Because of an enormous meteor impact, the moon begins to break up, threatening to pummel the Earth with an immense number of meteorites, as well as ravage it with bizarre atmospheric conditions.
It's all routine, incoming meteors threatening the end of the world. Going in, you know this is just escapist nonsense (fashioned suspiciously like Armageddon, but with a lower budget), and will require suspension of disbelief on a grand scale, but be prepared for a meteor shower of plot and character clichés, cheap effects, and an obvious outcome.
The movie spends a lot of time developing likable and interesting characters, and the respectably good acting helps accomplish this. If only the script writers had been just as conscientious about scientific plausibility, the movie would have been better off. You expect less than awesome special effects on this budget, but some of them look downright cheesy. The fireball meteors, for example, looked phonier than Monopoly money.
Clichés: we got 'em: dumb government big shot who makes a nuisance out of himself and mocks others, maverick scientist, meteors targeting big city skyscrapers and nothing else, unknown nobody whose expertise (in this case a building demolisher) saves the world, etc.
Plot holes are far too numerous to list; my two favorites are 1) nobody except the principals suspect the smoking moon (which oddly is always a full moon) and accompanying asteroid bombardment might be related, and 2) the Space Shuttle dodgeball game at a zillion mph with a million meteorites--right out of an old video game. I expected to see the pilot's game score appear in the upper corner of the screen at any moment.
Fun, and laughably outrageous. Looking for plot holes is but one way to enjoy this. Any movie about a guy who implodes buildings being called upon to implode the moon, that's a movie to see, folks.
