Review: San Andreas (2015)

It’s been quite some time since I saw a disaster movie. Not counting Fantastic Four, har har! You know what I mean, catastrophe, earthquakes, tsunamis, that whole thing. Disaster movies seemed to be all the rage a few years ago, but I either got bored of them or there’s just not as many being made anymore! Anyway, my family and I held a big ol’ movie night the other weekend for the first time, and San Andreas (2015)  was deemed interesting enough for our audience ranging from 13-65. Argh, I saw this and I think I forgot to review it, says a lot about the film I think....

In San Andreas, California suffers multiple earthquakes, one which goes down on records as the biggest ever in history. Lawrence, a seismologist (Paul Giamatti) and his team have developed a device that can predict earthquakes, but no one seems to be listening to him. Meanwhile, Ray (Dwayne Johnson) is having some problems of his own. His divorce to Emma (Carla Gugino) is taking it’s toll, as her and their daughter Blake (Alexandra Daddario) are about to move in with Emma’s douchebag boyfriend Daniel (Ioan Gruffudd).

Within the first 5 minutes, I knew exactly what this move was going to be filled with. Stupid people doing stupid things. Sometimes, that’s all you need for a bit of enjoyment. The living room was filled with cries of:

“Don’t check your phone whilst driving round a mountain”

“Run! Why are you just standing there?!”

“Now is the perfect time for a kiss, obviously. Now run!”

“Does he own this helicopter, or has he just abandoned his day job?”

“RUN!”

Why did everyone spend so much time standing around having heart to hearts?!

This film provided so many flashbacks to the first time and Allie watched Sharknado, I can imagine her and all her family randomly shouting at the screen wondering how there happened to be a t-shirt with sleeves big enough for Dwayne Johnson's arms to fit in but still fit perfectly in the chest, in the store they happened to crash into!!

I think San Andreas needs an alternative title, let’s call it California and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day. It sums it up perfectly. (ha!!) Just when you think everything is okay for at least the next 5 minutes, the movie is just like ‘NOPE’ and throws something else into the mix. It’s exhausting to watch, but also quite funny in places. There’s this one moment where Ray and Emma are driving a boat just as the tsunami hits (obviously) but all is okay because Ray says they just need to drive over it before it crests, and then just as they reach the top, hey presto! There’s a gigantic freight ship just at the top. Doh! That scene was so amazing, I quite literally elbowed by Dad in the ribs to confirm that he too was in awe of the breaking of the laws of physics!  There were so many scenes in this film that defied the laws of physics, there was too many to count, but the quite clearly dead girl eventually coughing up a bit of water and being fine was pretty incredible, with no oxygen to her brain for approximately 5 minutes, surely she should have been brain dead, no?!

Honestly, San Andreas is one of the craziest movies I’ve ever seen. I’d nearly go as far as saying it’s like Sharknado with a giant budget, but I had an awful lot of fun watching it, too. The visual effects were pretty decent, and the action didn’t stop once for the nearly 2 hours run time.   I'm glad to see you agree on the Sharknado front, I just don't understand how a movie can be so bad with such a big budget, maybe they needed to put more of the money into the writers and less in the graphics.

It’s not something I fancy watching again, but it was the perfect choice for an action packed family movie night!  

I really wanted to love this film and it was great seeing the sights of San Francisco but where the terrible lines and ridiculous plot points in Sharknado is funny, in this it's just cringeworthy!!

Review: Into the Storm (2014)

I watched this film on a plane with pretty severe turbulence.  Tip: Don't watch this film on a plane with sever turbulence!!  It was like a 4D experience...

I had actually completely forgotten about this film until I saw it in the options on my flight, so I thought I would give it a go, I was a huge fan of Twister so it's got to be similar to that...right?

Into the Storm follows Gary (Richard Armitage) - who I have just realised was Thorin in The Hobbit, he looks soooo different!! Madness! - on a quest to rescue his son, a team of storm chasers and various townspeople during a barrage of tornadoes hitting the town of Silverton.

The film isn't actually that memorable, I remember being on the edge of my seat during parts and holding onto the arm rests but can't remember why.  This I think is where Twister takes the edge, it has much more memorable scenes that have gained somewhat cult status since it's release (the flying cow scene).  This film however, I don't really remember any specific scenes, although I did find it relatively entertaining throughout.

To be fair, you could sense the limited budget from the outset, it had a bit of a Sharknado feel to it but without being awesomely ridiculous, therefore neither clever or funny.  I was hoping for an improvement on Twister in regards to CGI but to me, there was no improvement in fact I think Twister's effects are still better.

I didn't feel much for any of the characters, Armitage and potential love interest Allison (Sarah Wayne Callies) share no chemistry whatsoever.  None of the characters are particularly likeable or relatable leaving you with a dull sense of 'meh' when one nearly dies or actually does die, instead of the twinge of sadness that you should get.

Love the idea and was reasonable entertained throughout but the lack of character chemistry meant I had limited investment in the outcome of the film.