San Andreas

Nobody expected a revolutionary cliché-free contribution to the genre, not even from Warner Bros. The same goes for Emmerichian wit and insight. The characters are fine, unlike those in last year’s Into the Storm, and better than those in Poseidon. So, overall it’s an alright movie, a display of decent craft without errors and surprises. (27/05/2015)

A great feet-up movie where the main attractions in my eyes aren’t San Fierro blowing up, but Alexandra "look at them wobble" Daddario and her movie mother. The Rock puts on a good performance and the movie certainly doesn’t lack entertainment. The putting the family back together plot line is typically Americana dumb, but suffices for this popcorn piece. (29/10/2016)

It's actually awful bollocks, but Dwayne Johnson is a likeable guy, Carla Gugino and Alexandra Daddario are very nice to look at, and there's always something going on. Sometimes that's all I need. (29/08/2015)

My guess is that the screenplay was rewritten six times which, as a result, is not able to maintain even a hint of consistency / escalation in both storylines (family / seismologist). Horrible dialogues, rubber acting, tricks that can be bought for 100 million today, amusement park directing. For 4DX cinema, it can work as a tech demo. I am giving the film a single star just for its hint of an interesting ideological storyline, in which the almost shocking selfish concentration of the man responsible for saving others on his family plays a role. There has not been such a strictly individualistic disaster film for a long time that would place the restoration of America purely on the shoulders of capable individuals who fight only their private wars. Unfortunately, even this factor is there purely for laughter. This movie as broken as the world it depicts. The earthquake comes as a divine punishment when the characters have nothing more to say. And that's basically the case all the time with San Andreas. On my Richter scale of nonsense, it’s a pure ten. (28/05/2015)

The Rock acts (and is likeable) about as well as Sylvester Stallone in the 1990s, but back then, Stallone wouldn't have acted in a film this silly. One cliché after another, and it relies on amazing the viewer with effects, which are not overwhelming, and pretty soon they get old, and it takes itself almost deadly seriously. Perspective is desperately missing - the comedy string that Roland Emmerich can play so well (I was very entertained by 2012, and it’s not much more sophisticated in terms of the storyline) did not even tremble in San Andreas. Unlike me while watching Alexandra Daddario... (05/01/2019)