2012 — PG-13

The story

It’s right now. Somewhere in India, in a copper mine, 11,000 feet down, U.S. government geologist Dr. Adrian Helmsley (Chiwetel Ejiofor) learns that the earth’s inner core temperature is rising at an alarming rate. Neutrinos, released in huge solar flares, acting like microwaves, are the cause. In Washington, he tells Carl Anheuser, White House Chief of Staff (Oliver Platt) that “the world as we know it will soon end.” President Thomas Wilson (Danny Glover) shares the bad news at a private meeting of G-8 heads of state in 2010. What will they do?

Cut to 2012. Failed science fiction novelist Jackson Curtis (John Cusack) takes young son and daughter (Liam James, Morgan Lily) camping in Yellowstone National Park. There, Jackson meets Charlie Frost (Woody Harrelson), an end-of-the-world fanatic who — the audience knows — is right, if for the wrong reasons. Jackson is skeptical but takes the kids home. Just in time.

Can Jackson, estranged wife Kate (Amanda Peet), new boyfriend Gordon Silberman (Tom McCarthy), and the kids escape before California is toast? Does the earth’s crust implode as the core overheats? Will a remnant of earth’s human and animal population survive? See “2012” to find out.

The actors

John Cusack is earnest as heroic writer/husband/father Jackson Curtis. Chiwetel Ejiofor is sensitive and smart as geologist Adrian Helmsley. Each has scenes with family to show some depth of character. Other cast members have less to work with in director/writer Roland Emmerich’s script (written with Harald Koser). Oliver Platt plays cold fish Chief of Staff Carl Anheuser who’s insensitive to his mom. Zlatko Buric is Russian gazillionaire Yuri Karpov who abandons his girlfriend. Both are one-dimensional bad guys. Woody Harrelson is Charlie Frost, crazy guy having a bad hair day. Amanda Peet is plucky wife Kate. Tom McCarthy is her plucky boyfriend. Danny Glover and Thandie Newton play wise President Wilson and art historian First Daughter Laura. 

Other comments

“2012” is an entertaining and zany end-of-the-world disaster action flick. Once California falls into the sea, the film intercuts crumbling world cities and monuments — Las Vegas casinos, Rio’s statue of Christ, St. Peter’s basilica, the Sistine Chapel, Washington Monument — with a dozen Curtis family cliffhangers. Luckily, for the little group, Jackson is expert at driving large, expensive cars really fast and Gordon is a pilot who can dodge falling skyscrapers and fly through volcanic eruptions. Things move along at a merry clip until tsunamis and an extended “Titanic”/ “Poseidon Adventure” sequence slow things down at the end.

Still, “2012” is diverting. Runs 2 ½ hours. PG-13 for intense disaster sequences and language.

Final words

In “2012” the world

Goes kerflooey,

An entertaining

Crock of hooey.