John Cusack may have sabotaged the rest of his flailing career by appearing in "2012" this dog from director Roland Emmerich.

Whatever the box office says the Irish American actor has descended to the lowest plane of his career in the type of movie that makes the "Attack of the Killer Tomatoes," an Oscar-winning proposition.

Instead of tomatoes we have sun demons, huge fireballs that catapult to earth and destroy all the living and the undead (which is pretty much everyone) in a movie which has as much suspense as "Daddy Day Care."

John Cusack is the "Daddy Day Care" figure at the beginning of this movie, driving his daughter to his ex-wife's when the world suddenly starts to end.

It turns out that the plot is based on an entire fiction -- an alleged Mayan prediction that the end of days will be December 21 2012.

There is no such prediction but facts aren't stubborn things in this movie, directed by Emmerich who has made a substantial living trying to scare the daylights out of everyone. It is "Godzilla," meets "Independence Day" meets "Day after Tomorrow," which not coincidentally, are three other movies Emmerich has directed.

All feature massive special effects, minimal acting and paper-thin characters who basically run  screaming and hollering as disasters happen all around them. Most prominent of course is the destruction of American and Catholic icons, you don't need to be a genius to figure out where this German director is coming from.

Just as the world is about to end Cusack discovers that the Chinese government have known this all along and have built a Noah's ark somewhere in the Himalayas to bring everyone to safety.

No problem. Emmerich is a huge devotee of Marx, according to the Guardian newspaper so the fact that the red Chinese are our saviors should be no surprise. The bad American government of course, at the beginning of the movie, lie and distort the fact that the world is about to end.

As he makes his way across the world and eventually the Himalayas, Cusack and ex-wife and family in tow meets all the predictable adventures. . stealing planes here, meeting Russian oligarchs there, Chinese helicopter pilots over there.

Emmerich can certainly direct special effects but not actors. That much is clear from this movie which is so formulaic that it is as predictable as a tuna sandwich and just about as exciting.

John Cusack is a fine actor who has plumbed the depths here. Tom McCarthy as his ex-wife's new love interest conveniently gets bumped off which is good news for him and his career.

Roland Emmerich has made the same movie over and over again. The definition of madness is said to be doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different outcome.

In this case that doesn't happen. An F minus all around.