Sunday 31 May 2015

SAN ANDREAS

Starring: Dwayne Johnson, Carla Gugino, Alexandra Daddario
Writer: Carlton Cuse
Director: Brad Peyton

** WARNING: CONTAINS MINOR SPOILERS, ONE OF WHICH IS ABOUT WHETHER A CHARACTER IN THE MOVIE IS THE USUAL DISASTER MOVIE VILLAIN OR NOT **

It's the Rock versus Nature in Brad Peyton's disaster movie as The Rock goes head to head with a series of earthquakes in a race against time to save daughter Blake (Daddario) from falling into a bloody great hole with the rest of California.

Carlton Cuse's script wastes no time in wheeling out all of those clichéd disaster movie characters we know and love. Johnson as a no-nonsense, morally upstanding, soon-to-be-divorced hero trying to deal with a dark event in his past? Check. Carla Gugino as the soon-to-be-ex-wife, who might still be in love with hubby even though she's just moved in with wealthy property developer Daniel (Ioan Gruffudd)? Check. Alexandra Daddario as Ray's resourceful, drop-dead gorgeous, studious, volleyball playing daughter who's a bit of a chip off the old Rock block? Check. Ioan Gruffudd as the aforementioned property developer who's kind to animals, gives a million dollars away to charity each year and volunteers at a soup kitchen? Check. Nah, that last one isn't a check. The guy's a wealthy property developer. Guess whether or not he ends up being a self-serving piece of crap?

Kylie Minogue as Daniel's icy sister Susan? Check. Paul Giamatti as the California Institute of Technology's foremost seismology expert, called upon to dispense wisdom, warn of worse to come and worry from the sidelines? Check. Hold on - KYLIE MINOGUE? Yes, the Antipodean pop princess is there, struggling with an American accent in a blink-and-you'll-miss her appearance.

Okay, it's easy to pick holes in all of this and a fair amount of the dialogue is risible (example: There's a hundred-foot wave coming towards the boat Johnson is driving. Johnson's line: "I see it". Really? Good spot!) but this is, by and large, an entertaining enough exercise that breezes by and keeps the destruction coming with pleasing regularity. The quieter moments don't really lend much to the movie other than to give the audience a breather before more buildings collapse and more of California's landmarks are wiped out but Johnson and Gugino make for an agreeable enough team-up, managing to deliver some hoary old lines with more conviction than they deserve.

Less successful is the subplot involving Daddario, Brit survivor Ben (Hugo Johnstone-Burt) and Ben's kid brother Ollie (Art Parkinson). Johnstone-Burt doesn't do a bad line in Hugh Grant-style English oh gosh-style bumbling but his native Aussie accent does show up on occasion. I'm perfectly willing to let that slide. Ollie, however, is possibly the most annoying character in the movie. More annoying than the wealthy property developer? Well, yes. Ollie is the sort of kid brother that probably looked hilarious, smart and cute on the page. On the screen he's just massively annoying, whether he's making a slightly unsavoury aside after his first meeting with Daddario's character or constantly referring to his guidebook about San Francisco. I was hoping for another earthquake to hit just so he'd shut up.

Enough about Ollie, even though his very presence is akin to Robert Shaw dragging his nails down the blackboard in that scene from Jaws over and over and over again. The rest of the cast is rather decent, it has to be said. Daddario is good as a smart, resourceful, female character that isn't cut from the normal damsel-in-distress template. Gugino is worth seeing in pretty much anything and Giamatti, even though he's kind of slumming it here, turns in his usual great work and it's a shame the movie relegates him to the relative safety of his academic base for most of the running time.

Now to Dwayne Johnson. Look, the guy isn't likely to be doing Shakespeare anytime soon but he gives a perfectly decent performance here and the guy has charisma. As the main character he carries the movie - lightweight though it is - with very few problems. Okay, he has good support around him from the likes of Gugino and Giamatti but when Johnson is on-screen you're not grinding your teeth and praying for the whole thing to end.

Of course, despite the fact that I'm banging on about the performances, most people are going to be buying their ticket for San Andreas on the promise of huge, destructive action sequences of which there are several. Buildings are razed, bridges twist and collapse and lots of extras are wiped out with somewhat disturbing abandon. Some of the mayhem is predictably implausible but the proceedings within these set-pieces are brisk enough not to question too much of it as you're watching it.

This may not sound especially helpful in terms of a review but if you generally like this kind of movie then you'll probably like this one too. If you normally hate this kind of movie then San Andreas doesn't stand much chance of winning you over. For me, I went in expecting a big, loud, dumb popcorn movie and that's more or less what I got. I was in the right mood and I liked it, save for the last ten minutes which chucked in one drama too many, one implausible - but thuddingly predictable - return from the dead and an epilogue so heavy-handed you'd think it was directed by someone wearing iron gloves. It's far from the best movie I've seen this year but it's some way from the worst (yes, Mortdecai, I'm still looking at you). See it if you're a fan of The Rock or if you like your seismology talk delivered by Paul Giamatti.

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