2012

Haven’t we seen this before? A family that is no longer together – dad has neglected wife and children, wife is living with another guy who is trying hard to win over the kids and kids have mixed feelings for their biological dad. Ring a bell? Oh yes, such a family was at center-stage when the Martians came calling on earth in Tom Cruise-starrer “War of the Worlds”. Well, we have a similar family running for its life in the latest the-world-is-gonna-end flick from Hollywood – 2012.

So we have Jackson Curtis (John Cusack) who has tried, albeit unsuccessfully, being a writer. It has cost him his family and now he works for a Russian billionaire Yuri Karpov. His wife has found a new friend, Gordon, who is a plastic surgeon. The movie begins when Jackson takes his children on a camping trip to Yellowstone National Park where they find a pond that has boiled off the surface of earth, radio show host Charlie Frost who is shouting himself hoarse about the impending Apocalypse and the Federal types who come crawling out of the woodwork when Jackson and family get too close for comfort.

Enter the Mayans who have predicted that the world is going to end, come 21st December, 2012. Frost tells Jackson that the government is busy building modern versions of Noah’s arks where only those with deep pockets will find a berth. Jackson finds it hard to believe him but after he drops the kids back to their mom and reports for duty, something happens that convinces him that Frost was telling the truth. By then all hell has begun to break loose - alongwith earth's crust!

If you are looking for a story in this movie, you will be in for a sore disappointment. But if you are looking for eye-popping special effects, you are in for a treat. Right from the solar flares that are boiling the earth’s crust to the cataclysmic earthquakes that tear open the very earth over which cities are built sending the skyscrapers into gaping holes – the special effects are absolutely stunning!

As far as the cast goes, Cusack seems like an unlikely choice for a protagonist in a Apocalypse-Now movie. Danny Glover manages to look clueless as the President of the US of A. Oliver Platt (White House Chief of Staff) makes you wanna throttle him for his cold logic and ruthlessness. And I have no idea what made the casting team choose Jimmy Mistry as the Indian scientist – his delivery of Hindi lines caused peals of laughter in the theatre.

I will remember this film for 2 things - the doomsday special effects and the Russian billionaire’s pilot Sasha who with his rugged good looks and Russian-accented English was simply Yum! ;-)