Monday Movie Mania - San Andreas

I haven't posted much in the last couple of weeks because of some major family drama that I can't really discuss publicly. The stress has been pretty bad so DH and I went to the movies to relax. (GK stayed home to play Xbox with a peer.)

I wanted, no, I NEEDED a little mind candy. And you really can't go wrong with Dwayne Johnson!

San Andreas harks back to the disaster flicks that were popular twenty years ago, such as Twister and Dante's Peak, which in turn, owed a lot to the Irwin Allen adrenaline fests of the '70's.

Johnson plays Ray Gaines, an LAFD rescue pilot who's in the middle of a divorce from his wife Emma (the ever fabulous Carla Gugino). Their daughter is on a trip to San Francisco with mom's new boyfriend (Ioan Gruffudd). Meanwhile two Caltech seismologists discover their methodology for predicting quakes works when a previously unknown minor fault line moves.


* * * SPOILERS * * *


PROS
1) The effects guys used news footage of the 1989 Loma Prieta quake (which was measured at 6.9) and the 2011 Japanese tsunami to create very realistic visions of what would happen to Los Angeles and San Francisco if the event of a 9+ quake.

2) This movie is rated PG-13, however there's no gore and very little language. (Seriously, I think Emma says, "Shit", when she realizes the skyscraper restaurant she's in is about to collapse, and that's it.)  I'm really not sure why this didn't get PG.

3) Will Yun Lee and Paul Giamatti as the Caltech geniuses. 'Nuff said. Other than they should have had more screen time. (Sorry, Dwayne!)


CONS
1) What the writers/director did to Will's character fifteen minutes into the movie! Seriously, dudes! Will's finally playing a good guy who's brilliant and you do that?! (I wonder if we can get Will a job on The Big Bang Theory.)

2) Defying the laws of reality.

     a) That much dust and smoke is going to clog your air intake on your copter engine almost immediately.

     b) That much debris is going to crack or break rotor blades.

    c) A damaged, half-built skyscraper is not going to gracefully sink into the tsunami waters.

3) Ioan Gruffudd cannot play an asshole no matter how much he tries. He just doesn't have it in him. Oh, and he also mouthed , "Shit", right before....Well, let's just say his character was supposed to deserve what happens to him.


Like I said, this was mind candy movie where you rooted for the heroes and the family was reunited at the end. This is not Oscar-contending material, nor was it meant to be.

I'd give it a 7.5 out of 10.