Armageddon

SYNOPSIS

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.