2012 (the movie)

2012 (DVD released - March, 2010)

Length : 158 minutes

Genre : Fluff Action

MPAA Rating : PG-13

Our Rating : 7*/10

. The end of the world is upon us. If only we had listened to the ancient Maya, a modern-day wacked-out comspiracy-freak/evangelist, and/or a couple geophysicists in 2010 monitoring the earth's core. . What's to like... Woody Harrelson (the evangelist) and Danny Glover (the US president) turn in fine performances, even though neither one is around by the time the final credits roll. The computer-generated graphics - specializing in falling buildings and erupting volconoes - are stunning. The humor will make you chuckle, even if it is sometimes a bit macabre (such as Sasha's demise). . The scientific explanation for the calamity is plausible. An unprecedented barrage of solar flares heats up the earth's core. This results in hundreds of huge volcanic eruptions, which in turn leads to a radical shifting of the earth's tectonic plates and magnetic poles. That causes things like California to fall into the ocean, thus spawning a series of tsunamis with waves so high they flood over Mt. Everest. . None of that is a spoiler because this isn't a Cri-Fi film. Nor is there any effort given to figuring out how some 7th-century Mayans somehow knew this was going to happen. And that may be the main drawback of 2012 - the movie exists for the cheesy plot, the great disaster images, and a bunch of laughs. This is true even of the action scenes - they're just too over-the-top for the viewer to take seriously. . Hare rama, Dalai Lama. Hare krishna, thanks for the fishna. Judging from the reviews over at Amazon, a lot of people hated 2012. Maybe they were expecting an epic. It isn't. As long as you recognize it for what it is - a fluff film - it does okay. This isn't the first movie to misrepresent itself. Heck, they tried to tell me Titanic was an adventure film when it debuted. . I give 2012 seven stars. It didn't cause me to flee to the mountain tops or try to appease the angry gods. It did entertain me for 2½ hours. That's good enough for me.