2012
Dir: Roland Emmerich
2009
**
I like a big disaster film and they don't get much bigger (or disastrous) than 2012. Roland Emmerich has the big budget and the computer know-how to create visual amazingness....at least for the first 5 minutes. It all gets a little gratuitous after that with planes dodging buildings, underground trains flying out of mountains and an indestructible limousine. Watching the demise of every landmark between LA and China is standard but it gets a little tiresome after a while. Roland Emmerich's biggest downfall (yet again) is the huge pile of steaming schmaltz he covers the film in, running head-first into every action film cliche in the book (the dog survives and even though he turns out to be a nice guy, the step-dad dies because there is no room for him in the family dynamic, people don't split up in Hollywood, someone has to die). Emmerich needs to pull a new trick out of his sleeve, next time he should kill everyone including the kids and especially the dog!