San Andreas

It’s a good year to be Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson! Though to be honest, I feel like I’ve been saying that for a few years in a row. On the heels of the big budget, massively successful juggernaut that was Furious 7 (still the highest grossing film of the year right now), this offers up yet another expensive action excursion of a different persuasion. It’s one we’ve all see before, but hey, it’s got The Rock and he’s the man of the hour. He’s “Mr. Franchise Viagra” (his own words, not mine though I can’t disagree), and I am content to watch him in as many films as possible.

In San Andreas, California all is peaceful until a massive earthquake shakes things up on an epic 9.0 magnitude scale. One super capable search-and-rescue helicopter pilot (played by Dwayne Johnson) risks it all to search the ruins of Los Angeles and San Francisco in order to find his estranged wife (played by Carla Gugino) and daughter (played by Alexandra Daddario).

What I liked:
It doesn’t take long to get to the meat of the situation. Right away we’re introduced to an interesting sequence making me wonder if helicopters are actually capable of such precision maneuvers.
The 3D is not essential but I feel like they did a better job with it than the last several films I’ve seen in 3D, so I wouldn’t say it’s completely unnecessary.

The effects were well done and I liked seeing their daughter be a leader and act just as capable as Johnson’s character. It offered a nice balance.

If you like seeing Dwayne Johnson and Carla Gugino on screen together again then this should deliver. They seem to like working with one another (this is their third film together) and they work well on screen together in my opinion.

What I didn’t like:
The story is weak and predictable. I was hoping for a little more from Paul Giamatti’s character. He is capable of playing interesting roles, but this guy was your standard scientist that has to warn the public of what’s to come. Certain parts of the story reminded me of Taken, especially the estranged/ex-wife being wooed by a billionaire and only the workaholic father is able to save their daughter when faced with impossible odds.

Overall, if you’ve seen one disaster flick you’ve seen them all. It really boils down to WHO you want to see doing the running and WHICH particular landmarks you want to see crash and burn. This movie never pretended to be anything more than that, so for me it delivered.

Rating: 3/5

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