Ralph's Movie Reviews: 2012

Monday, November 16, 2009

2012

Disaster epic

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS
Jimi Mistry: Indian geophysicist Dr. Satnam Tsurutani
Chiwetel Ejiofor: Dr. Adrian Helmsley, U.S. Chief Science Advisor
Oliver Platt: his boss Chief of Staff Carl Anheuser
Thandie Newton: Laura Wilson
John Cusack: Jackson Curtis, limo driver and published author of Farewell Atlantis
Amanda Peet: his ex-wife Kate
Liam James: their 13-year-old son Noah
Morgan Lily: their 8-year-old daughter Lilly
Tom McCarthy: Kate's plastic surgeon boyfriend Gordon
Woody Harrelson: doomsday radio host Charlie Frost
Danny Glover: Thomas Wilson, President of the United States of America
Zlatko Buric: Jackson's boss, Russian billionaire Yuri Karpov
Beatrice Rosen: Yuri’s girlfriend Tamara

REVIEW
This is one big-budget no-holds-barred disaster movie. In keeping with this genre of movie many of the world’s best known icons get destroyed and people come perilously close to dying. It’s all good fun: I quite enjoyed it secure in the comfy chair of the movie theatre.

The CGI special effects are nothing short of amazing although they do run on a bit too long. At 2 hours and 20 minutes it needs some editing: hardly anyone has that much free time to spend watching anything, even such an important event at the end of the world as we know it.

CLASSIFICATION

for intense disaster sequences, some strong language and apocalyptic violence.

FOR NITPICKERS ONLY
• Charlie has a beer in his hand: it rotates showing different parts of the label from one shot to the next.
• After a lengthy speech the time remaining on the count down clock is shown as 3:15. Several minutes later one of the crew says something to the effect “there is not much time left, we must hurry” and behind him the clock has rewound itself to 3:58.
• The aircraft carrier USS John F. Kennedy (CV-67) is seen being tossed in a tidal wave. After nearly 40 years of service in the United States Navy, Kennedy was officially decommissioned on 1 August 2007 and is no longer seaworthy.

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my ratings system

I've always thought that telling too much about a movie or warning someone about a "twist" at the end deprives the person the pleasure of seeing it as it unfolds, so I don’t do it. You may not always agree with my rating of course, but at least it is an unbiased opinion unlike some of the full time professional reviewers who are on the studio’s payroll.

A few movies you won’t see any review from me:

Scary movies: I’m the world’s biggest chicken and just hate getting the crap scared out of me. I can handle an unexpected door slam, that kind of thing, but a movie that keeps you on the edge of your seat…not for me. Sorry.
Movies geared to the young teen and pre-teen crowd with dialog comprising mostly of crude remarks, awful jokes and lots of rude, socially unacceptable body noises. "The Spy that Shagged Me" comes to mind. (I wonder if the kids know what the British verb to shag someone really means? They probably do; I bet you it’s the parents who haven’t a clue).
Sometimes Hollywood gets on a roll and they produce a series of movies that are all very much alike. For example movies about the CIA were very popular and so we had The Bourne Identity and Bad Company and The Sum of All Fears. They all had the same basic theme and it becomes repetitive. I will see some, but not all of them.

FYI this is my rating system:

0 stars = Terrible: so bad it’s not worth talking about; in fact, I’d pay you not to go
= Lousy: I actually got up and walked out before the end it was just that bad (no kidding)
= Not so good: thought about walking out but hung in just in case it got better (but it didn’t)
= A so-so good movie: I enjoyed it somewhat but wasn’t all that crazy about it
= A really good movie: I recommend seeing it
= An excellent movie you just got to see! I suggest you put it on your "To Do List" it’s that good.

some favourite websites

For those into it, Nitpickers at

has more movie mistakes than you could ever imagine. My contributions can be seen if you check out the Nitpickers Registry and click on the link Nitpickers Listed by Nitpicker Number, select the group 45,401 - 45,500 and drill down to number 45411. Although I have 56 nitpicks to my credit, some have almost 2,000. You wonder sometimes where they find the time to do it.