Product Details

• Actors: Paul Newman, Jacqueline Bisset, William Holden, Edward Albert, Red Buttons
• Directors: James Goldstone
• Writers: Carl Foreman, Gordon Thomas, Max Morgan Witts, Stirling Silliphant
• Producers: Al Gail, George E. Swink, Irwin Allen
• Format: Color, NTSC
• Rated: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Warner Home Video
• VHS Release Date: July 7, 1994
• Run Time: 121 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (51 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6300269000
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #222,054 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

The disaster movie cycle of the 1970s had just about, well, run out when this afterthought of a volcano flick opened in 1980. It reunited producer Irwin Allen, the man behind the biggest disaster pictures of the era, with his stars from The Towering Inferno, Paul Newman and William Holden (with Ernest Borgnine and Red Buttons, from The Poseidon Adventure, tossed in for good measure). Newman is an oilman drilling on a tropical island, with a volcano smoking away in disconcerting proximity; Jacqueline Bisset is the woman with whom he had something in the past; Holden is rich. The supporting cast is a typical Irwin Allen soup, with James Franciscus heading a project to send of probe into the volcano's core (or something), Veronica Hamel and Barbara Carrera as women in his life, and Borgnine and Buttons in an elliptical subplot about a cop shadowing a white-collar criminal. That leaves plenty of room for the likes of Alex Karras, Edward Albert, Pat Morita, and a pair of former trapeze artists played by Burgess Meredith and Valentina Cortese. The special effects are notably poor, and even the Hawaiian exteriors seem drab. The movie stupefyingly banks its big climax on the survivors crossing a particular bridge, which is being destroyed by hot lava as they traverse it; the lengthy sequence looks suspiciously like a cost-cutting measure to save money on volcano effects. Newman looks pretty embarrassed to be on board, as he should. If When Time Ran Out… is awful, its value for a bad-movie night selection should not be underestimated. This DVD release is 109 minutes, thus shorter than the original release (121 minutes) and also missing extra footage added for TV broadcast and previous home-video releases. Hard to believe anybody will miss it. --Robert Horton

Product Description

When a volcano erupts on an island resort, an oilman (Newman) leads a small group of people to safety.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Why NO EXPANDED EDITION on DVD Warner Bros????, February 17, 2009

By 

promnight13 - See all my reviews

This review is from: When Time Ran Out (DVD)

Very dissapointed in this release. Letterboxed presentation looks great but all previous VHS versions clocked in at 141 mins. The DVD is only 109 mins. A cars flying off a cliff, Alex Karras chasing around a rooster during an earthquake, more fireballs hitting near the hotel, and countless other scenes that made this disaster movie a extra campy disaster film are gone. What give Warner Home Video???

22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Bad News Not the full version!!, February 17, 2009

By 

Len D. Martin "mystery man" (houston,tx.) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: When Time Ran Out (DVD)

Sorry folks - This is not the 121 min. nor is it the 141 min. version
Warners has seen fit to release this in a 109 min. version - for what reason I do not know. SO Beware if yoy are looking for the most complete version

21 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good effects and cast in cheesy disaster fun, December 6, 2008

By 

Greg K - See all my reviews

This review is from: When Time Ran Out (DVD)

Not one of Irwin Allen's best, but overall a fun time with a huge all-star cast trying to escape peril from an erupting volcano. Good to see it arrive on DVD at last, but the mystery is why Warner Home Video isn't releasing the expanded 2 1/2 hour version they previously released on VHS, and which was shown on network television. They used the expanded version of The Swarm both on DVD and the older laserdisc releases (which actually made that one a much better movie), so since they're doing this release as part of a Paul newman tribute series, why the shortchanging for this movie when they obviously have the longer version in their archives?