Movie Synopsis Ray Gaines is a rescue pilot for the Los Angeles Fire Department. He and his team are ex-military who performed rescue missions in the Middle East. The movie starts off showing Ray's expert piloting skills and bravery when he saves a women who got driven off a cliff in the hills of LA. Ray has a daughter, Blake Gaines (Alexandra Daddario) and he is getting divorced from his wife Emma Gaines (Carla Gugino). Their family has been struggling with the death of their younger daughter who drowned during a rafting trip. Ray hasn't been the same since. Blake is heading to college in San Francisco and she flies with her very rich mom's boyfriend Daniel Riddick (Ioan Gruffudd). We then move to Dr. Lawrence Hayes (Paul Giamatti) a Caltech seismologist. He is working with Dr. Kim Park (Will Yun Lee) on research that will help predict earthquakes using magnetic impulses as a predictor. The scientists learn of minor tremors near the Hoover Dam and get excited to test their theory there. They head out and find out that their model is predictive, unfortunately while they are testing it their predictive indicators show that a major earthquake is about to hit the Hoover Dam. Dr. Kim Park tells Dr. Lawrence it will be a 7.1 magnitude. It hits much quicker than expected and Dr. Kim is still inside the Hoover Dam. Hoover Dam starts collapsing and Dr. Lawrence is helping people get away from the dangerous Dam, while Dr. Kim tries to escape. Dr. Kim's foot gets pierced on some rebar. The Hoover Dam collapses and takes Dr. Kim with it killing him. Dr. Lawrence goes back to his lab distraught but determined to continue the work he and Kim started. As that happens the San Andreas fault line starts reacting as a bunch of earthquakes hit across the state of California from LA to San Francisco. A 9.1 earthquake hits LA and Ray saves Emma from a building that is close to collapsing in his helicopter. The 9.1 earthquake also hits San Francisco and a piece of the parking garage crushes the car Daniel and Blake are in. Daniel is able to get out but Blake has her legs trapped. Daniel tells Blake he is going to go get help and abandons her. She calls her father, Ray and pleads for help. Luckily two British brothers Ben and Ollie Taylor (Hugo Johnstone-Burt and Art Parkinson) hear her cries for help and manage to lift the concrete block off her. They head out and see the aftermath destruction of San Francisco. Ray and Emma in their helicopter make the decision to go to San Francisco to rescue their daughter. Emma is pissed her boyfriend Daniel abandoned her daughter. Unfortunately, their helicopter was damaged during the rescue and they crash. Ray and Emma steal a stolen car and start driving to San Fran. Blake, Ben, and Ollie start trying to get to high ground for her dad to save them. Dr. Lawrence is doing research and learns that this earthquake is just the beginning. There will be a bigger one that hits San Francisco (the biggest ever recorded), he manages to get on television and warns to evacuate San Francisco. Ray and Emma get about 100 miles from San Francisco but the highways are destroyed and they can't cross a huge gap in the Earth. They convince an elderly couple to trade their stolen truck for a plane and they fly to San Francisco. The airport has been destroyed so they skydive into AT&T Park. As they land the big earthquake hits destroying portions of AT&T Park. The city has been devastated and they need a way to find Blake. They steal a boat and start driving up the bay to find her when they realize that the earthquake has caused a tsunami. We get a cool scene where they have drive their boat over the crest of the tsunami to survive. The tsunami devastates San Francisco and floods the city. Blake, Ben, and Ollie manage to find higher ground in a building under construction. However, the building is starting to collapse. Ray and Emma start searching the city for Blake. The tsunami is slowly englufing the building. Ray and Emma manage to find Blake, but just as that happens the building finally gives in and Blake gets trapped underwater. Ray swims into the building and manages to get Blake out, but it appears he was too late as her lungs have taken on water. Emma drives the boat through the collapsing building and they all manage to escape. In a dramatic moment Ray manages to resuscitate Blake and they get to safety high on a hill above San Francisco. We end with panning shot of the devastation laid to San Francisco and Ray says "It is time to rebuild" (Personally I think it is time to move away from a fault line). The Rock Rating: 7.5/10We have Ray Gaines in this one. He is a search and rescue pilot, which is a perfect job for this movie. Dwayne Johnson plays the hero in this as his training kicks in for this mega disaster. He gives a good performance as he is emotionally closed off after his daughter's death, but still tries to be a good dad even though his marriage has fallen apart as a result. He definitely is a little bit of an adrenaline junkie as he relishes his chance to be a hero. He is able to repair his relationship with his ex-wife as the disaster has allowed him to open up. We get a touching scene between Dwayne and Carla before they fly off to San Francisco. We don't get the big action Dwayne Johnson in this, he uses his muscles to move big things instead of knocking people out. He does some cool maneuvers that are man vs nature. Showing off his pilot skills in the LA canyon, the skydiving into AT&T, outrunning a tsunami, and saving his daughter are all heroic Dwayne style scenes. I liked his performance in this 7.5/10. Can You Smell What The Rock Is Cooking Scene of the Movie I had a couple of scenes that runs the spectrum of thriller/action to dramatic acting for this movie.
Blake knowing her time is up and telling her parents she loves them. You have Dwayne going "Don't you quit on me!". That drowning jerking motion Blake has is like ahhh that looks like a terrible way to die. Then Dwayne goes into action hero mode kicking a door off its hinges to save his daughter. Finally we end it with some fun boat driving from Emma as she crashes into the building and barely escapes. This scene and the tsunami scene were the two I remembered from when I first watched this movie. The entire movie I was wondering when do they run their boat into a building again. So here it is. Overall Movie Rating: 6.5/10 This is a classic disaster movie. It doesn't the break mold in any way. It basically has similar plots to the other big disaster movies I can think of 2012 and Day After Tomorrow. It revolves around a guy trying to save his family and just make it out alive. There is also the scientist who is there to say "I told you this would happen". So, it doesn't get any marks for originality. The CGI is good and we get to see San Francisco get obliterated. Dwayne and Carla do a good job in this. I feel like this movie in Imax 3D would be really cool, but watching it on my old 55 inch TV doesn't do it justice. Which is probably the main problem with this movie. It is not interesting enough from a plot perspective to stand on its own without the cool special effects. So if you don't have a state of the art home movie theater you are losing the experience of this movie. This means the re-watch value goes down. So we give it a 6.5/10. It's one of those movies you have to see in theaters. Kinda like Avatar (but not as good as it). One problem with COVID reviews, you can't get that movie theater experience. Knockout Pushup Count: 1 Dwayne knocks out 1 crook who is taking advantage of the chaos to loot a department store and steal a car. Dwayne proceeds to steal the crook's stolen car. 1 pushup. Fun Notes Thoughts on San Andreas.
That is all for San Andreas. We are moving onto Central Intelligence as we get back to my personal favorite genre for Dwayne Johnson the action/comedy. Also we will have another guest spot for Central Intelligence. This is another ROCKATHON friend, but its not the same one so I am going to title him THE ROCKATHON'S OTHER FRIEND.
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AuthorBrian here. Watching every single Dwayne Johnson movie and posting my thoughts and rankings! Make a comment if you like! Archives |