San Andreas (2015) (English Language)

Review

114min

Genre:    Action, Drama

Director: Brad Peyton

Cast:      Dwayne Johnson, Carla Gugino, Alexandra Daddario…and more

Writers : Carlton Cuse, Andre Fabrizio & Jeremy Passmore

Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson stars as a helicopter-rescue pilot on a perilous journey across California to rescue his stranded daughter after the San Andreas fault conspires with tectonic plates to create massive earthquakes that threaten to destroy the entire state, with the help of his estranged wife he must try to save the day while keeping his fractured family together.

As you might expect from a CGI-laden big-budget disaster blockbuster, ‘San Andreas’ is visually impressive with set-pieces of wanton destruction as good as anything we’ve seen and an epic score that sets a massive action scale, but even for a film of this type the neglect shown to every other aspect of the film is beyond disappointing.

‘San Andreas’ follows the same narrative you’ve seen in every other disaster movie offering nothing new and featuring attempts at emotional depth that are so cringeworthy they make Michael Bay movies seem profound, but at least Bay has the good sense to spread some camp humour over his cheesy film toast.

The entire creative talent in this film seems to be focused in the visual effects department but no amount of action and spectacular visuals can gloss over the incredibly predictable narrative and sub-par performances, not to mention the surprisingly dull hour or more between massive action set pieces.

Add to this the fact that ‘San Andreas’ exists in a California where virtually everyone looks like an Abercrombie & Fitch model with only Paul Giamatti to redress the balance, plus a PG sensibility that means no graphic consequences of the devastation and that fact that you can predict what will and won’t happen to every character from the start, the result is a film that’s barely memorable for Californians and completely forgettable for the rest of the world.

The Bottom Line…

Visually stunning and epic in scale, ‘San Andreas’ is little more than a collection of action set-pieces with no entertainment value beyond, predictable and lacking any depth, mildly enjoyable and completely forgettable.

‘San Andreas’ is out tomorrow in the UK, US and beyond

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Similar films you may like (Home Video)

Earthquake (1974)

When “The Big One”, the Earthquake everyone fears, finally hit Los Angeles, the city’s inhabitants, from city planners to criminals, struggle to cope with the aftermath in this 70’s disaster blockbuster starring screen legends Charlton Heston and Ava Gardner.

Directed by Mark Robson and starring Charlton Heston, Ava Gardner and George Kennedy among others.

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