If the world is coming to a spectacular end, you can bet Roland Emmerich, the Irwin Allen of our time, is behind the curtain and working the gears. 2012 will be out next year, five years after The Day After Tomorrow. The intrigue for me is “how much better will the CG be?” Roland deserves credit, at the very least, for cranking out handsome, well-lit disaster films with tight scripts and reasonably professional performances, which is more than Allen ever managed.

The straight-paycheck cast includes John Cusack, Thandie Newton, Amanda Peet, Woody Harrelson, Danny Glover (as “President Wilson”), “Chewy” Ejiofor, Oliver Platt and Thomas McCarthy. We all need to pay the bills. There’s nothing wrong with going out there and bringing home the bacon.