Skyfire

It's all far more entertaining than it likely has any right to be.

It's no great leap forward in filmmaking, but the big-budget disaster movie "Skyfire" does prove that China is now capable of producing its own brand of utterly preposterous and enjoyably trashy popcorn entertainment for a global audience.

Won't erase memories of 'Dante's Peak' or 'Volcano,' and even they weren't very good.

It's extremely heroic and a lot of fun. I had a hoot!

It's dumb and cartoonish as can be and there's never a single moment in which you care at all about anything going on, not even when they drag in an endangered child in order to tug on the heartstrings.

Mostly this isn't the thrill-ride you might be hoping for. There's plenty of fire but, oddly, not much heat.

Skyfire is a disaster thriller composed of equal parts cheese and magma, but it's clearly trying to recreate the good vibrations of the original Jurassic Park.

Imagine the rumble of 70s disaster flicks like Earthquake with the nature-gone-wild plot of Jurassic Park and you'll get the idea.

Unless you speak the language, it may be unfair to judge the awkward dialogue. But what doesn't get lost in translation is a blazing rock crashing through a glass observatory, or a flow of molten lava swallowing everyone in its path.

Some peril, violence in volcano eruption disaster movie.