Emma (Carla Gugino) and Ray (Dwayne Johnson) search for their daughter in SAN ANDREAS
SAN ANDREAS (Brad Peyton, 2015)
Opens Thursday, May 28
www.sanandreasmovie.com
“The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars,” Cassius says in Julius Caesar, and indeed, San Andreas is not the fault of its stars, Dwayne “the Rock” Johnson and Carla Gugino, who try their best in this disaster of a disaster movie. Johnson is Ray Gaines, a Los Angeles Fire Department search-and-rescue chopper pilot going through a divorce with his wife, Emma (Gugino), who is shacking up with her new beau, ridiculously wealthy architecture mogul Daniel Riddick (Ioan Gruffudd). Ray and Emma clearly still care for each other, but they have been torn apart by the tragic loss of one of their daughters; they are both very close with their remaining daughter, Blake (Alexandra Daddario), who is about to head off for college in Northern California. But an earthquake in Nevada that destroys the Hoover Dam triggers further destruction in Los Angeles and San Francisco, and Ray is soon commandeering vehicle after vehicle to save his family. Meanwhile, Caltech seismologist Dr. Lawrence Hayes (Paul Giamatti) is tracking the quakes, putting his new theory to work to predict where and when the next rift will happen, and how devastating it will be, desperate to get his message to the public via an investigative journalist (Archie Panjabi) before it’s too late.
Oscar winner Paul Giamatti stars as a seismologist in disaster epic
Director Brad Peyton, who previously teamed up with producer Beau Flynn and Johnson on Journey 2: The Mysterious Island, borrows elements from such disaster flicks as Airport, Tidal Wave, Titanic, The Towering Inferno, The Day After Tomorrow, The Poseidon Adventure, and, of course, Earthquake, but not even Sensurround could have helped the absurd plot twists that threaten to set new records on the ludicrosity scale, at times evoking the Kentucky Fried Movie spoof That’s Armageddon. (The often mind-numbing screenplay is by Carlton Cuse, who cocreated Lost and is currently behind such other television series as The Strain and The Returned.) Destruction of all kinds runs rampant throughout San Andreas, but death is barely acknowledged, which does a disservice to some of the real-life tragedies the film evokes, including Hurricane Katrina, the Fukushima disaster, and 9/11. Perhaps we have become inured to such horrific events, as Peyton gets so caught up in special effects — buildings collapsing, fiery explosions, giant floods, in 3D! — that he discounts the human aspect, except for his protagonists (which also include Hugo Johnstone-Burt and Art Parkinson as British brothers helping Blake), who are apparently immune to most of what is going on around them. There are plenty of unintentional moments of laughter — although it is funny that Ray’s rival for Emma’s affections is named Riddick, the name of the character portrayed by Vin Diesel, Johnson’s fellow bald action star — but through it all, the eminently likable Johnson and Gugino are actually steadfast and strong, turning in solid performances among all the maddening mayhem. And Sia’s version of the Mamas and the Papas’ “California Dreamin’” over the closing credits is pretty cool, too. But I still miss Sensurround.