While California breaks apart, a rescue chopper pilot attempts to reassemble his estranged family in the disaster epic San Andreas (Warner Home Video, Rated PG-13, $44.95).
The worldwide blockbuster rumbles into home theaters and offers a cataclysmic look at what happens when tectonic plates shift around the West Coast’s famed fault line.
The extremely affable Dwayne Johnson stars as a muscle-bulging hero named Raymond Gaines and along with his separated wife Emma (played by Carla Gugino) find themselves navigating through earthquakes, tsunamis, fire and crumbling high-rises to find their daughter Blake (Alexandra Daddario).
Director Brad Peyton pulls out all of the Irwin Allen (“The Towering Inferno” and “The Poseidon Adventure”) shenanigans including a chef thrashing around on fire, close-ups of humans plummeting to their doom, a guy falling multiple stories through a hole in a wall and frantic citizens getting crushed like ants under a concrete shoes.
He even pads the cast with Paul Giamatti as the concerned scientist who stumbles upon the upcoming devastation and dramatically exclaims during the worst moment: “Man, this is not good.”
Despite the underwhelming plot, it’s a breath of fresh air to munch popcorn for almost two hours while watching “San Andreas” and not deal with another disaster movie tied to a zombie apocalypse or alien invasion.
The digital transfer does a great job of showing the minutiae of the destruction of major cities and includes some crystal-clear imagery of the collapse of the Hoover Dam and a harrowing underwater rescue.
And, whether listening to the movie via Dolby Atmos or Dolby TrueHD 7.1 mixes, the aural assault literally will be felt in the chest and lower torso during every quake, rattle and roll as buildings collapse all around Los Angeles and San Francisco.
The best of the extras offers Mr. Peyton enthusiastically deconstructing the minutiae of the production after alerting us that this is his first optional commentary track.
He’s very talkative throughout, discussing Dwayne’s “billion dollar smile,” the actors working with first responders and the stunt team, the fine points to the plot, the balance of practical and special effects and hoping to make a film that was just not about Mother Nature’s fury.
Also, 30 minutes of promotional featurettes offer interviews with actors and the crew highlighted by Mr. Johnson sincerely talking up the brilliance of the special effects and the ensemble cast. It’s hard not to appreciate his boyish enthusiasm.
Not to gripe too much about wanting more, but I could have used a science documentary discussing the realities of the San Andreas Fault just to balance the fictional chaos.
• Joseph Szadkowski can be reached at jszadkowski@washingtontimes.com.
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