War of the Worlds: If you’re familiar with the book, you know the storyline is ultimately pretty pointless, but the fun is in all the carnage along the way. I laughed inappropriately (but pretty hard nonetheless) at the beginning as the alien rays turned people into Kleenex, but there was plenty of serious tension later, even to the point of having to remind myself that Spielberg doesn’t kill children.

If you like your violence with a message, I would advise against this one. But if you can enjoy a bunch of stuff blowing up for the sake of stuff blowing up, go for it. I enjoyed it, even though every time I watch one of these disaster-type flicks I am reminded that if it happened in real life I would be one of the first to go. A building would fall on me during the first wave of tremors/attacks/storms, or maybe a car would land on my head. Either way, I’m a goner.