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.
I haven’t gotten to see this movie yet but want to. It looks action packed.
Me neither. All Rock movies are action packed that is what I like about them!
If this is an action movie, my Hubs would love it. We take turns picking the movies we go to.
I have not seen this one yet. My husband went to see it when he was staying at his sister’s house for a conference recently. He wasn’t super impressed. They enjoyed the movie and the special effects were great I think but he didn’t say much more than that.
Oh I hate that. I wonder what he didn’t like?
I can’t decide if I want to see this movie in the theater or when it comes out on dvd. I do love the Rock though.
I haven’t seen it yet, but I definitely want to. I love the rock.
I have not heard of this movie yet. I love The Rock. I will have to add this to my movie list!
I probably won’t see this in theaters. My husband will. He loves action movies.
I love Dwayne so I’ll for sure be catching this movie. It looks really good, as most of his movies really are!
This looks like an intense movie that I may go see. I’d probably not be able to sleep after seeing it because it looks so realistic.
I haven’t seen a high budget blockbuster in a while now. It sounds like it’s full of cliches but it could be a fun popcorn movie.
Have zero interest in this movie. Mostly because it’s full of things that will never happen.
How do you know they will never happen? San Andreas is a story about earthquakes along the fault line through California. It’s my understanding that there is a real scientific possibility that something similar {though hopefully not as severe} could happen one day.
Yes, that part is true but alot of what happens in the movie, according to scientist would never happen. The magnitude for one thing would be impossible. I read this whole article about how the movie was so scientifically inaccurate and unnecessarily scaring the heck out of people. But I’m sure a whole host of people won’t care about that and enjoy the movie a ton.
Thanks for sharing. Yeah, I am sure they embellished quite a bit. It is a movie after all. 🙂
There is a fault line there, though, so I think that people who are scared by this movie were probably already scared to begin with.
This was a great movie. We went to see it in 3D on Father’s Day and enjoyed it.
I bet it was really awesome to see in 3D!
I heard that this was really good. And the rock is easy on the eyes.
The Rock definitely is easy on the eyes, isn’t he. 🙂
I love intense action. Plus I am a fan of the Rock so this is perfect for me
I think this movie looks like a great summer blockbuster! I know I’ll be toting the family out to the theaters to see this one! Action and Dwayne Johnson on the big screen? Absolutely!
I haven’t seen this movie yet but it’s on our list of movies to see this summer. I think my husband would love it.
I love a good action packed movie. Maybe it should go on our list!
I like movies like these that are relatable especially since the San Andreas plates are real! This is on my list of movies to see for Summer
My husband really wants to see this. Living in earthquake country…I am not so sure I do. Most likely we will see it this weekend or over the holiday weekend.
I’ve been seeing a lot of great reviews for this movie. We’re planning to see it this weekend.
I went to see this on opening day and actually enjoyed it. I’m not that big of a fan of disaster movies but this one was actually pretty good and I’m also a Rocky fan. 🙂
I do love a good disaster flick! And how can you NOT sit and watch “The Rock” for a few hours LOL
Anything with The Rock in it, I’m all for it! I usually don’t do these type of movies but I’ll make an exception for him! 🙂
My husband and daughter went to see this a few weeks ago. They loved it. I’ll have to wait for it to release on DVD before I can see it.
We definitely want to see this movie…lots of action. I think seeing it on the movie screen would be amazing.
I’ve been debating about going to see this movie. Thanks for the review. It will help me make a decision.
Great. We hope you love it if you go see it. 🙂
First time I have seen this trailer. I love THE ROCK! Will be seeing this!
The Rock is my husband’s favorite actor, and after reading this review, I will definitely be going with him to see this one in the theaters.
This looks like it is going to be a great movie. I will have to go and see it with my girlfriends.
This looks like a good movie.im going to have to go see it!
We haven’t yet seen this. My son really wants to. Kind of scares the pee=pee out of me to think about it LOL
My Goodness, Rock is my husband’s favorite actor & this sounds like a great movie to watch. The official trailer looks very interesting & full of action, I am sure my husband would love to watch it right away.
Wonderful review !!! For this weekend we had a choice to either watch San Andreas or Jurassic Park. While my DH wanted to watch San Andreas , but my kids wanted to watch JP. So JP it is.
My daughter saw Jurassic World and loved it. Perhaps you will get to see San Andreas at some point, too.
Sounds like a great movie! I was tempted to send Hubby alone but since you said it had romance in it, maybe I’ll give it a shot. 🙂
I live in California, so a movie about an earthquake is a bit scary to me. However, I also enjoy a good disaster movie! I’m sure I’ll get around to watching this some time.
I definitely want to see this one. I like end of the world type movies. Great review.
I have not heard of this movie. But I know I want to see it because I love the Rock.
I never heard nor seen this movie – not much a fan but I do feel interested because of the lead, haha!
Anything with The Rock starring in it, I’ll watch 🙂