San Andreas (B- or 2.5/4 stars)
Disaster movies -- ya gotta love 'em. Well. No, you don't {as they are normally big, bloated, special effect-driven behemoths with little-to-no characterization or plot depth}. THIS one, 'San Andreas' (directed by Brad Peyton) is no different. Having said that, when the film in question stars the ever-charming Dwayne Johnson and the plot incidentals stay earthbound (no aliens cracking the surface of the planet, etc.) ... you're already doing better than your usual fare, haha. L.A. Fire Dept. search-&-rescue chopper pilot Ray Gaines (Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson) lost a daughter in a river rafting accident a few years ago, and now his estranged wife, Emma (Carla Gugino), is divorcing him (to be with the seemingly respectable Ioan Gruffudd).
Ray still has a good relationship with his surviving daughter, Blake (pretty Alexandra Daddario), though his weekend with her is postponed when an enormous earthquake rocks Las Vegas, Nevada. Meanwhile, a Caltech seismologist (the always sturdy Paul Giamatti) & his team study said quake & predicts that an even bigger one is going to strike the entirety of California, along the San Andreas fault line; a quake that will be felt on the east coast. While he, along with a TV journalist (Archie Panjabi, of The Good Wife), try to warn the world {dunh dunh dunhhh}, Ray & Emma team-up to rescue Blake and her 2 newfound British friends (Hugh Johnstone-Burt, Art Parkinson) from a collapsing San Francisco before it's all too late. Mayhem ensues.
I realize that this film isn't the greatest; the script contains standard 'disaster movie' stuff, & the dialogue is pretty darn bad. But as mentioned above, even though he's no great thespian, The Rock has a way of making any film he's in ... better. He's someone to root for. We feel like we know him; that he's our big brother, our father, our son. In addition to that, films like 'San Andreas' will always offer a morbid curiosity/horrific fascination for when actual disaster events occur in real life. We go see movies like 'San Andreas' for pure escapism and to see if we would all react how the characters react on an elemental level if we, too, were to be involved in a crisis ... an earthquake ... a terrorist attack ... a hurricane ... an alien attack, or what not.
'San Andreas' includes a TON of jaw-dropping visuals. The Rock saves a girl dangling from a cliff in his helicopter. The Hoover Dam is broken-open. The Rock saves his wife from the top of a crumbling building. They drive a boat up a rogue tidal wave, where he encounters a cargo ship cresting at the top; just about to crash down on them. They narrowly escape crashing skyscrapers over & over again. Freeways buckle, bridges crack, people are crushed, etc.. I was scared of 'quakes before this film & my fear has only magnified. The effects are very good, if not groundbreaking; we're not talkin' Avatar, here. Having said that, it's nice to see that the destruction is contained to just California/Nevada and not, you know, the whole world; which is usually the case with these Armageddon-type extravaganzas.
Aside from The Rock, we have Paul Giamatti, who is perfectly cast as the severe, concerned scientist. Carla Gugino is forced to stare at all the destruction in front of her for most of the time. But she is also depicted as steely, strong, & gets a few heroic moments, herself. Ditto that for Alexandra Daddario, who is shown to be very resourceful in the heat of the moment. It's nice to see the depiction of strong women in a disaster film (one of the best aspects OF it, not the special effects). Overall, 'San Andreas' is exactly what you might expect it to be ... an onslaught of disaster movie cliches. Either you go in hoping for that or go in dreading it. If you expect narrative heft & character development, you'll be sorely disappointed. But if you're looking to hoot, holler, & clap when a villain goes down or when The Rock saves the day amid the cataclysm, than 'San Andreas' provides that in spades.
Ray still has a good relationship with his surviving daughter, Blake (pretty Alexandra Daddario), though his weekend with her is postponed when an enormous earthquake rocks Las Vegas, Nevada. Meanwhile, a Caltech seismologist (the always sturdy Paul Giamatti) & his team study said quake & predicts that an even bigger one is going to strike the entirety of California, along the San Andreas fault line; a quake that will be felt on the east coast. While he, along with a TV journalist (Archie Panjabi, of The Good Wife), try to warn the world {dunh dunh dunhhh}, Ray & Emma team-up to rescue Blake and her 2 newfound British friends (Hugh Johnstone-Burt, Art Parkinson) from a collapsing San Francisco before it's all too late. Mayhem ensues.
I realize that this film isn't the greatest; the script contains standard 'disaster movie' stuff, & the dialogue is pretty darn bad. But as mentioned above, even though he's no great thespian, The Rock has a way of making any film he's in ... better. He's someone to root for. We feel like we know him; that he's our big brother, our father, our son. In addition to that, films like 'San Andreas' will always offer a morbid curiosity/horrific fascination for when actual disaster events occur in real life. We go see movies like 'San Andreas' for pure escapism and to see if we would all react how the characters react on an elemental level if we, too, were to be involved in a crisis ... an earthquake ... a terrorist attack ... a hurricane ... an alien attack, or what not.
'San Andreas' includes a TON of jaw-dropping visuals. The Rock saves a girl dangling from a cliff in his helicopter. The Hoover Dam is broken-open. The Rock saves his wife from the top of a crumbling building. They drive a boat up a rogue tidal wave, where he encounters a cargo ship cresting at the top; just about to crash down on them. They narrowly escape crashing skyscrapers over & over again. Freeways buckle, bridges crack, people are crushed, etc.. I was scared of 'quakes before this film & my fear has only magnified. The effects are very good, if not groundbreaking; we're not talkin' Avatar, here. Having said that, it's nice to see that the destruction is contained to just California/Nevada and not, you know, the whole world; which is usually the case with these Armageddon-type extravaganzas.
Aside from The Rock, we have Paul Giamatti, who is perfectly cast as the severe, concerned scientist. Carla Gugino is forced to stare at all the destruction in front of her for most of the time. But she is also depicted as steely, strong, & gets a few heroic moments, herself. Ditto that for Alexandra Daddario, who is shown to be very resourceful in the heat of the moment. It's nice to see the depiction of strong women in a disaster film (one of the best aspects OF it, not the special effects). Overall, 'San Andreas' is exactly what you might expect it to be ... an onslaught of disaster movie cliches. Either you go in hoping for that or go in dreading it. If you expect narrative heft & character development, you'll be sorely disappointed. But if you're looking to hoot, holler, & clap when a villain goes down or when The Rock saves the day amid the cataclysm, than 'San Andreas' provides that in spades.