2012 • in.Movies

November 17, 2009

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It gets you thinking. Crash meets The Day After Tomorrow meets Titanic meets Rat Race might sound like a potpourri of genres and tones but that's what makes 2012 so delectably startling. A massive epic of a film that will make you long for solid ground, it's an apocalypse that's impossible to pin down. The story begins in Asia where the end is already near. Whisked around the globe in a pulsing montage, we're tossed into a meltdown where it takes amateur pilots five minutes to fly like NASA pros who can navigate falling skyscrapers with aplomb. For those of you who can't believe the feats that these ordinary men and women pull off in two hours and forty-three minutes, you need to imagine yourself in a life or death situation and wait for the adrenaline rush to hit. As for director Roland Emmerich giving you that adrenaline rush, it may or may not happen, depending on your threshold for the implausible and your experience in handling natural disasters.

Whether or not Independence Day had more tension, drama and thrills, in spite of 2012's walloping budget of $260 million, depends on your ultimate fear: freezing to death or getting hit by a meteor. John Cusack, who last gripped us in a room full of tension in his other four-digit flick, 1408, has to share screen time with an ensemble cast that features Danny Glover as president, Thandie Newton as the prez's daughter, Chiwetel Ejiofor as the crisis manager, Woody Harrelson as the bug-eyed mountain man, Amanda Peet as a mom with feelings for too many guys, Oliver Platt as the bloodless elitist and the Russians. Platt is the tension glue here. With his deadpan delivery he turns up some emotional heat when the f/x go cold.

Next up for John Cusack is 1002, a tale of triumph and survival from a hotel room that hangs suspended in mid-air beneath 1,000-degree fireballs and above 6,000-foot canyon walls that spew lava and ghosts from the earth's core. He survives it all because he's the man and he can. We love you, John.

2012 Credits

Roland Emmerich Director/Writer/Producer

Harald Kloser Writer/Producer/Composer

John Cusack Jackson Curtis

Chiwetel Ejiofor Adrian Helmsley

Amanda Peet Kate Curtis

Oliver Platt Carl Anheuser

Danny Glover President Thomas Wilson

Thandie Newton Laura Wilson

Woody Harrelson Charlie Frost

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Photo Credit: Movie Night - Fernando de Sousa, Cinema, Victoria, Australia

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