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Must see this November

• The White Ribbon
  Strange events happen in a small village in the north of Germany.... Michael Haneke delivers his latest and much heralded film about life in a village leading up to the First World War.
• A Serious Man
  Film of the month and the Coen's at the top of their game. Utterly magical from start to finish.
• 2112
  Hmmm. Could this be a cracking $200 million action movie? The fact that the director made 'The Day After Tomorrow' does not bode well, but let's give it the benefit of the doubt.
• Bright Star
  Moving story of Keat's love for Fanny Brawne. Saw it at the London Film festival and loved it.

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2012

2012

The first thing that strikes you queueing up for Roland Emmerich's new end-of-world disaster movie '2012' is whether it the title is some kind of indication of when you'll make it back out into daylight. At 158 minutes there's clearly quite a lot of disaster to fit in... that's Lord of the Rings kind of length. But then we are talking about the whole world ending, not just America. That kind of thing has got to take time.

The second thing you've got to get to grips with is just how far you're going to put the rational laws of science, chance and reality aside in order to enjoy this film. By that I don't mean the mysterious predictions of the Mayan's about the world ending in 2012, or even the science gobbledy-gook about how solar flares are heating up the earth's crust (though there's a valiant attempt to make it sound possible when you get to see a science movie created by none other than Woody Harrelson), No, I mean how many times can a car/van/limo dodge past falling rocks, speed under collapsing buildings and drive just fast enough to stay ahead of opening cracks in the earth's surface. Because, be assured, there's a lot of that in this film. In fact, my only conclusion is that every vehicle John Cusack and his family - the central characters in 2012 - has the boot stuffed with cats... all of whom are using up their nine lives at a rate of knots. Cat after cat is throwing their lives away in order to survive against the odds. I have to admit, I struggled to keep the faith on that one: it gets kind of ridiculous.

But ridiculous is really where this film starts.... and then moves on into darker realms of downright daft, before ending up in totally preposterous. Even if you manage to cope with LA and most of California disappearing in the early part of the film - somewhere in hour 1 - you haven't seen anything until you get to how the remaining humans are going to survive. I can't spoil the plot here, but believe me, it's the kind of storyline that takes what little credibility it has left and happily throws it away on some kind of science fiction weirdness. When the 'captain' arrives in what looks like a Star Trek outfit, you know things have really gone off the deep end.

That said, there's no denying the special effects are A-M-A-Z-I-N-G. This is definitely a new standard in what's possible. It's impressive, although not enough to carry 158 minutes without a more engaging plot.

'2012' was only ever meant to be enjoyable Hollywood rubbish, and it kind of achieves that. It's passable for a popcorn movie, but there's no way I'd ever want to experience the whole thing all over again on dvd. Seeing the end of the world once is enough

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Add 21 December 2012 – The End of The World?

There is one date almost every person on the earth is aware of – 21 December 2012. As you know, each religion is unique, however all religions have one similar thing – 2012 predictions. They all claim that the world we live in will change soon.

Among all the references, perhaps the most significant and well known is the prediction of December 2012 Doomsday by the Mayan Calendar. Some people think that a new age will begin. With the Mayans civilization being extremely knowledgeable in both astronomy and mathematics, the prediction has generated lot of interest around the world. Now, let us talk about 4 theories which are considered to be the most actual.

1. mayans created their longterm calendar 3.500 years ago, they knew many aspects of astrological apparatus and mathematics. According to the Mayan longterm calendar, the mankind will change on 2012 december.

2. There are many scientists who are assured that global warming will cause several serious catastrophes in 2012. This is how they feel that the Mayan December 2012 Doomsday prediction would ultimately destroy all life on earth.

3. There are also many scientists who believe that in 2012 there will be many volcanic eruptions because their activity increases from year to year. This is being equated with the December 2012 Doomsday prediction and being seen as one of the ways that the world will be destroyed, if it were to occur.

4. Some scientists believe that on the particular date the north and south poles will shift.

Many sites have appeared on the internet offering theories, advice and info on the phenomenon that is 2012. The thing is, finding scientifically proven theories is not an easy thing. In case you want to learn more proven info on the date, check out the website above.

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Astronomer busts Mayan calendar’s dire prediction for 2012 Source: Astronomer busts Mayan calendar’s dire prediction for 2012

Washington, Nov 14 (IANS) The world won’t be coming to an end on December 21, 2012, as said to be darkly predicted by the Mayan calendar, says an astronomer.

Ann Martin, doctoral candidate in Cornell University astronomy department, points out that the Mayan calendar was designed to be cyclical, so the fact that the long count comes to an end in December 2012 is really of no consequence.

Simply, it is the end of great calendar cycle in Mayan society, much like our modern society celebrated the new millennium. It does not mean that the ‘world will end’, says Martin.

In fact, the Mayan calendar does not end then and there is no evidence to suggest that the Mayans — or anyone for that matter — has knowledge of the world’s demise, says Martin.

For the past three years, Martin has been a volunteer with Cornell’s ‘Curious? Ask an Astronomer’ service, a website founded by astronomy graduate students in 1997, says a varsity release.

Curious? Ask an Astronomer features the answers to over 750 frequently asked astronomy questions, and readers who can’t find their answers there can submit a new question and receive an answer from a graduate student volunteer.

Source: Astronomer busts Mayan calendar’s dire prediction for 2012

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2012 Predictions

by B. Daniel Blatt
Filed under: Movies, TV & Pop Culture

In my early days in Hollywood, when I focused more on the business of entertainment than I do today, I used to try to predict (before I realized there were websites dedicated t0 that very science) how well certain new releases would do at the box office on a given weekend. If I was egregiously wrong and a movie I thought would tank grossed over $100 million (as in the case of the 1999 release Double Jeopardy), I would make sure to see the movie to try to figure out why I had been so wrong. I did get some things right, predicting that Josie and the Pussycats and Gigli would tank, with the former’s total gross not even equalling its anticipated opening weekend take.

And while I think yesterday’s release, 2012, will open pretty well, largely on the strength of its special effects, it will see a serious drop-off and end up being a money-loser for Sony. Yea, the preview looks cool. Maybe that’s because the filmmakers concentrate on the amazing-looking effects and barely show the flick’s lead, John Cusack, an actor who lacks the screen presence to carry a movie.

Over at boxofficeguru.com (one of those aforementioned websites), Gitesh Pandya, anticipates a dynamic similar to the one I’m predicting

Though they get little respect, disaster movies are popular with the masses and are reliable sellers of tickets, popcorn, and soda. Audiences usually know that they’re not going to get a great story, but instead sit back and enjoy the special effects and all the destruction. With 2012, Emmerich has widened the deficit with visuals that are even more impressive while the script got even more ridiculous. But the effects and the intriguing doomsday plot should sell the picture in the short term. Word of mouth may not be very good so don’t expect much damage on the charts after Thanksgiving weekend.

Yeah, but disaster movies don’t sell as many tickets as they did in the 1970s.

And since my readers surely anticipated a political prediction with this post’s title, let me offer this: should Katie Couric keep her job as anchor of the CBS Evening News, by Election Day 2012, her audience will be smaller than that of the O’Reilly Factor.

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