2012 (2009)

Tags

2012, Action, Amanda Peet, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Danny Glover, Drama, John Cusack, Movie, Oliver Platt, Science Fiction, Thandie Newton

I don't have time to argue, we've got yellow dots all over the country! look at the map for cryin' out loud!!

PG-13

John Cusack, Amanda Peet, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Thandie Newton, Oliver Platt, Danny Glover

Kate: Do you think people change?
Jackson: By “people” you mean me…?
Kate: Yes.  Do you think you’ve changed since we separated?
Jackson: I seem to eat a lot more cereal now…

The Sun hates us, so it’s sending mutant neutrinos into the Earth’s core, causing it to overheat and make the crust unstable.  This causes shifts of the Earth’s plates, resulting in catastrophic earthquakes and such.  Can humanity survive?  Can love survive…?

I’m sure eventually somebody will come up with something even bigger and crazier than this movie, but for now, this film – wherein the Earth basically starts to fall apart right under our feet – will stand as the biggest disaster flick of all time.  I’d guess a large portion of the world’s population is done away with in this one, and we get to see a lot of it.  Earthquakes, floods, tidal waves, geysers, volcanic eruptions…it’s all there.  Also present are many disaster movie cliches.

– There is, of course, a black President.  Though Danny Glover is not playing Barack Obama, despite it being set in the 2010-2012 range.
– Our hero is an every-man, separated from his wife, and doesn’t have a great relationship with his kids (his son calls him Jackson).
– Said hero becomes an action star when required.  He can stunt drive a limo and ramp an RV over a 30 foot wide crack in the ground.
– The president gives a big moving speech.
– There’s some nut-job (Woody Harrelson) who sees all of this destruction coming before everyone else and screams about it for a large portion of the movie.
– Kids in peril.
– There’s an unlikable, slimy, second-tier government official who is constantly at odds with the more heroic lead scientist in the movie.

I’m sure I could go on…but the movie does that for me…for 2 and 1/2 hours.  There were a lot of scenes that I felt could have been cut from this movie to knock it down to a more reasonable 2 hours.  I’m not against longer movies as long as they have enough content to justify the length.

Regardless of all of that, I must admit that it was still reasonably entertaining.  It had a relatively serious tone to it.  I like that it wasn’t winking at the camera every 5 minutes like so many big blockbusters do.  It was more like only every 20 minutes.  Plus, having Cusack in the lead role helped as well.  He makes some of the little comedic moments slightly more believable.

If you’re looking to see a bunch of stuff get blown up and destroyed in various other ways, this is the movie for you.  I doubt anything in it will surprise you, and none of the performances will bowl you over, but at least it won’t bore you too much.  And you better watch it now before…ya know…it’s too late…

Start listening to the doomsday wackos, people!

10 – 1.5 for being overlong due to extraneous scenes – 2.2 for too many cliches = 6.3

Be Kind Rewind (2008)

Tags

Be Kind Rewind, Comedy, Danny Glover, Drama, Jack Black, Melonie Diaz, Mia Farrow, Mos Def, Movie

Jack Black, in a rare subtle, dignified performance that will surprise you...

PG-13

Jack Black, Mos Def, Danny Glover, Melonie Diaz, Mia Farrow

Jerry: I will shoot you!  And I know robot karate!

After being magnetized in an incident at a power plant, Jerry (Black) accidentally erases all of the cassette tapes at the video store his friend Mike (Def) works at.  In order to try to cover this mistake, the two recreate the movies with the resources they have available.  People love the so called “Sweded” versions of the movie, and business starts to boom for the store.  That is until the copyright lawyers get involved.

This is one of those movies that seems like it should be a lot more magical, charming, and enjoyable than it ends up being.  I would say that it’s Jack Black that ruins it, but it’s really not.  I’m not a big fan of his, but he does an okay job here.  Mos Def is more likable, as is Melonie Diaz.  Still, they’re not quite enough to save it.

Not that it’s a total disaster or anything.  There are some funny moments, and director Michel Gondry is always going to bring some interesting visuals to the table.  In fact, some of the tricks the characters use to recreate the movies are probably a bit too complex to be believable, but you can tell Gondry was having fun with it all.  I just wish the movie as a whole was more fun.

There’s just no real spark to the characters or the story.  It’s a good basic idea without a compelling story built around it.  Plus, there’s a little bit too much anger and arguing going on between all the characters.

It’s a watchable movie, but…well, maybe somebody should make a more charming, low-budget version of it some day.

People still rent VHS tapes?

10 – 2 for lacking a compelling story – 1.2 for the generally angry attitude of most of the characters – 1 for a lack of believability at times = 5.8