Yes, it's the end of days, something about an asteroid hurtling toward Earth. In three weeks, boom, it's over. No second chance. Steve Carell plays Dodge, an insurance exec whose wife dumps him for a last fling at life. Unlike his wife and horny buddy (that's you, Patton Oswalt), Dodge doesn't want to go sex-nuts. Dodge goes to work where there's no need to go. Then he hits on the idea of finding his first love.

Penny, played by Keira Knightley, hits on the idea of going with this stranger. Hell, she wants to connect with her family, and he might be able to help her. Penny's boyfriend (Adam Brody) is a tool. And on a road trip, featuring various guest stars (you're up, Derek Luke), Dodge and Penny establish a low-key comic rhythm that grows into something bigger. Maybe even love.

That's it. Screenwriter Lorene Scafaria (Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist), making her directing debut, has decided to approach Armageddon the same way as Dodge and Penny: nice and easy. Not a bad idea. And Carell and Knightley give it their bittersweet best. But I never rooted for them as a couple, never felt a chemistry in their bond. And in a romance, even one with tragic notes, that really is the end of the world.

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“Is It True”

As the British Invasion reached its peak in 1964, Brenda Lee went from Nashville to London to record one of her hardest-rocking hits, her perky vocal backed by a stuttering, squalling guitar. That guitar was played by session musician Jimmy Page, yet to skyrocket to fame with first the Yardbirds and then Led Zeppelin. "She said to me, 'I've come here to make a record with the British sound,'" remembered producer Mickie Most. "She felt she wouldn't get the same sound in Nashville because they're only just catching up on the British beat group sound of about six months ago."