Rating: 3 ½ / 5 stars

By Sally Burgess

Roland Emmerich, the director of 2012, certainly has it in for the White House. We saw it get blitzed by aliens in Independence Day, and now by....well you’ll have to watch 2012 to find out.

This is a disaster film that out-disasters any others made in terms of special effects. If you want to see what a 10.5 earthquake in Los Angeles looks like, watch this movie. If you want to know what Yellowstone National Park will look like when it eventually blows up one day, watch this movie. If you want to see what a 1,500-metre tsunami looks like as it surges through the Himalayas, watch this movie.

Just don’t watch it for the acting or the plot!

John Cusack is the hero in 2012, playing Jackson Curtis, a limo driver for a billionaire Russian. He’s also a failed writer, and divorced. His ex-wife Kate, played by Amanda Peet, is now seeing Gordon, a successful surgeon.

We know he’s a surgeon because we see him at home wearing his scrubs. We also get to find out that because Gordon has had three flying lessons, he can fly everyone out of danger when he needs to. Which he does a lot.
2012 would have been a better movie if not for the running time. It is WAY too long at over 2 ½ hours, the last segment reminiscent of Titanic during the flooding scenes. As my behind got more numb I realised that 2012 might actually have referred to the year the film would finish.

But don’t let that put you off. Leave your brain at the door and enjoy the rollercoaster.

Standout performance: The special effects

This movie is now showing at Reading Cinemas in Queenstown. This review has been written and rated by Sally Burgess of Reading Cinemas Queenstown.

2012

Rated: M - contains content that may disturb
Starring: John Cusack, Danny Glover
Genre: Disaster/Action
Running time: 158 mins