SAN ANDREAS
Sometimes you just have to view an action-packed special effects movie on the big screen...and this is one of them. I had been lobbying my Monday Dollar Matinee movie group to go see it, but they're a bunch of elderly ladies who usually opt for a sappy teen angst movie, Helen Mirren's latest or -- ugh -- anything by Nicholas Sparks. During my lobbying I heard such pithy comments as "Oh, I don't want to be scared" or "I lived in the San Francisco Bay Area and it would shatter my memory." Really? I was in Oakland during Loma Prieta and almost had a 3-story brick chimney collapse on me, BUT I WANNA SEE THIS FILM! So I grabbed my hubby on Labor Day and off we went as I couldn't predict when it will exit the theaters.
The special effects are spectacular, and anyone familiar with Los Angeles, Hoover Dam or San Francisco will enjoy picking out familiar ill-fated landmarks. My favorite bit in the movie was a split-second (literally one second of screen time) where a BART train unearthed in the background. Some things are not quite accurate and if you think on it too hard pretty unplausible, but that's cinematic license. Bakersfield, alas, got no real landmark tribute, just a bunch of white trash looters.
Anyway, the dialogue is simple and I doubt they'll ever close-caption this film because everyone is pretty much shouting their lines, so lip reading is easy. The plot is pretty simple, too. "The Rock" -- of course -- gets to save the day multiple times...not a big surprise as they even give him a hero-image career.
I give it two thumbs up for the special effects. And, ladies (if you're reading this) it is not a scary movie. Grab some popcorn and enjoy.
