Paul W.S. Anderson’s Films Ranked From Worst To Best

Pompeii was Anderson’s attempt to slam Titanic together with a Roland Emmerich disaster flick, something that should have been easy enough to pull off. It turns out romance isn’t his forte, based on this leaden effort. Kit Harrington plays the scowling hero and Emily Browning his vapid love interest, who must try to escape Pompeii together when the volcano erupts; which takes bloody ages to happen.

It’s a little tacky mixing together a real life tragedy with a silly disaster movie, and it doesn't help that nobody is worth rooting for. Kiefer Sutherland is good fun playing the hammy villain, but the movie feels like it’s spinning its wheels with romance and political intrigue until it can finally blow s*** up. It does this very well, but it's not enough to make it worth watching.

It’s vapid stuff really, and even Anderson’s die-hard defenders have a hard time stand up for this one.