CHERYL CHE's Open Salon Blog

Doomsday Movies titled "2012"

Mon, 26 Mar 2012 15:03:09 -0400

Best to worst Doomsday movies named "2012"

Rating: 5 stars

Average of 3,399,173 ratings:

3.4 stars

2012

2009PG-13158 minutes

When typhoons, earthquakes and other disasters suddenly threaten to destroy the world, Jackson (John Cusack), his estranged wife, Kate (Amanda Peet), and others surmise that the secret may lie in ancient Mayan prophecies that describe global calamity in the year 2012. Roland Emmerich co-writes and directs a star-studded ensemble cast that also includes Thandie Newton, Oliver Platt, Woody Harrelson, Chiwetel Ejiofor and Danny Glover.

Cast:John Cusack, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Amanda Peet, Oliver Platt, Thandie Newton, Danny Glover, Woody Harrelson, Chin Han, Patrick Bauchau, Thomas McCarthyDirector:Roland EmmerichGenres:Action & Adventure, Action Thrillers, Deadly DisastersThis movie is:Exciting, SuspensefulAvailability:DVD and Blu-ray

My Review

I really liked this film, but I will admit, I have been given the habit of watching all doomsday movies. not usually my palette, but after all 2012 is coming whether we want it to or not. What I don't get is it is getting closer to a century anniversary of 11/11/11. Only once in a century do I dentical numbers line up and add to minutes and second, that is even more of a reason to make a flick. you 11/11/11 at 11:11 and 11 seconds. Bakc to 2012. I love John cusack so that helped.

If you liked Armageddon, Impact, Independance Day, you'll LOVE this.

rating:1 star

Average of 390,847 ratings:

2.4 stars

2008NR85 minutes

Four strangers are drawn to an ancient temple in Mexico on Dec. 21, 2012, to witness a global catastrophe of epic proportions. Based on actual Mayan prophecy, the story melds folklore and Christian beliefs with science, exploring themes of climate change and spiritual renewal. Ami Dolenz, Dale Midkiff, Cliff De Young and Collin Brock star in this apocalyptic thriller directed by Nick Everhart.

Cast:Dale Midkiff, Cliff De Young, Ami Dolenz, Collin Brock, Danae Nason, Joshua Lee, Sara Tomko, Caroline AmiguetDirector:Nick EverheartGenres:Action & Adventure, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Deadly Disasters, Sci-Fi Thrillers

My Review

This movie just lacked in so many areas. I am not going to slam it on any religious level, because, frankly, I enjoy the "Left Behind" series. That select group has taken religious prophecy and made it palletable. This movie was a rank third rate piece of trash. I do not understand how such a prophetic date, 2012, could not get higher ranking directors and writers. Perhaps they felt it would be savagly overdone. And folks, they're right!! If you like this genre, let me make some recommendations: "The Final Storm". I have watched a rewatched this and I love it. "Testament" (the one with Lukas Haas) a great telling of a day in the life, and then BOOM. "2012" with John Cusack, so far the best piece with that title. "Knowing", I liked this movie so much, Nicholas Cage did a wonderful job as a science teacher of young children. And finally, and please, no BOOOOS; "Last Night" with Sandra Oh and Dominick Dunne. Some may not like it, but it is a different perspective. Now all of you reading this, I promise I will come back and look. Please tell me of your movies for this tenuous year, I am craving all the scifi 2012 I can get.

2012 Mayan Prophecy and the Shift of the Ages

rating:3 stars

Average of 97,922 ratings: 3 stars

2009NR77 minutes

According to the ancient Mayan calendar, the last day of history will be Dec. 21, 2012. This provocative documentary looks at the doomsday prophecy and the attention it has received -- and asks whether the 2012 date is really about the "end." Instead, the filmmakers suggest, humankind may be on the verge of a complete transformation in its nature, and 2012 will mark the beginning of a whole new historical cycle.

Cast:Philip Coppens, Geoff StrayDirector:Philip GardinerGenres:Documentaries, Social & Cultural Documentaries, Spiritual DocumentariesThis movie is:Cerebral

My Review

What can I say that isn't said in the description? A good but not great documentary on the obvious

2012: Science or Superstition

rating:1 star

Average of 195,585 ratings: 3.1 stars

2008NR78 minutes

Directed by filmmaker Nimrod Erez, this captivating documentary explores the widely debated prediction that -- based on the ancient Mayans' Long Count Calendar -- the world will end in the year 2012. Collecting input from noted authors, anthropologists and professors, Erez and company strive to determine if the calendar portends a time of great spiritual transformation -- or the complete and utter destruction of mankind.

Cast:Anthony F. Aveni, Walter Cruttenden, Benito Venegas Duran, Graham Hancock, John Major Jenkins, Lawrence E. Joseph, Jim Marrs, Alonso Mendez, Daniel Pinchbeck, Douglas Rushkoff, Alberto Villoldo, John Anthony WestDirector:Nimrod ErezGenres:Documentaries, Religious Documentaries, Science & Nature Documentaries, Spiritual DocumentariesThis movie is:Cerebral, Dark

My Review

Integration of empirical rational scientific thought and intuitive shamanic and mystical knowledge systems ... archetype of quetzicoatl indicating an archetype ...materialist empirical thought of western culture with the esoteric mystical framework of indigenous cultures.

Someone just figured out how to use a thesaurus!

Doesn't that sound entertaining? That is VERBATIM and I had enough of that stuff in lecture hall, I am not going to pay for this kind of boredom and pompusscientific offerings

2012 Ice age

rating: 2.1 stars

Average of 238,558 ratings: 2.8 stars

2012 Supernova

rating: 4 stars

Average of 136,521 ratings: 2.6 stars

2009NR90 minutes

Professor Kelvin is an astrophysicist working for the government who must recognize and confront a violent cosmic threat: a huge burst of radiation hurtling toward the Earth following the cataclysmic explosion of a star in a nearby galaxy.

Cast:Brian Krause, Heather McComb, Najarra Townsend, Stephen Blackehart, Dorothy Drury, Anthony Fankhauser, Matthew Farhat, Nick Shakoour, Burchenal BentonDirector:Anthony FankhauserGenres:Action & Adventure, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Deadly Disasters, Sci-Fi ThrillersThis movie is:Exciting, Suspenseful

rating: 2 stars

Average of 118,162 ratings:

2.9 stars

2010NR90 minutes

The end is here, but that's only the beginning in this disaster thriller set in a not-too-distant future. When an enormous meteor breaks through the Earth's atmosphere, the whole world shares a similarly terrifying fate. With billions of lives hanging in the balance -- and the whereabouts of one man's family up in the air -- is there any hope for humankind's survival? Joe Lando and Claudia Christian co-star.

Cast:Joe Lando, Claudia Christian, Cooper Harris, Madison McLaughlin, Matt Lagan, David Dustin Kenyon, T.J. Lepage, Micho RutareDirector:Micho RutareGenres:Action & Adventure, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Deadly Disasters, Action Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Sci-Fi ThrillersThis movie is:Dark, Suspenseful

My Review

This was bad in more ways than it was good.

It is very difficult to get into the mood of what this movie is about,when the lead actress who is supposedly dehydrated and dying is in full makeup. They trek by foot over 3 days and she is springtime daisey fresh, lipgloss and false eyelashes to boot.

Doomsday Movies

Thu, 22 Mar 2012 00:03:55 -0400

My rating 5 stars

Average of 81,937 ratings: 3.2 stars

The Garden

2006NR92 minutes

After being released from a mental institution, Sam (Adam Taylor Gordon) joins his father (Brian Wimmer) on a road trip from hell that veers off track and lands them on a farm with terrifying secrets. But while Sam strikes an agreement with the farmer (Lance Henriksen) to do odd jobs around the property, his father remains at a distance, suspecting all along that their host isn't who he seems.

Cast:Adam Taylor Gordon, Brian Wimmer, Lance Henriksen, Sean Young, Victoria Justice, Lonnie Partridge, Claudia ChristianDirector:Don Michael Paul

MY REVIEW

The characters and the actors who played them made this movie work for me. It bordered on spiritualism, but what is wrong with that. They twisted a few bible verses but that is what directors are good at. If it was all literal, we can go to a book and find it, it is the play on the subject that makes the movie work. A young boy fresh out of the hospital for his ability to foresee, leaves said hospital accompanying his father, divorced from the mother, to head home, 2 horses in tow. But they get into a horrific accident that should have killed them. They are brought to the home of a suspicious character who ends up being, you guessed it, God's fallen angel. And the rest is up to you.

The Final Storm

My rating 4 stars

Average of 133,538 ratings: 3 stars

2009R85 minutes

When a storm of apocalyptic force descends on their farm, husband and wife Tom (Steve Bacic) and Gillian (Lauren Holly) offer shelter to a mysterious stranger named Silas (Luke Perry) -- who then ends up offering protection to the couple and their son (Cole Heppell). As they strive to cope with the devastation around them, the family begins to realize that Silas may have brought with him a new type of danger in this Uwe Boll-helmed thriller.

Cast:Luke Perry, Lauren Holly, Steve Bacic, Cole Heppell, Blu MankumaDirector:Uwe BollGenres:Action & Adventure, Thrillers, Deadly Disasters, Mysteries, Psychological Thrillers, Supernatural Thrillers

My Review

This is a hard movie to find. I watched it three times. It is an eye opener. I would highly recommend this movie

Testament

5 Stars

Average of 26,470 ratings:

3.4 stars

1983PG

The Wetherly family copes with the news that nuclear bombs have been detonated across the country, and it's only a matter of time before one explodes near their own home. When it does, matriarch Carol tends to the newly orphaned children.

Cast:Jane Alexander, William Devane, Rossie Harris, Roxana Zal, Lukas Haas, Philip Anglim, Lilia Skala, Leon Ames, Lurene Tuttle, Rebecca De Mornay, Kevin Costner, Mako, Mico Olmos, Gerry MurilloDirector:Lynne LittmanGenres:Action & Adventure, Dramas, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Deadly Disasters, Sci-Fi DramasThis movie is:Emotional, Dark, Heartfelt, UnderstatedAvailability:DVD availability date unknown

My Review

I push this like a drug pusher promotes crack. It is an amazing mesmerizing movie. Netflix doesn’t carry it (!?!) which is ridiculous. If you want a real person movie that you can relate to, this is it. My parents s were in LA at a screening and called after midnite to tell me I must see it and that they were profoundly affected. She and I watched it together and we both flet the same way. It was a well made realistic identifyable movie. Miracle Mile

Until the end of the world

Until the End of the World(1991)
Bis ans Ende der Welt (original title)

280 min - Drama | Sci-Fi - 25 December 1991 (USA)

6.7

Your rating:

12345678910-/10X

Ratings: 4 stars/10 from 4,404 users
Reviews: 61 user |28 critic

Set in 1999 - watch the video

My Review

This movie is hard to find and in all honesty, I found the unbelievable sound track first and managed to lose it to people who promised to return it but never did. I can honestly say this is the best Soundtrack ever, and will be hard to duplicate. The movie...so so, is not available on Netflix.

Children of men

:Rating: 4.1 stars

Average of 3,309,072 ratings:

3.6 stars

Alfonso Cuaron directs this Oscar-nominated film version of P.D. James's classic dystopian novel, a futuristic drama set in a world in which humans have lost the ability to reproduce and subsequently face certain extinction. Things change when a single woman mysteriously becomes pregnant, prompting a conflicted government bureaucrat (Clive Owen) and his ex-wife (Julianne Moore) to join forces to protect her. Michael Caine co-stars.

Cast:Clive Owen, Julianne Moore, Michael Caine, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Charlie Hunnam, Claire-Hope Ashitey, Pam Ferris, Danny Huston, Philip HerbertDirector:Alfonso CuarónGenres:Action & Adventure, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Action Thrillers, British Movies, Action Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Sci-Fi Dramas, Sci-Fi Thrillers, British Action & AdventureThis movie is:Cerebral, Emotional, Dark, Imaginative, GrittyAvailability:DVD and Blu-ray

My Review

This is a movie about having NO children much less babies in 19 years - until they discover a pregnant woman. Thereby making it their only mission

Continued...

Next doomsday reviews

Last night

Knowing

Angels and Demons

On the beach

Fail Safe

and obviously 2012

Sketch Artist

Sat, 28 Jan 2012 00:01:53 -0500

3 stars

Average of 13,847 ratings:

3 stars

Sketch Artist

1992R89 minutes

A courier (Drew Barrymore) sees a woman fleeing a murder scene, and goes to work with sketch artist Jack Whitfield (Jeff Fahey). But as the picture comes together, Jack discovers to his horror that it's a dead ringer for his own wife (Sean Young), who may have had a motive to kill. His disastrous attempt to fake a new sketch and the sudden death of the original witness turn up the tension in this thriller.

Cast:Jeff Fahey, Sean Young, Frank McRae, Drew Barrymore, Tchéky Karyo, James Tolkan, Stacy Haiduk, Charlotte LewisDirector:Phedon PapamichaelGenres:Thrillers, Crime Thrillers, MysteriesThis movie is:Gritty, SuspensefulAvailability:Streaming

My review

This had a powerful cast and a great premise, but the spaghetti western music mixed with rap was too distracting. And you walk right in to the predictable ending. They must have sent out a casting call for every anorexic woman in hollywood. This movie was too cliche without being campy, and in these days of viewing, you either have to be Speilberg serious, or Rocky Horror camp.

I recommend you only watch this if there is nothing else to do.

Babel

Tue, 20 Mar 2012 22:03:37 -0400

5 stars

Average of 2,963,158 ratings:

3.3 stars

Babel

2006R143 minutes

When an American couple (Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett) vacationing in Morocco fall victim to a random act of violence, a series of events unfolds across four countries that demonstrates both the necessity and impossibility of human communication. Director Alejandro González Iñárritu artfully weaves together three seemingly disparate stories in this Oscar nominee for Best Picture and Golden Globe winner for Best Drama.

Cast:Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett, Gael García Bernal, Koji Yakusho, Adriana Barraza, Rinko Kikuchi, Said Tarchani, Jamie McBride, Paul Terrell Clayton, Elle Fanning Director:Alejandro González Iñárritu Genres:Dramas, Independent Movies, Independent Dramas, Political Dramas, Social Issue Dramas This movie is:Emotional, Exciting, Gritty, SuspensefulAvailability:Streaming, DVD and Blu-ray

My review
Excellent, excellent. I have watched it several times and got something different weach time.

This is a thought provoking film and you will see that the web comes together in the end. Japanese hunter gives a gun to the Arab tour guide who sells it to a man whose children are going to use it to shoot Jackals. They use a tour bus as a target...and then there you have it.

Brad Pitt was aged in this movie. I have no idea if it was the makeup or just him.

Cate is one heck of an actress and can make even the most disgusting of situations look beautiful

The Arabs were the kindest and most compassionate in the movie, as opoosed to the Americans who fell short.

I was disappointed in the gratuitous nature of the deaf girls sexuality. Totally unnecessary

The Other Love

Wed, 21 Mar 2012 23:03:53 -0400

4 stars

Average of 13,691 ratings:

3.2 stars

The Other Love

1947NR92 minutes

Concert pianist Karen Duncan (Barbara Stanwyck) is admitted to a Swiss sanatorium to recover from a serious illness. There she feels the romantic magnetism of Dr. Anthony Stanton (David Niven), who warns her of the potentially fatal dangers of not resting completely. Despite these warnings, Duncan flees to Monte Carlo in the company of playboy racecar driver Paul Clermont (Richard Conte), who just might be all the medicine she needs.

Cast:Barbara Stanwyck, David Niven, Richard Conte, Gilbert Roland, Joan Loring, Natalie Schafer Director:André De Toth Genres:Dramas, Romantic Movies, Romantic Dramas This movie is:Dark, RomanticAvailability:Streaming

MY REVIEW
Old Hollywood.

The smoking TB patient, the Doctor not held by a moral clause or a confidentiality agreement.

Everyone can be in the room for you to get your X-rays. You bring evening gowns to the Sanitorium and you WEAR them.

The patients can galavant around the countryside in horse and buggy, no matter the temperature, and yes dear, you will have to stop smoking, but just for a month.

You always look spectacular, even on a far too close close-up of you gagging.

This wound around like a perfect silk rope right to the ALMOST dark vistory ending. You will never see society that way again. You lose 1 star for the clipped ending.