This past weekend in Los Angeles, we experienced an earthquake. Nothing major, just a 3-point-something, and where I live in the Valley (yes, I like it here) it registered at about the same level as if a very large truck drove by. But, even with that little blip, the “experts” and the news cycle talk about whether this could be a precursor to “The Big One,” meaning the one everybody’s been predicting that would see the San Andreas Fault move and totally destroy the Southland. Well, now we can know exactly what that eventuality will look like with the disaster movie San Andreas, which premieres May 29th.
Obviously, disaster movies taking place in Los Angeles are nothing new. Most of the big ones have happened here, at least for awhile. The Towering Inferno began the trend of big, huge star-studded disasters, and there was even a movie in the ’70s called Earthquake which was shown in Sensurround, which was a way to make people feel like they were, like a lot of L.A. types, a mover AND a shaker. All of these movies had a big action hero or two, like Steve McQueen, Paul Newman, and Charlton Heston.
This movie has the undisputed king of the action movie at the moment, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, who wasn’t in Furious 7 all that much, but certainly left his cast-bursting mark. Here, though, he seems a weeeeeee bit outmatched by, you know, the Earth roaring and causing buildings to topple over by the dozens. His wife, Carla Gugino, doesn’t seem like she’s going to have a good go of it, but his daughter Alexandra Daddario might. And, of course, the token doomsday expert, here played by Paul Giamatti, is exactly as corduroy-clad and sour-pussed as such a character needs to be; he’ll tell us what’s going on, you know.
You don’t have to wait long to see the Rock and co. face off against the very planet on which we live. Probably, you’ll want to see it on the biggest screen possible. (Sidebar: what if there is an actual earthquake while someone’s watching this movie?)
Are you excited for the destruction? Do you think the Rock can punch Mother Nature in the face? Let us know below!