Ray (Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson) is a rescue chopper pilot who has his hands full with day-to-day danger when an earthquake puts his ex-wife Emma (Carla Gugino) and daughter Blake (Alexandra Daddario) in more immediate peril.

A team of Caltech scientists, led by Lawrence (Paul Giamatti), has just discovered their predictive models work, based on the last two earthquakes. Now they have to warn the nation to prepare for the worst tectonic action ever recorded, involving the entire San Andreas fault, along which our hero’s family resides.

We say, “It’s pretty good for a disaster movie!”

TAYLOR: Whenever a disaster movie strikes, you generally know what you’re going to see: An ordinary group of people, perhaps a cross section of society, hopefully not too stereotyped, dealing with said disaster.

In San Andreas we have the divorced mom and dad of a teenage daughter family unit, which carries its own obligatory B-story, filed under D, for divorce. Ho-hum. Despite this overused plot device and the occasional bout of bad writing, acting and acting for green screen, I’m happy to report that, should you be able to put these setbacks aside, as I did, you will find San Andreas in many ways awesome.

HOWE: And put them aside I did. One thing you missed off that list was a great big slab of Stilton. San Andreas is so cheesy a movie that I was grinning from ear to ear. It kept me entertained from start to finish. The acting is of class A cheesiness quality. The special effects are somewhat acceptable, and you just know how it is going to end. But if you tie them all together, the movie becomes pretty good and even tense in some parts. With some films, you just have to switch off and enjoy them for what they are; San Andreas is that type of movie. Go on, treat yourself.

TAYLOR: Part of the fun of watching a movie is seeing what you’ve never seen before. This is a film that featured a handful of things I could check off that list.

I thought the way the filmmakers captured the moments of quaking devastation delivered unique, personal, believable perspectives. This is not to say that every stunt or effect was believable, far from it. Sometimes it seemed almost epic, then it would remind you it isn’t.

Still, it was the action and spectacle that was strongest in San Andreas. I saw many people die in interesting, impressive ways. It’s a disaster movie that succeeds in its rumblings. See it on the big screen, sit through the boring talking bits.

HOWE:  I don’t know about you but I was thinking we were going to get through the movie without the patriotic montage at the end. Then, like they had read my mind, lo and behold the stars and stripes drop from the sky. Brilliant.

TAYLOR: Disaster movie kingpin Roland Emmerich, (2012, The Day After Tomorrow, both terrible) hasn’t made a good movie since Independence Day. We’ve had a few disasters on screen more recently, but none stick out in memory. I think San Andreas might.

– Howe gives San Andreas 4 shipping containers out of 5.

– Taylor gives it 3.5 Tool songs out of 5.

 

Vernon Morning Star