San Andreas. Rated M (disaster themes and coarse language). 114 minutes. Directed by Brad Peyton. Screenplay by Carlton Cuse.
Verdict: Perfectly distracting, and instantly forgettable, entertainment on a grand scale.
As over-produced, B-grade, disaster movies go, it’s impossible to fault this spectacular attempt to ensure we forget our day-to-day woes for at least a couple of hours. As purely escapist entertainment, San Andreas is faultless – full of sensational special effects and eye-popping sequences of destruction on an almost ridiculous scale. Just don’t make the fatal mistake of thinking too deeply about it, because that is when San Andreas (much like the entire West Coast of the USA), falls apart completely.
Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson is Ray, a search and rescue helicopter pilot who is famous for pulling off extremely dangerous missions. Sadly, he was unable to rescue one of his daughters, Mallory, from drowning – a fact that destroyed his marriage to Emma (Carla Gugino) who has sought solace (and a much nicer house) for herself and their surviving daughter Blake (Alexandra Daddario), in the company of property developer Daniel Riddick (Ioan Gruffudd).
As a ‘swarm’ of earthquakes along the infamous San Andreas Fault begin to decimate the West Coast, Ray and Emma put their differences behind them and race to save Blake, and her newfound heroic friends Ben (Hugo Johnstone-Burt) and his cheeky young brother Ollie (Art Parkinson), from certain death.
To their unending credit, the cast give the cringe-worthy dialogue and nonsensical material all they’ve got. Johnson’s bluff, bluster and screen-hogging biceps are infinitely watchable, while Paul Giamatti, as Lawrence the seismology professor, lends the film genuine gravitas. The Hoover Dam-shattering sequences that kick the movie off work even more effectively because of what Giamatti’s nerdy professor has invested in them – an urgent need for the science relating to how our planet is dying to be taken more seriously than it currently is. But might that be thinking about it all a little too deeply?
This review was commissioned by the West Australian Newspaper Group.
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