Apocalypse Pompeii

Apocalypse Pompeii is a production of The Asylum—a film production company known for making so-called 'mockbusters'. These mockbusters are films that are released to coincide with the release of big studio epics in order to capitalize on the hubbub surrounding the big-budget movies. They feature titles that are VERY similar to the bigger films—and the movie poster for Apocalypse Pompeii looks an awful lot like that of the upcoming Pompeii! A few other examples of their films are Atlantic Rim, Death Racers, American Battleship, Snakes on a Train…and many others. They also are the same folks who have given us the Sharknado franchise. Because of this, it's obvious the film will have a low budget and very modest pretensions—and most likely will be a film you'll see coming direct to DVD. Despite all this, it is surprising to see that the film actually was shot, in part, in Pompeii as well as…Bulgaria?! Also, the plot is radically different from Pompeii—with the big budget film being set in ancient times and the mockbuster being set in the present.

The film begins with a prologue showing some Hispanic family fleeing in terror from a volcano eruption. Oddly, however, this has almost nothing to do with the film—a film set on the other side of the globe in Italy! After the credits roll, you see a family in Naples. The father has a business meeting and he's brought his wife and teenage daughter with him. While he's at his big meeting, the rest of the family goes to an outing to nearby Pompeii—site of a huge mega-explosion that killed thousands in 79 A.D.. Not surprisingly, soon after the pair arrives at Pompeii, the mountain explodes—and folks run for cover. Fortunately for those who teamed up with the wife and daughter is the fact that the teen knows MORE about volcanoes and how to survive them than a team of volcanologist!! This all-knowing girl, again and again, knows EXACTLY what to do and helps this group survive long enough for the father to become a Rambo-like action hero! The dad (of course) is some sort of ex-military genius and he instantly assembles a team to help him steal a helicopter from a military base (!!) and head to Pompeii to look for his family. If it sounds like the plot is stupid and filled with significant plot problems, then you are pretty much right on the mark!

So is the film 100% bad? No. As I mentioned above, it does have some actual footage of Pompeii. It also keeps your interest, as the pace and music work fairly well and SOME of the acting is competent. Unfortunately, the plot is stupid and the characters are shallow—often coming off as caricatures. I wouldn't rush out to buy a copy or rent the film. Instead, I'd wait until it most likely shows up on the SyFy Channel and watch it if you have absolutely nothing else to do (and that includes washing your hair, checking your air conditioner filters and breathing).

This is a very low budget spaghetti movie, with the cheapest and worst special effects I have ever seen... the 30s called their special effects back ;)

Things are falling throughout the city, however the buildings and walls are not damaged in process. The English is lousy, the action is dull, the actors are boring, oh the horror. Action is slow, is there a plot line?

Couldn't be bored to watch more than 10 minutes.

Is this a movie, or some torture? Don't watch it, a waste of time. Words can not really describe how bad it is. Find some other movie.

I liked the movie about as much as I liked any Asylum movie and that is to say pretty well. You have to know what you are getting into here with these kinds of movies and not have your expectations set so high is basically my opinion. Sure we can go through and ask why didn't they do this and why didn't they do that and why were the special effects worse than many video games and why was did the acting inspire me to think that maybe I could be an actor too if that's all it takes but you just have to set all that aside when you sit down to watch these movies and just take pleasure in them for what they are, a mildly entertaining distraction but one that like a book challenges you to use your own imagination a bit more than your Hollywood blockbusters that allow you to just sit back and have yourself fully immersed in the experience with little to no effort required on your part. Anyway, my advice is to substantially lower your expectations and then you will enjoy your movie much more. It's what I do and I've yet to be disappointed.

Seriously. If you set out to make the worst movie ever you could not do a better job than this. Even the workman-like acting and confusing accent of Adrian Paul, the commanding presence of John Rhys-Davies and the awesome bust of the lovely Georgina Beedle could not save this travesty of a movie. Truly one of the most appalling things ever committed to film. There are so many things wrong with it that it boggles the mind. It makes a Troma film seem positively Shakespearean. Where to start? The writing is probably the worst part of this, the story horrible, the "science" idiotic and the dialogue just plain stupid,followed by the wretched "sets." No doubt hundreds of dollars were spent on sets and special effects. I honestly felt embarrassed for the producers of this travesty, it was so bad. Stay away.

Now I know that The Asylum is known for churning out B movies But this pile of crap will go down in the history books as the worst movie ever made. The Plot Mother Father Daughter are in Italy as the father has a meeting,The reason for this meeting I could not tell you or I was so board by the first few minutes I could have missed it. Also watch out for the Briefcase in the first 10 minutes that gave me a good laugh (you will see why if you watch it) So Mother and Daughter take a tour bus to Pompeii Volcano erupts they get trapped,Now why the tour guide did not take them back to the bus when this happened is a mystery only the Director knows the answer. Now the Father seeing the eruption from a window quickly grabs his Briefcase and goes out to rescue them.

Do yourselves a favor watch Plan 9 From Outer Space instead

-100 out of 10