Shaun Toney (sheens431)

2012 PG-13

Ok, I don't expect much more from Roland Emmerich than a bunch of stuff getting destroyed. He's good at it and that's about all he's good at.

Just like how with Michael Bay I expect big explosions, shiny cars and hot actors/-resses. And nothing more.

And just like how Michael Bay let the world down with Transformers 2 earlier this year, Roland Emmerich has let us down with this big ball of cliche called 2012.

Ok, LA getting destroyed was fun to watch, and the special effects were about as good as we're going to find. The limo getaway scene was pretty intense to watch, though you know the whole time they're going to live.

But then that scene is followed up by a dozen other getaway scenes and it really starts to get boring. This is an end-of-the-world movie, so let's see the world getting destroyed. Yeah, we see LA. And that's about it.

Yellowstone? The White House? I want to see London and NYC and Paris going down in earthquakes/floods. Not some village in India.

The acting is atrocious and the dialogue is even worse. The main characters are escaping LA in a plane and they're cracking jokes? As thousands of people are dying? I thought they'd be a little more somber than that.

Here was a scene that really bugged me. The Indian guy who was with his wife and kid as the tsunami headed for him. The guy who was promised a plane ride out of there. What does he do right before he dies? He calls his best friend (the one who promised him the plane ride) to basically say "Hey, the plane you promised never showed up and now we're going to die. Have fun living with that on your conscious."

Seriously? Why the hell would you even make that call?

There are so many cheesy, cliche and stupid conversation scenes that it gets sickening. We're about to die so the dumb little boy has to ask his dad, "Why do you hate Gordon?" Umm, ok, let's get to that later. Right now, let's focus on surviving. But no, John Cusack has to go over and have another conversation with him.

Not to mention how cliche it is that they have to have the whole split couple who eventually fall back in love. Well, after the new "dad" dies, of course.

They could have cut out all of the cliches and still this movie would have sucked. No redeeming quality other than watching LA slide into the ocean.

A Serious Man R

This is why the American movie-going public sucks: people hate this movie, but rush out to see crap like 2012.

The reason they hate this movie? It's because people don't like to think while they're watching a movie. They just like to be fed nonstop action and cliche storylines. A movie that requires thinking and analysis is just stupid and a waste of time.

Therefore, if you're of the "give me action and no story" sector, you're going to HATE this movie.

If you are a person who doesn't mind thinking through a movie, then you may actually enjoy this movie.

By now everyone has probably seen at least one Coen Bros. movie and they either hate it or love it. There's rarely any middle ground. I love everything they do, save for The Big Lebowski, which I really need to see again.

This movie, however, I loved. On the surface it seems like a long, boring, pointless movie. Some guy has a crappy life. Big deal.

But the thing about the Coen Bros. is that what they're not explicitly shoving in your face they're making up for in the very subtle details. And that's where this movie lives; in the details.

As usual, the movie paints a very dark and bleak picture, a nihilistic view of life. Trouble followed by more trouble followed by more trouble followed by a second of things getting better followed by worse trouble.

There are so many things I could say about this movie, but to do so would give away spoilers and I don't want to do that. Just watch it and think deeper than you're used to.

I will say that the ending is about as haunting, while at the same time humorous, as you could get. Classic Coen.

American Beauty R

To say this movie is a masterpiece is an understatement. One of the greatest ever.

Schindler's List R

Brutal, epic, masterpiece. Hands down the best Spielberg movie out there. I love how Oskar Schindler is a reluctant hero, only realizing at the end of the movie the type of impact he could have made on people.