‘2012’: New Meaning to the Disaster Film

In a word… disappointing. Here’s my take on this sci-fi blockbuster wannabe.

Basic Plot:

In 2009 American geologist Adrian Helmsley (Chiwetel Ejiofor) discovers that the earth’s core is heating up and goes to warn U.S. President Thomas Wilson (Danny Glover) through White House Chief of Staff Carl Anheuser (Oliver Platt) about the terrifying ramifications: an apocalyse. But before a global plan can be implemented to save the earth from disaster, global quakes and tsunamis start destroying the world.

The 2010 G8 summit decides to create giant arks to save a select 400,000 people and several animals in hopes of salvaging some of the planet.

In the middle of this chaos, writer Jackson Curtis (John Cusack) is trying to enjoy an adventure with his kids in Yellowstone away from ex-wife Kate (Amanda Peet) when he stumbles upon a conspiracy theorist and radio host called Charlie Frost (Woody Harrelson) who keeps announcing that the Mayans were right and the world will end in 2012.

Jackson now must save his family – and perhaps even repair his former marriage with Kate – by locating the arks and getting his family to safety before the whole earth is destroyed.

A Meaty Movie Experience

If you prefer the shorter audio version edited from the radio, take a listen.

Audio Review:

Here’s a movie that will give you something to chew on: It’s the new animated film Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs.

In a coastal Atlantic fishing town called Swallow Falls, where life is dull and Baby Brent sardines are the daily sustenance, one budding scientist named Flint Lockwood (Bill Hader, Saturday Night Live) dreams of bringing life back to his dreary town by inventing something that will bring him fame, fortune, and local approval.

But so far all his crazy gadgets – spray-on shoes, de-balding formula, a walking television, and a monkey thought translator – have made Flint the laughingstock of the neighborhood and caused nothing but trouble for him. Flint’s failed antics have earned him the ire of rule-conscious policeman Earl Devereaux (Mr. T, The A-Team); the disapproval of his technophobic father, Tim (James Caan, Sonny Corleone in The Godfather), who believes Flint should quit dreaming and take a job at the family-owned bait and tackle shop; and the mocking taunts of nemesis ‘Baby’ Brent McHale (Andy Samberg, I Love You, Man and SNL) who is the face on every can of sardines.

‘Julie and Julia’ Sizzles on Screen

Here’s one movie idea that isn’t half-baked. Julie & Julia, starring Meryl Streep and Amy Adams, is scrumptious on-screen entertainment!

Writer/Director Nora Ephron (You’ve Got Mail, Sleepless in Seattle) dishes up a great plot that interweaves two true stories – one about a New York woman named Julie Powell (Amy Adams), who, while working at a dead-end job, gets the crazy idea of cooking up 365 days of Julia Child’s famous recipes and then blogging about them, and the other about how Julia Child (Meryl Streep) went from bored housewife living in Paris to culinary star and American icon.

‘The Taking of Pelham 123’: A Train Car Called Conspire

In this Columbia Pictures/Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer update to the 1974 cheesy cult classic starring Robert Shaw and Walter Matthau, director Tony Scott teams up for a fourth time with talented leading man Denzel Washington. (The pair previously worked together on suspense thrillers Déjà Vu, Man on Fire, and Crimson Tide.)

Washington plays New York City subway dispatcher Walter Garber, who is given exactly one hour to deliver a million-dollar ransom to a crazed subway train hijacker called Ryder (the tattoo-branded John Travolta) before the madman blows his stack and claims the lives of 17 innocent hostages trapped on train car Pelham 123.