San Andreas (DVD REVIEW)
San Andreas
DVD Review by Kam
Williams
Earthquake Disaster
Flick Released on DVD
If you were afraid to
swim in the ocean after watching Jaws, you might be just as reluctant
to visit San Francisco after seeing this spectacular disaster flick.
Directed by Brad Peyton (Journey 2), San Andreas features a
character-driven plot as appealing as its dizzying special f/x.
The film stars Dwayne
Johnson as Ray Gaines, a highly-decorated helicopter pilot with over
600 rescues on his resume. At the point of departure, we find the
fearless L.A. Fire Department chief risking life and limb to pluck an
accident victim (Stephanie Johnston) from a car dangling
precipitously over a deep canyon. To you or me, attempting such a
dangerous maneuver would be unthinkable, but to Ray, it's merely
business as usual.
Meanwhile, Professor
Lawrence Hayes (Paul Giamatti) is delivering a lecture at California
Institute of Technology on the incredible power of earthquakes. Then,
when a colleague (Will Yun Lee) detects some unusual seismic activity
in the vicinity of the Hoover Dam, the two quake chasers rush off to
observe the event firsthand.
They arrive in time to
witness the considerable wrath wrought by a shift in tectonic plates
registering 7.1 on the Richter scale. Worse, their state-of-the-art
gizmo indicates that this event wasn't an anomaly but rather a
precursor to an impending disaster of much greater magnitude.
The ensuing rip in the
San Andreas fault wreaks havoc all across the State of California. Of
course, Chief Gaines jumps into action, plucking his estranged wife,
Emma (Carla Gugino), from the roof of a teetering skyscraper before
pointing the chopper in the direction of the epicenter, San
Francisco.
That's where their
terrified daughter, Blake (Alexandra Daddario) called from after
being abandoned by her mom's billionaire boyfriend (Ioan Gruffudd).
At least she is in the company of a couple of chivalrous, young
British lads (Art Parkinson and Hugo Johstone-Burt).
Nevertheless, the
search is on, as the desperate parents negotiate a perilous gauntlet
to the Bay Area via air, sea and land, encountering everything from
turbulence to tsunamis to landslides en route. Unfolding like a
classic Seventies disaster flick, San Andreas serves up a smorgasbord
ofreadily-identifiable archetypes: the musclebound hero, the effete
coward, the damsel in distress, the terminally-nerdy professor, and
so on, each played with perfect aplomb by a talented cast.
Excellent (4 stars)
Rated PG-13 for
intense action, incessant mayhem and brief profanity
Running time: 114
minutes
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