San Andreas (2015)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2015
	Director: Brad Peyton (Journey 2: The Mysterious Island)
	Actors: Dwayne Johnson (The Mummy Returns, Pain & Gain), Carla Gugino (Watchmen, Sin City), Alexandra Daddario (Percy Jackson 1-2, Baywatch)
	Country: USA
	Genre: Action
	Conditions of visioning: 17.05.2017, VOD, 40' TV screen.
Synopsis: Helicopter Rescue Pilot Ray Gaines (Johnson) rushes to rescue his ex-wife and daughter (Gugino, Daddario) through the ruins of the American West coast devastated by several major Earthquakes.
Review: Already from its trailer this disaster movie promised devastation scenes in the scale of what was recently seen in 2012, but aiming at being more realistic as supposed to depict the long awaited Big One. The reference for me is the 1974 Earthquake with Charlton Heston, produced at the time of the height of the disaster movies (and the same year as The Towering Inferno for example). Obviously two generations have passed and San Andreas must show a different kind of spectacle. Where you had people of all ages struggling and helping each other in a limited area of a city torn down at the beginning of the movie, you now have on one side the family father and on the other his hot daughter and two other youngs, miraculously surviving not one but about three shakes and a tsunami and fire, flood... all the worst calamities you can imagine. I guess this is the minimum required nowadays to keep the teenage audience awake throughout two hours of movie. So character-wise San Andreas is typical of the worst you can find in Hollywood nowadays, in spite of decent actors just doing their job. Visually San Andreas is an eye-candy. The disaster scenes are monumental and I was in particular impressed by the amount of details in every shot (floating and flying debris, people, ...). I guess some new CGI software came out recently to allow that. It must be a good movie to watch on a large screen, although some scenes even look fake like the first car accident or the boat rides; I am wondering if any of the water scenes of the movie were actually shot on water. Not as bad as I may have expected (like the aforementioned 2012), but do not expect a great movie either.
Rating: 5 /10