German director Roland Emmerich made "The Noah's Ark Principle" in Germany in 1984 -- a student film with a budget of over a million Deutschmarks -- and never looked back. He quickly helmed two English-language family films, followed by a move into the worlds of action and science fiction in the 1990s. The peak Emmerich movie is probably still "Independence Day," although his other action and disaster movies -- "The Day After Tomorrow," "2012," "White House Down," and "Moonfall" -- are the connoisseur's choices.

Emmerich (both wisely and unwisely) stretches himself into other genres -- such as the war movies "The Patriot" and "Midway," and the historical dramas "Anonymous" and "Stonewall." It's good to see him pushing himself, taking risks, and experimenting, even if the end results are mixed, to say the least. But he excels at big-budget action movies, and if he's given actors blessed with the necessary star quality to build his beautiful disasters around,...