must traverse a rickety old bridge over a stream of molten lava.If you've seen one disaster movie, you've seen them all. This muddled epic bristles with cardboard characters, predictable scripting (by two really good writers) and phony special effects. As for the title, Allen should have altered it. Time doesn't run out in "When Time Ran Out," it drags out!