Friday, November 13, 2009

Pumped for Destruction!


Today is 11/13/09 and I don't need to be Nicolas Cage and have a sheet of paper with a bunch of numbers on it to know what this date means. It means 2012 opens today - and I am pumped for destruction.

I love all types of movies. I'll embrace your beautifully written, character-driven indie or foreign film, but I get all excited about disaster movies - a favorite genre of mine since enjoying Ray Harryhausen's clever stop-motion destruction of famous edifices in his 1950s sci-fi classics.

My favorite disaster movie is the pre-CGI Crack in the World (1965) for its imaginative disaster scenario: an underground nuclear explosion opens a crack in the world that threatens to, you know, crack the world in half. But I embrace most CGI disaster movies. I loved Deep Impact (1998) and The Day After Tomorrow (2004). I also loved this year's Knowing - much to some bloggers' dismay. When it comes to the destruction of the world, I just let myself go and have fun.

Though in 2012 Roland Emmerich ups his own ante by providing multiple disasters instead of just freezing the Northern Hemisphere, Knowing already burned Earth to a cinder, so I don't know what the big deal is here, but I'm open. I'm there! I'm planning to see it at least twice this weekend, and then I shall report.

Happy weekend, bloggers!

9 comments:

Jason Bellamy said...

Getting hyped for disaster movies is one thing, but after seeing the trailers for 2012 (which I think you told me you've avoided to this point), this feels like watching someone getting hyped to get swine flu. I feel an intervention is necessary.

Then again, I want to know what 2012 is like without having to suffer through it myself.

Good luck. Stay alive!

Richard Bellamy said...

Thanks for the blessing to go forward where not all are willing to go. I'm predicting it's not as good as The Day After Tomorrow - I don't like ridiculous images like the president dangling from a line in Air Force One, but I do like expansive, eye-filling images - and I have a feeling this will be quite expansive. I know a tsunamic submerges the Himalayas, but is that even possible?

Daniel said...

Believe it or not I think I'm all in to see this movie, fully expecting it to be as disastrous as its own plot. I've done well avoiding the trailers, thus allowing me to see the destruction for the first time on the big screen (maybe not soon, but sometime in the next few weeks). If you remember, one of the things I conceded to knowing was the firestorm at the end. I'm a sucker for movie rubber-necking like this, and if it's on a big enough scale you don't have to consider all of the millions of lives being lost in front of your eyes.

Richard Bellamy said...

Daniel, what fun! So glad you're seeing this! I hope you will make a big long list of plot loopholes as you usually do. Though, for this film, some of the loopholes will be the size of the Grand Canyon. I'm ready for an eyefull.

Jason Bellamy said...

"Is that even possible?"

I presume that question will apply to 75 percent of the movie.

Richard Bellamy said...

I am ready for that 75 percent! And more!

Daniel said...

I'm going to try to let go of logic while watching this one, but will see how bad its offenses are, and if I am moved to action afterwards...

Fletch said...

I ONLY want to see it to see how bad it is, but I just can't do it.*


* Unless I hear that it's one of the worst movies of all time or something. Then I might HAVE to see it.

Richard Bellamy said...

Daniel - Setting logic aside can lead to fun. I should have mentioned The Core as another favorite disaster movie - though it's more about stopping the disaster - still, it includes a great scene in which the Golden Gate Bridge gets melted - which was quite exciting for my young son when we drove across the GGB that summer. Anyway, in The Core you have to set logic aside the whole time - I mean, they're driving through Earth's magma for Chrissake.

Fletch - Come on, you can do it. It's only a movie. Anyway, I got delayed last night and couldn't see it - but today is the day!