Episode 22

No one expects subtlety from a Roland Emmerich film, but you do have a right to anticipate more than a continuation of his last movie but one. And at times during '2012' I thought I was watching out-takes from 'The Day After Tomorrow'.

All that can be said for this film is that, unsurprisingly, the computer-generated effects are impressive. Other than that it offers the standard disaster movie set up, then watches a group of characters escape one natural disaster after another - on foot, in cars, in helicopters, in planes - in a way that strains the suspension of disbelief well beyond breaking point.

The potentially intriguing piece of hokum about the Mayan calendar is thrown away in the first five minutes, and what follows is a film that's as relentlessly unimaginative as it is insultingly lazy.

How could untold millions have been spent on making it when the script doesn't make any kind of sense even in terms of its own internal logic?

With an awful, embarrassing sub-plot about John Cusack and his family thrown in for good measure, the whole sorry mess made me yearn for the work of 70s 'Master of Disaster' Irwin Allen. And if the world really is going to end in '2012', at least I'll never have to sit through a film like this again.

Once the straightforward premise of 'Harry Brown' has been laid out, it's not difficult to work out where we are or where we're heading.

If it rises above the obvious line that it's 'Death Wish for Pensioners', that's not because it lives up to its makers' billing as "an urban Western". What lifts the film out of the ordinary is not any sense of poetry or the timeless values of a classic genre, but Michael Caine's command of the screen and his skilful portrayal of a wounded, frustrated and very angry man.

And with such a dominant performance at its heart, it's maybe no great surprise this picture feels rather uneven in places. Emily Mortimer isn't at her most comfortable as a policewoman in a particularly grim inner city environment, while her boss seems to have been transplanted from another film altogether - possibly a Miss Marple mystery starring Margaret Rutherford.

In turn those kinds of characters from a bygone age are at odds with the streak of violence which runs through the film. But those weaknesses aside, 'Harry Brown' is a good effort - the story holds together, and while these days much of his film work consists of interesting supporting roles, Michael Caine reminds us that he still has plenty of shots in his locker as a leading man.