End of the World Films

"2012" - a visual-effects masterpiece, and "The Road," a sort of a "Heart of Darkness" journey, take us to a time when the world is either collapsing ("2012) or has already collapsed (The Road".

The first of these is a visual delight, though the storyline is grim: an unusually heavy burst of solar flares is bombarding the earth with neutrons, heating up the earth's core like a grapefruit in a microwave, destabilizing the earth's crust, sending continents crashing around the glove, with Randy's Donut sign careening down the street (just blocks from where I live) and finally tipping the whole of Los Angeles into the Pacific Ocean.

It's a typical disaster film, with the best, yet, CG images. Typical though it is, it's one to see in the theaters - on a big screen. Though the story has a few improbabilities, and a fledgling pilot who's way-too skilled to be flying a twin-engine plane through the collapsing buildings of downtown LA, the story rightly asks the core question: when things are going to hell in a hand-basket, how will we respond? Some respond cruelly, others with grace. I guess we already know that, don't we? But it's always worth pondering.

Sub themes: money can buy you time, sometimes. Sacrifice is noble. Love might even

win out. But millions will die, as only a few can be saved.

Plot-wise, a slightly unexpected ending as to how some are saved.

Acting is mostly good with a talented cast. At one point, during a rather lengthy philosophical ramble, my son said, "Okay, enough talk; I wanna see more buildings toppling over."

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"The Road" is unrelenting grimness - clouds and rain, cold and damp, as a father and son struggle to survive in a world gone mad. We're never told what happened or why, but most of humanity is dead, and most of the survivors have turned to cannibalism.

The little boy says to the Dad, We’re the good guys, aren’t we?

Dad says, Yes we are, because we carry the fire, here, in our hearts.

Will we ever eat people? the little boy asks.

Never, says the father.

One can always hope.

With virtually no special effects, this film is all about acting, and Viggo Mortensen (Dad) and Kodi Smit-McPhee (son) portray the quintessential father/son relationship - of the father's unyielding loyalty to the boy, and the boy's unquestioning (?) trust of the father's love and care.

As a metaphor of life, cannibalism is clearly the way of the capitalism - we exist for one another's appetites, and only the brave refuse to succumb, taking a chance of starving to death rather than engage in cannibalism. It takes enormous commitment to remain good.

Sadly, as powerful as is the acting, it lacked, for me, that needed emotional edge that captures the heart and makes the viewer care. I watched it, but I didn't participate in it deeply enough. Maybe it was just me. Maybe the script. Maybe the directing.

But I wanted the love of the father and the son to pull me in, and it didn't.

The bad guys are really bad, but aside from a few moments of terror, the movie mostly plods along with a strange and ill-fitting cameo by Robert Duvall, and an even stranger encounter with a thief who ends up buck naked.

All-in-all, a good story in a film that didn't quite hit the bulls-eye. Worth seeing? Sure, but wait for Netflix.

Appaloosa

If ya' like Westerns, pardner, you'll like Appaloosa.

Written, produced and starring Ed Harris, it felt like a vanity film. I've got a story to tell, and I've got the money to make it. Sort of life self-publishing these days.

Up front, the sheriff who's gunned down in cold blood by the bad guy (Jeremy Irons) speaks his lines so poorly, I might have shot him, too, had I been the director.

Every Western cliche is used here, but I enjoyed it - a pleasant afternoon diversion.

But then I love Westerns. Two of my all-time favorites stand tall in the saddle: Silverado and Red River - both, in my judgment, flawless, and by such standards I judge all other efforts. By comparison, Appaloosa has the feel of a "B" western. But, hey, I love Roy Rogers and Gene Autry, too. Just glad Harris and Mortensen didn't pick up a Gee-tar and start pickin'.

Renee Zelweger is delightful as a woman who can't make up her mind - she loves the nearest top dog, whoever the dog may be. Getting to the top, so to speak, is her mission in life, and like women then, and still too often today, a woman has to pay the piper - somewhere I read, a man loves in order to get sex; a woman gives sex in order to be loved. Zelweger's face is utterly unique - sincere, innocent and selfishly dangerous, all at the same.

The side-kick deputy (Viggo Mortensen) does exceedingly well, as does Harris, although even here, there was a certain dark passion missing. Hard to put my finger on it, but it's like a loaf of home-baked bread that didn't have enough salt in it.

Mortensen's character is the most complex - a man of unceasing loyalty to the Sheriff (Harris) - he wants Allison French (Zelweger) who makes a play for him, but walks away for the sake of his friend. There's a quiet passion in the character, and Mortensen conveys it, mostly.

Sometimes the feel of good actors saying mediocre lines telling a formulaic story.

Other pieces fit well - the costuming, the music, the cinematography.

Worth seeing?

Sure, why not? Bang, bang!