Rated PG-13 / 1 hr 54 mins / Action - Drama - Thriller
What is it about?
Ray, played by The Rock, is a first responder with Fire and Rescue. He flies one of the animated helicopters from the Pixar film Planes. Thankfully it wasn't voiced by Dane Cook. He is supposed to go camping with his daughter and Smokey the Bear, but then there is an earthquake and forest fire in Nevada. Apparently Albert Haynesworth won on a slot machine and managed to jump half an inch. Ray was called in to respond to the resulting disaster. Lawrence, played by Paul Giamatti, has devised a way to predict the earthquakes with his research assistant. Fortunately his assistant isn't a big name actor, so they kill him off in the Albert Haynesworth earthquake. The squiggly lines on his computer screen say that the big one is coming to California. Ray now has to turn his helicopter around to save his daughter.
You will like it if...
You like disaster movies that are all about action with as little story as possible. The best comparison would be to the movie 2012. It's not filled with as much adrenaline, but it's not far off the mark. The special effects for the tsunami and the earthquake itself are stunning. At points I thought the theater was shaking, but that may have just been the guy I paid to kick my seat whenever the earthquakes happened. The problems come in with the main character's daughter Blake. She takes over big portions of the movie for no reason other than to have all the teenaged boys look at her breasts as they bounce. They are very nice as is the rest of Alexandra Daddario, but she's not the greatest actress. At points it feels like she is Mario and all the mushrooms with power ups have been laid out in front of her, but none of the CGI people can see them as they flail and get crushed by falling buildings. Another thing that bothered me is that The Rock plays a first responder, but instead of helping with the rescue effort he only cares about his ex and their daughter. He never once calls in for help or tries to help anyone else. He's made out to be the big hero, but the amount of people he saves from the earthquake can be counted on one hand. Ultimately San Andreas crumbles under the pressure, but has enough action to make it entertaining if you don't think about it too much.
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