2012

It's been awhile since we had a riproaring disaster film. Well, Roland Emmerich is back, and has given us the Big Daddy of disaster films, 2012.

Most large-scale disaster films have a couple of things in common: an introduction to a few individuals, usually Americans, so that we can see how this disaster is impacting their lives. And something destroyed on a large scale. Remember Independence Day (another Emmerich film)? They were advertising the destruction of the White House a full year before the movie was released.

And, yes, the White House is destroyed in this one, but that's one of the lesser disasters. The special effects are outstanding, almost overwhelming, they're that good. The U.S. president, played by Danny Glover, is standing in the snow outside the White House, looking at the destruction that has already been wrought, when he looks up and sees a Navy aircraft carrier (the USS John F. Kennedy) coming at him sideways, carried by a huge tsunami. It's just one of many such surprising scenes.

This isn't great drama, but it's exactly what it purports to be, a big, exciting movie with a lot of surprises therein. And our cast of John Cusack, Thandie Newton, Amanda Peet and many others helps us see it in human terms.

This is an exciting, E-ticket ride, the most adrenaline-pulsing film experience this year.

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