'San Andreas' - Movie Review

A sweet story of a family recovering from the loss of a daughter ... in the midst of the world's largest ever earthquake. Dwayne Johnson is charming, manly, and not particularly talented in the acting department - as he always is. I think his acting is improving. A little. But I like him anyway. This time out he's a helicopter pilot, and the first task of the movie is to prove how good (and how manly) he is. And then we find out that much of California is going to fall into the sea, as he pines for his ex-wife (Carla Gugino). Together they have to rescue their daughter (Alexandra Daddario - shown first in a bikini for no reason except to prove how hot she is) in the middle of a disintegrating San Francisco. Paul Giamatti and Archie Panjabi (and Will Yun Lee, who exits the movie cruelly early) occupy a minor technical subplot that only exists to tell you just how bad the quakes are going to be.

The movie reminds me considerably of another I watched recently, the scientifically preposterous piece of tripe 2012. They're similar in that in both cases a man struggles against spectacular special effects to save his family from almost certain death. They're different in that this one offends mostly the laws of chance rather than the laws of science. And this one shows that you can have a lesser cast ("2012" had several of this continent's best actors, and they all phoned it in) and still be more charming. The writing's still bad - lousy dialogue, silly ideas - but the actors try harder than in "2012," and The Rock, as usual, absolutely radiates charisma even while his acting is weak.

You really shouldn't watch it, but if you feel the need for a mindless action disaster movie, there are plenty worse available.