San Andreas is a 2015 disaster flick, starring Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Carla Gugino, Alexandra Daddario and Paul Giamatti.
The film kicks off with Rescue chopper pilot Ray Gaines and his team being interviewed about what they do as a rescue team and then get to show what they do on a daily bases as they have to rescue a young woman who’s car has flipped off a cliff, right from the get go Ray is established as our hero of the film.
We meet Ray’s family his daughter Blake(Daddario) who is getting ready to leave for college, his ex wife Emma(Gugino) and her new boyfriend Daniel(Ioan Gruffudd) while Ray is set on spending quality time with Blake in San Francisco, he gets called into work. Daniel steps in and decides he’ll fly Blake to San Fran himself since he has business there.
Meanwhile two seismologist Dr. Lawrence Haynes(Giamatti) and Dr. Kim Park(Will Yun Lee) are at the Hoover Dam doing research about being able to predict earthquakes when a fault ruptures and in a exciting sequence the Hoover Dam is destroyed. Park being killed in the process.
Haynes back at his office at Cal Tech discovers what happened in Nevada was just the beginning and the worst of it will occur in the San Andreas area of California.
Emma is having lunch in a high rise restaurant with Daniel sister Susan (Kylie Minogue), when she gets a call from Ray, and an earthquake hits causing massive destruction, Susan is killed as the building is destroyed. Emma is saved by Ray who together heard for San Francisco to rescue Blake.
Going into San Andreas I was somewhat on the fence about it since I hadn't really seen a good disaster flick since probably Dante’s Peak, the few in recent years have been more CGI over kill flicks then the throwback to the 70s style of disaster flicks.
San Andreas delivers the goods when it comes to the destruction from the earthquake sequences, Tsunami scene, but also there are a few stand out acting performances as well Dwayne Johnson really does get better with each film and role he takes on and here as Ray he is established as the hero but also the little character moments he shows more range as an actor, two key scenes one where he finally talks about how he carries the loss of he and Emma’s other daughter and a emotional scene near the end of the film as well.
Carla Gugino has always been a quality actress and here she gets to get in on the action along side of Johnson as they race by Copter, Planes,Truck and Boat to rescue their daughter. she has probably the most emotional scene in the movie which I won’t spoil here but she really pulls that off.
Alexandra Daddario is good here, her character in any other film like this would just be a some another needs to be rescued but makes all the mistakes that causes things to happen, Daddario is actually given skills that helps her and two brothers Ben(Hugh Johnstone-Burt) and Ollie(Art Parkinson) survive different moments through out the film. If there was no Dwayne Johnson character her character could have been the main focus of the film as it’s heroine.
Paul Giamatti turns in a good performance as the link to the audience with all the exposition dialogue but he also looks like he’s carrying all of the weight of the disaster on his back too.
Ioan Gruffudd is somewhat wasted as the rich asshole boyfriend, he has a few moments that makes you can’t wait till he gets his which he does but it’s almost like a throwaway moment when it happens.
The movie does have some not so good moments the biggest one being for this being a disaster flick outside of a few none of the main cast are ever in any real danger or even killed off, but the acting, action sequences surely makes up what the film is lacking, This film is why Dwayne Johnson has a lack of screen time in Furious 7 and what you might miss of him there he delivers here but it’s the earthquakes that drop the Rock Bottom but he is the most electrifying dad in movie entertainment( WWE fans will get that reference)
All in all if you are a fan of disaster flicks (or even not so much of a fan of them)that hits all the right notes that need to be hit then San Andreas is the film to see.
MY RATING 7/10
CAST
Dwayne Johnson-Ray
Carla Gugino-Emma
Alexandra Daddario-Blake
Paul Giamatti-Lawerence
Ioan Gruffold-Daniel
Hugh Johnston-Burt-Ben
Art Parkinson-Ollie-
Archie Panjabi-Serena
Will Yun Lee-Kim
