SAN ANDREAS (The movie) with Dwayne Johnson (THE ROCK)

I thought this was going to be a real mess since it starred Dwayne Johnson and these type of disaster movies turn their heroes into idiotic fools. (think Sharknado)...

It's more like the original disaster movie EARTHQUAKE. Thoughtful and sympathetic without being preachy and over-the-top. The only time I can say it gets cheesy is at the end when they make the audience feel good at the end. However, the original EARTHQUAKE didn't do that and I remember leaving the theater with friends and the four of us were depressed... And most theaters in my area didn't use the special EARTHQUAKE gimmick (Altec A4 speakers) because they cracked their plaster in the older ceilings.

Dwayne Johnson's family (wife first, daughter second) is at peril and since he is on a helicopter rescue squad, he goes off to save them. IT's an OK story with his daughter finding an honorable British guy and his 13 year old brother to help her along and they get saved too.

There is a divorce and reconciliation and "wifey boyfriend who is a rotten asshole" subplot. So we know someone dies.

However, it is lots of buildings falling, Hoover damn crumbles, San Francisco crumbles, the Golden Gate is ripped apart. All this things we expect in a West Coast Earthquake disaster movie.

A single earthquake destroying both San Francisco and the Hoover dam in Las Vegas seems like a bit of a stretch, but I guess it's easy to find fault with an earthquake movie. In this case, it was San Andreas' fault.

Sandi

I think it was ok I'm not a fan of cgi. I am more into old school horror movies. But on the bright side San Andreas was ok.

It is a nice movie and not like some of the cheesy California earthquake movies.

I saw the movie Earthquake (and Midway) in Sensurround at the old Warner Theater in downtown Pittsburgh. It was also an extra wide screen 70mm theater. Just a wonderful place to see movies.

Same theater. Small World.

It was in Sensurround and the Warner was the CINERAMA theater. IT had three projection booths for the original and that monster screen.

That was the one I saw THE WORLD OF CINERAMA. My family was up in the balcony and there was a guy 12 seats down throwing goobers at bald heads down below for the entertainment of his daughter.

Now for those who don't know, Altec A4 speakers have a base of 4 ft by 4 feet, the cabinet is ported and tops at 8 foot high, and the low and midrange speaker is a 24 inch diameter. The upper speaker for the treble is a horn.

The original soundtrack of Earthquake used 16 and 32 cycle rumbles plus a special mounted camera for the earthquake itself. It scared the living daylights out of people with that huge screen. HOWEVER, the older theaters with lots of plaster had cracking problems and bits of older ceilings falling out. PLUS, since this was before the multiscreen multiplexes, the theaters and neighbors -- and the Altec A4's shook the foundations of the buildings and caused havoc in the neighboring businesses. The noise was annoying for a restaurant but the merchandise jiggled off the shelf.