Recently Dawn and I took the opportunity to check out the new movie San Andreas. If you are thinking about heading out to the theater but you are not sure whether or not you want to see this movie, then here is my review to help you figure out if you do indeed want to see it. After all, who wants to waste money on a movie that they don’t know anything about? Especially if it stinks. Continue reading to find out if this movie stinks or is awesome!

San Andreas Movie Review

San Andreas stars Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson as Ray Gaines, a helicopter pilot for Los Angeles Fire and Rescue, Carla Gugino as his estranged wife, Emma, and Alexandra Daddario as their daughter, Blake. The movie also features Paul Giamatti as Dr. Lawrence Hayes, a seismologist at Cal Tech who discovers a way to predict earthquakes, and Hugo Johnstone-Burt as Ben Taylor, a young British college graduate looking for a job in San Francisco. San Andreas also features Ioan Gruffudd (most noted for his role as Reed Richards in the Fantastic 4 films) as Daniel Riddick, Emma’s new love interest and Archie Panjabi as Serena Johnson, a news reporter covering the earthquakes, and finally, Art Parkinson as Ollie, Ben’s younger brother.

Plotline {Minor Spoilers}:
San Andreas starts out with Ray Gaines separated from his wife, Emma, and haunted by the death of one of their two daughters. He is scheduled to take their other daughter, Blake, back to school when a massive earthquake strikes Hoover Dam in Nevada, causing massive fatalities and injuries and prompting the LAFD to help out with rescue efforts, including Ray.

When Ray heads over to see Emma and Blake to apologize, he discovers that they have moved in with Emma’s new love interest, Daniel Riddick. He leaves angry and upset. The next day, however, as he is taking the helicopter for maintenance before leaving, he feels bad about how he acted and calls Emma up to apologize, only to find that she is trapped on the upper floors of a high rise and an earthquake is shaking Los Angeles. He turns the helicopter around and heads back to save her.

Meanwhile, Blake and Daniel have left together for San Francisco, where Blake is in school. They stop at a high rise that Daniel’s company has designed and built. While Daniel is busy conducting his business, Blake sits down and meets Ben, a young British college graduate there for a job interview. As Daniel and Blake are leaving, the earthquake strikes San Francisco and Blake is trapped inside the limousine in which they were riding. Daniel leaves her to get help, but never returns.

Ben and his younger brother, Ollie, come to Blake’s aid and they narrowly escape as aftershocks continue to strike the area. Blake is able to contact her father and they arrange a meeting place. However, when Blake arrives at the meeting place, it has been destroyed by the earthquake, and finding a safe meeting place won’t be easy. Also, she has lost contact with her dad, so he doesn’t know where to look for her.

Meanwhile, Dr. Lawrence Hayes, who works at Cal Tech and has only recently discovered a method of predicting earthquakes, too late to save people from this one unfortunately, is warning people that the worst is yet to come. What happens next will have you on the edge of your seat for the next, say, hour or so of the movie!

Jay’s Thoughts

I thought that the movie was full of intense action and suspense. You are left wondering how and if some of the people will escape the situations they get into. I won’t say that the acting was Oscar worthy, but it is good enough to be believable. The special effects were intense as well. The story line is actually fairly believable. I have found that many times in disaster movies like these they tend to go too far and it becomes really incredibly unbelievable. I didn’t think this one was. Sure, it does push the limits somewhat, but it wasn’t too far, I felt. All in all, I found it to be extremely entertaining.

Dawn’s Thoughts

If you are looking for an action film that keeps your adrenaline pumping, from what I have seen so far, this is the best one of the summer. I love that there are strong female roles in this movie and that females aren’t always portrayed as “damsels in distress” waiting to be saved. San Andreas movie has a ton of action and some really scary scenes as well {be ready immediately as this movie is hopping all the way through}, so you might want to think about this with the younger audience. It also has a fair amount of romance so those into chick flicks might really enjoy this movie, as well. For me, San Andreas is the best movie I have seen all summer and is perhaps the best one of the year along with with Furious 7.

I agree with what Jay said as far as the acting goes, except for Carla Gugino. I think she did a phenomenal job in this movie. Her character was terrified through most of the movie, naturally, and I found her very believable. Dwayne Johnson is also very believable as a hero-type. I mean, look at him.

Have You Seen San Andreas? Do You Agree With Our Review? Are You Planning On See It?