Starring: Dwayne Johnson, Carla Gugino, Alexandra Daddario, Paul Giamatti, Art Parkinson, Hugo Johnstone-Burt, Ioan Gruffudd
Written By: Carlton Cuse
Directed By: Brad Peyton
Studio: Warner Bros
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If you’re a fan of ludicrous disaster movies, you’ll love San Andreas. It’s got a predictable plot, cheesy one-liners, and of course Dwayne Johnson saving the day (well at least saving his family).

San Andreas is centered around a Los Angeles Fire Department Air Rescue pilot Ray Gaines (Dwayne Johnson), his estranged wife Emma (Carla Gugino) and their daughter Blake (Alexandra Daddario). The other part of the story is about Caltech seismologist Lawrence Hayes (Paul Giamatti). While Hayes is doing research on new earthquake prediction tools at the Hoover Dam, a quake happens there and that’s when the shit hits the fan. While in the air, Ray witnesses the entire San Andreas fault shifting and causes a 9.1 major earthquake. He rescues his wife in LA on top of a building and they get a call from their daughter is who stuck in a parking garage. They head to San Francisco to rescue their daughter, before they lose another child of theirs.

San Andreas is an entertaining disaster movie and I like the cast, but man this movie was just plain silly. A lot of this stuff happening isn’t plausible but then again, you’re not watching these type of movies for its realism. The plot is pretty basic in terms of the characters. Mom and Dad get in a helicopter and try to find their daughter. So essentially Johnson’s character foregoed his duties as a search & rescue pilot and was thinking of himself and family. You have your usual Hollywood cliches like everybody looking at a big tsunami wave (or trying to go up it), forced romances, person comes back to life after being sort of dead from drowning, and the evil dick of the movie gets a funny death. The lines and the scenarios were predictable, and I kept shouting out dialogue to my wife before they said it. It was pretty much spot on, especially the line where Dwayne Johnson says something about getting to second base. You’ll know the line when you see it. It’s very Schwarzeneggeresque.

The main selling point besides the disaster portion of the movie is of course Dwayne Johnson. He’s the star of the film and whatever he stars in, he’s just a likable guy. I wasn’t into wrestling when he was there (I did watch earlier though), but since he’s been in movies I’ve just been a fan of his stuff. I’m also a huge fan of Alexandra Daddario and Carla Gugino for obvious reasons. Two of my celebrity crushes in the same movie, I’ll take it! Can’t forget Paul Giamatti, no not as my celebrity crush but as a good actor. He didn’t have a whole lot to do in this movie but I liked his scenes when he was in them.

I thought the CGI for the movie was mixed. Some things were done well, and other times it looked terrible. It is remarkable how badly they made San Francisco look after the movie was over though. I still kind of wish disaster films used more practical special effects then the easily spotted CGI muck. The film does do some practical effects and stunts, especially in that finale scene with sinking building in the water. In the featurettes, they show us how that was done and they also show Dwayne doing most of his own stunts like repelling from the helicopter in the opening scene.

Other extras include some deleted scenes, a gag reel, a stunt reel, and some other behind the scenes featurettes. The gag reel was quick but it was amusing, and so was the stunt reel. That was mainly just stuff from the stunt team filling in for the actors, doing stunts, and of course goofing off. Most of the extras are short but overall, you’ll be satisfied.

San Andreas is your typical disaster film but turnt up. Lots of CGI, lots of stunts, and lots of crazy unrealistic crap. It’s a fun movie to watch but don’t expect too much from it.

Features

“”San Andreas””: The Real Fault Line
Dwayne Johnson to the Rescue
Scoring the Quake
Commentary by Director Brad Peyton
Deleted Scenes
Gag Reel
Stunt Reel

Video
Widescreen 2.40:1 Color

Audio
English Dolby Digital 5.1

Bottom Line: Extremely silly disaster movie you need to turn your brain off for
Running Time: 114 mins
Rating: PG-13
Extras Rating:
Overall Rating: