Why don't they make great disaster films anymore?

I think only two disaster films were worthwhile, but they were both excellent: Irwin Allen's "The Poseidon Adventure" and "The Towering Inferno." The other disaster films were mediocre to pretty awful, suffering from weak screenplays and cast largely with TV "stars" and movie has-beens.

I don't categorize "Airport" as a disaster film, for reasons I've stated on other threads.

I HATED "Speed," or as I immediately re-named it, "The Flying Bus Movie."

Volcano, Seep Impact, Dantes Peak Armaggeddon, and all those Lions' Gate dvds anout black holes run amok and superstorms, etc. They just don't have the glitz of "The Towering Inferno" or the event marketing of Earthquake. I'll still watch all those mini series on NBC cuz disaster movies are fun but it would be great to see an old fashioned Irwin Allen style extravaganza on the big screen

Not to be too obvious, but - because there are enough disasters in real life?

After 9/11, at least in my mind, it became difficult to see any disaster in a fictional production.

Certainly, a story such as airport would not be well received today as it was in 1970, for the same reasons...

The same was (or is) true of non-violent disaster films such as Titanic (non-violent in that the cause was accidential, rather than intentional) - I've never watched Titanic all the way through, especially during the sinking, since I believe it is improper for anyone to be entertained over a film that makes a fictional story (in this case, a love story) of what amounted to horrible real-life suffering.

Personally, I don't think any one of us would want our terrible moments of suffering made into something that the public would use as "popcorn" entertainment...

For a disaster movie to 'work' anymore, I think there needs to be more creativity than all this recycling. I thought the recent Poseidon was terrible compared to the original Poseidon Adventure. But what kind of disaster is left to be creative with? Plane crashes, high-rise fires, earthquakes, tornados, .... have all been done. The world left with a handful of survivors is sci-fi/Twilight Zone stuff, and there were enough monsters and giant freaks to fill a Blockbuster store decades ago. I can't think of a film in which a criminal gang got hold of an H-bomb, but there has likely been one or more; besides all the analogies of nuclear power in the giant freak movies.

Maybe a space-shuttle-for-passengers film (no Land of the Giants scenario :) ], in which it's nearly impossible to re-enter without being incinerated, could be something like the next decent disaster film.

Hi Joshf84,

In your original post you mentioned you loved all three Airport films, but there were actually four films made to this series: "Airport." "Airport 1975," "Airport '77," and "The Concorde - Airport '79." I just wanted to point this out to you in case you missed seeing all of them. However, I have to warn you: "The Concorde - Airport '79" is absolutely awful, lol.

i have wondered The same

They don't make Disaster films anymore, because in The 70's Disaster Movies were the "In" thing, now a days "Disaster" films rely too much on CGI effects and big named stars.

OK I'm a big fan of the genre, but mainly for its heyday. Poseidon Adv. is one of my very favorite films of all times, but I have a strong affection for most all of them, and strong opinions about which ones were decent or good, which ones lame but still fun, and wont bore anyone w/ that right now. Of the newer ones, though, the only one I've seen that captured a bit of that old-time (old time, the 70s, ha!) mystique, for lack of a better word, was, believe it or not, "Daylight," the one about the drivers stuck in tunnel under the East River. Maybe not quite all-star, but all the elements or trapped people racing against time, interesting escapes and non-escapes, who will get out, which major characters wont, etc. Even a full old timers like Claire Bloom to class up the production. And Stallone has been worse in other things. Give that one a shot if you havent seen it. Among airliner in distress films, I thought, somehow, that "Executive Decision" was a full notch above any others of recent vintage. Big sprwawling cast, lots of drama and good set-pieces, and even Marla Maples as a stewardness. I mean you need SOME camp factor in there. It's a good one, although much better , as all these are, on big screen. Even it even foreshadowed elements of 9/11, which now gives an eerie prescience.