That doesn't look like Sigourney Weaver.

One would be forgiven for thinking the Earth-under-siege movies Independence Day, Godzilla and The Day After Tomorrow were all-American products of Hollywood's disaster mavens Michael Bay or Jerry Bruckheimer. Truth be told, your correspondent certainly did until very recently. But no, Stuttgart-born Roland Emmerich studied film during the New German cinema era of the late 1970s, the hey day of Fassbinder, Herzog and Wenders.

But as a student Emmerich held little admiration for his domestic contemporaries. His inspiration was in Hollywood with its family-friendly, proto-blockbusters Star Wars and Indiana Jones. No love lost on German arthouse, Emmerich's prime motivation is all about crowd-pleasing. To hell with cinéma vérité. He told the Guardian recently, sipping a glass of wine poolside in Los Angeles, "I'm good friends with Wim Wenders, but it doesn't mean I have to like his movies. Some of them, I like. Most of them, I find boring. And I would tell him that to his face."

Emmerich is quite German in one respect: consistency. His films always make bank and are always hated by critics. The rain of scorn has been no different for his newest offering, the ahistorical caveman epic 10,000 B.C. Metacritic's average critical score of 36% looks downright charitable compared to Rotten Tomatoes' dismal 7%. Not just dumb but somehow dull as well, seems to be the concensus from on high. "Me Want Good Caveman Movie, Not this 10,000 B.C. crap" moans Slate critic Dana Stevens.

And yet again, Emmerich has laughed his way merrily to the bank. This weekend on its US debut his Neandertal Braveheart (saber-tooth tigers helped build the pyramids!) smashed the box office to take the top spot with USD 35.7m.

His next project? A film called 2012, the year, according to a Mayan calendar, upon which -- wait for it -- the world will end.