Every other scene ended with the exact same action sequence (in both physical action and in shots): A vehicle is waiting to leave, but one person is left behind. The ground starts to crumble everywhere except, miraculously, inches away from just behind the vehicle and a clear path in front. (one scene its a limo, another an RV, another a plane, another a bigger plane, another a giant arc ship. Imagine that, the vehicle gets bigger in every sequence). The missing person of course makes it just in time, and then there a a chase scene with every crumbling around them, except the straight path in front of them. Thankfully, or not so much due to the pure improbability, in one shot a building actually falls in front of the car. Unfortunately, instead of going around the building the plow straight through it, and get through just fine. We always get a “dramatic” overhead shot of the vhicle barely escaping the crumbling ground. EVERY FRICKIN SCENE!

Then, inbetween these carbon-copy getaway scenes we are blessed with the cheesiest smelliest moldy cheese they are trying to pass for drama. The most brilliant of them all is the grocery scene. There is a couple’s fight which comes completely out of nowhere, and fumbles in awkwardly.. right in the middle of the lame argument, the husband says something like “I feel like our relationship is tearing apart” …cue the earthquake, and the ground literally tears apart right between them, with a shot from the crater, looking up, as the couple’s arms reach across the crater, attempting to hold each other. WOW, subtlety and drama at its finest.

Im not even going to touch the premise implausibilities that smack you in the face throughout. Afterall this is a dumb action movie that is for pure entertainment. I can forgive implausibilities in relation to the premise or major plot points, with a movie like this, but cant forgive immediate plausibility problems that have to do with a car crashing through an entire falling building and still being able to drive for 100s of miles after, because somthing like that easily did not have to happen, or just how close the crumbling ground gets to the car. Again, it doesnt have to be that farfetched, the more farfetched it is the less suspenceful. There is a balance. The audience knows, they are going to get away, that is inevitable in any story, otherwise the story would stop. However, the audience should fee in the moment, that it is real enough and believable enough that the character might not get away. If it is stretched too far where it is unbelievable that anyone/thing in that situation could escape, then the suspense becomes non existent. That is EVERY action sequence here. Non believable repetitive, over-the-top excess, that goes so far, you never feel anything because it has been pushed beyond that point.

On top of lame improbable nonsuspenceful repetitive action sequences and pathetic drama, is the fact that it is not entertaining at all. Take a movie like Independence Day from the same director. At least that movie got the audience to cheer for Will Smith and Against the aliens. sure its simple nobrainer fun, but it was just that FUN. There are no such thrills here. As already mentioned, the action scenes are too implausible taking away all suspense, and they are so repetitive, we know exactly how they will play out because, we’ve seen them in other movies, and even further, we saw EXACTLY the same sequence with another vehicle just a few minutes earlier. But perhaps beyond this, is John Cusak, whom I LOVE in movies like High Fidelity, Say Anything, or Better Off Dead, but who is REPEATEDLY horrible in action movies like this and Con Air and similar. He does not have that type of charisma to carry off horrible dialogue. He does not have the persona to really deliver a one liner like a Will Smith or Bruce Willis can. They can turn those one liners into gold, into purely entertaining crowd pleasing moments. Sure they can be dumb, but in these movies it is acceptable. But here there was none of that because, Cusack is just horrible at action movies. He doesnt have the charisma of a Will or Bruce, not the edge of a Dafoe, Clive Owen, or the patheticness of a Justin Long or Edward Norton. He brings nothing to an action or suspence movie, hell lately in love movies like serendipity he is also horrible.

The only thing that saved this movie, and had any entertainment value in ANY sense, was Woody Harrelson.

I came into the movie with super low expectations merely wanting suspenseful and entertaining action, and it still did not deliver.