Preview Movie Review

San Andreas
PG-13
Entertainment: +2
Acceptability: -3

Dwayne Johnson, Carla Gugino, Alexandra Daddario, Ioan Gruffudd, Archie Panjabi, Hugo Johnstone-Burt, Art Parkinson, Paul Giamatti. Action Thriller. Written by Carlton Cuse Directed by Brad Peyton.

FILM SYNOPSIS: After the infamous San Andreas Fault finally gives, triggering a magnitude 9 earthquake in California, a search and rescue helicopter pilot (Dwayne Johnson) and his estranged wife make their way together from Los Angeles to San Francisco to save their only daughter. But their treacherous journey north is only the beginning, and when they think the worst may be over…it’s just getting started.

This film has been rated PG-13 for intense disaster action and mayhem throughout, and strong language.

PREVIEW REVIEW: You come to a movie about earthquakes, not for a deep message or even an environmental lesson, for the amazing (awesome) CGI effects. Well, if you want incredible and unimaginable things happening before your eyes, San Andreas is the movie for you. And I’m pleased to say that the actors don’t get in the way. Though The Rock (I still call him that) is a limited actor, he’s not a bad one. He comes to the movie prepared and gives us want we want…a hero in the John Wayne mold.

Alas, nice messages and a serious warning that could have given the movie substance are lost within the corny dialogue and preposterous situations, and the testosterone-fueled main character and his life taking center stage in the midst of an apocalyptic disaster. I come back to the CGI visuals, which are eye-grabbing: they’re also unnerving. Have we really gotten to the point where no amount of death and destruction on screen upsets us?

Hope this cataclysmic disturbance doesn’t happen in any of our lifetimes, ‘cause when it does, not even The Rock will be able to save the day.

Preview Reviewer: Phil Boatwright
Distributor: New Line Cinema/Village Roadshow Pictures

Summary
Crude Language: None
Obscene Language: Frustrated and fearful, people are constantly uttering obscenities, profaning the names of God or Christ, and relieving tension with the catch phrase “Oh my God,” which is used in movies mostly by people who never pray.
Profanity: The hero and most everybody else get a chance to profane God’s name or His Son’s.
Violence: From beginning to end, the jolting, destructive collapse of most of California will be unnerving to many, while merely digested along with popcorn and Coke by others.
Sexual Intercourse: Who’s got time for sex?
Nudity: None
Homosexual Conduct: None
Sexually Suggestive Action/Dialog: None
Drug Abuse: None
Other: None
Running Time: 114 minutes
Intended Audience: Fans of end-of-the-World movies