Starring: Dwayne Johnson, Carla Gugino, Alexandra Daddario, Hugo Johnstone-Burt, Paul Giamatti
Director: Brad Peyton
Running Time: 114 mins
Certificate: 12
Release Date: October 12th 2015 (UK)

If you’d hoped that having Lost’s Carlton Cuse writing the screenplay would result in San Andreas being a more cerebral form of disaster movie, you should realise he was also an executive producer on Nash Bridges, so he is not averse to more straightforward entertainment. Indeed, it’s almost like he watched every Roland Emmerich movies – from 2012 and The Day After Tomorrow to Independence Day and Godzilla – and then used that as his template, but cut out anything too intelligent.

There is little to surprise here, although it certainly delivers on the large sale mayhem.

Dwayne Johnson is Los Angeles helicopter rescue pilot Ray, who’s dealing with the collapse of his marriage following the death of one of his children. However, he’s soon going to have more than that to worry about (actually, that’s not true as that’s all he cares about), when earthquakes start devastating California, starting at the Hoover Dam and then working its way up to San Francisco. And wouldn’t you know it, Ray’s daughter is in San Francisco, and so he sets off to rescue her, dodging city destroying shaking, tsunamis and general building destroying catastrophe along the way, as the San Andreas fault splits apart, resulting in the biggest quakes ever known. [Read more…]