San Andreas (2015)

Directed by: Brad Peyton
Country: USA / Australia

Movie Review: “San Andreas” not only addresses a terrible catastrophe, as it is a catastrophe itself. Among an array of earthquakes that keep devastating California, the all-muscles hyper-confident helicopter-rescue pilot, Ray (Dwayne Johnson), flies over Los Angeles to save his wife, Emma (Carla Gugino), who was preparing to divorce him, and then departs for San Francisco to rescue their bright daughter Blake (Alexanra Daddario). The former was having lunch on the rooftop of a building while the latter got stuck inside a car in a subterranean parking lot, abandoned by her mother’s selfish boyfriend. Blake's savior is Ben (Hugo Johnstone-Burt), a timid young man who was waiting to be called for a job interview, and was perplexed with her handsomeness. He gets her phone number thanks to the help of his extrovert little brother who was in his company that day. In parallel, we follow the earthquake expert, professor Lawrence Hayes (Paul Giamatti), a dull character who only screams ‘it’s coming!!’, hiding himself under the tables. Carlton Cuse wrote a plot where nothing comes out of it, even when squeezed until exhaustion. Being more concise: the plot is a sort of cheesy ‘nightmare’ while the acting, oscillating between the courageous and the sentimental type, becomes heavily discouraging. Relying on a shallow adventure that sucks whether it proceeds by air, land, or water, director Brad Peyton’s chances of becoming successful were even more dismissive if we think of the bumbling digital effects and swift camera movements that helped increasing the tumult. What’s the point of seeing the Earth cracking, buildings and bridges crumbling, and the water galloping into the shores, creating a ‘Venice’ of debris, while people scream and run with no direction? I couldn’t find any fun in it because the exaggerated “San Andreas” is simply one of the phoniest of the year. Did anyone mention a disaster?