Armageddon

In light of 2001's Pearl Harbor, this megabucks popcorn-spiller from producer Jerry Bruckheimer and director Michael Bay is revealed to be a witty, postmodern exercise (by comparison anyway). There's a meteor “the size of Texas” heading for Earth — as indeed there was in Deep Impact, released the same year — and it's up to Bruce Willis and his motley oil-drilling gang (“the Wrong Stuff”) to blast off and save us all. In hallmark Bruckheimer style, it's flashy, overwrought and excessive, but there's a knowing irony in the committee-written script and in the performances of Willis, Billy Bob Thornton and Steve Buscemi. The love subplot is a low point but, within such an expert thrill ride, it's not the end of the world.

This idiotic film is loud, boorish and smart enough to relish its own lunkhead bravado, with Willis leading his team of... read more on Time Out