'San Andreas' has remarkable CGI effects
The movie has cornball disaster-brings-families-together underpinnings, but 'San Andreas' is a respectable entry in the disaster movie genre.
'San Andreas' stars Dwayne Johnson (l.) and Carla Gugino (r.).
Jasin Boland/Warner Bros. Pictures/AP
I鈥檓 something of a sucker for disaster movies. 鈥淓arthquake,鈥� 鈥淭he Poseidon Adventure,鈥� 鈥淭he Towering Inferno鈥� 鈥� bring 'em on. I鈥檓 not sure there鈥檚 ever been a disaster movie that was actually a聽good聽movie, but that鈥檚 almost beside the point. The point is to watch things blow up real big.
鈥淪an Andreas鈥� doesn鈥檛 have the accouterments of the genre at its best: no cavalcade of slightly over-the-hill stars, no scenes of panic in the White House, etc. But it鈥檚 a respectable entry anyway. Dwayne Johnson 鈥� would it really be so terrible if he still billed himself as The Rock? 鈥� plays an active-duty Los Angeles Fire Department search-and-rescue helicopter pilot who, once the Big One hits, spends much of the movie rescuing his wife (Carla Gugino), who is divorcing him for a ninny billionaire, and then, mission accomplished, saving his daughter (Alexandra Daddario), who is trapped in the rubble that used to be San Francisco. (This part plays out a bit like an apocalyptic version of 鈥淭aken,鈥� with Mother Nature subbing for the kidnappers.)聽
The CGI effects in this film, directed by Brad Peyton, are quite remarkable and help take one鈥檚 mind off the cornball disaster-brings-families-together underpinnings. Johnson is stalwart 鈥� boy, is he stalwart 鈥� and the rest of the cast does a good job of mimicking fright while, no doubt, hollering in front of a blue screen inside a studio. Paul Giamatti plays a Caltech scientist who blows the whistle on the Big One, though not with very much lead time at all.聽
I do wish the film had played up a bit more how obnoxious these seismologists can be 鈥� they鈥檙e practically gleeful 鈥� when reporting the bad news on TV. And the film ends on an upbeat note that can only be called wishful thinking. If you were hoping for a sequel, 鈥淪an Andreas 鈥� The Aftershock,鈥� you鈥檙e way too cynical for these auteurs. Grade: B (Rated PG-13 for intense disaster action and mayhem throughout, and brief strong language.)