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0 of 3 Premium Clicks used this month SUBSCRIBE Print + Online Subscriber Activation | Register x Forgot Password | Need an Account? e-edition | subscribe | newsletter | deals Classifieds Jobs Autos Real Estate FEATURED » NEWS NOW Cooler temperatures expected after record-breaking start to week ... Exit 24's northbound on-ramp will be open Thursday ... UPDATED: Trump, Sanders victorious in New Hampshire primaries ... Cooler temperatures expected after record-breaking start to week ... Exit 24's northbound on-ramp will be open Thursday ... UPDATED: Trump, Sanders victorious in New Hampshire primaries ... Movie review: 'San Andreas' has its faults, but it's a fantastic-looking disaster film Comment By Ed Symkus More Content Now MailTribune.com By Ed Symkus More Content Now Posted May. 29, 2015 at 12:01 AM By Ed Symkus More Content Now Posted May. 29, 2015 at 12:01 AM » Social News “San Andreas” is a movie filled with precarious situations. The first one happens about 15 seconds in, when a young woman driving along, bopping to the radio music, meets up with a big rock fall, pitching her and her vehicle off the road and down a mountainside. This rock slide requires a Rock rescue. Thank goodness Ray Gaines (Dwayne Johnson), chief pilot for the Los Angeles Fire Department, is nearby in his chopper, at the ready to rappel down a long rope to save the dangling damsel in distress. But never mind the nail-biting. Let’s sit in on a Caltech lecture by leading seismologist Professor Lawrence Hayes (Paul Giamatti), who’s talking about the 1.3 million earthquakes around the world each year, and calmly telling an inquisitive student that there’s no doubt a big one is gonna hit Southern California. Then it’s time for screenwriter Carlton Cuse (who has written for insane TV series including “Lost” and “Bates Motel”) to let loose with the storylines: Ray and his wife, Emma (Carla Gugino), are in the middle of a divorce, their daughter Blake (Alexandra Daddario) doesn’t know which way to turn, Emma’s moving in with her new boyfriend Daniel (Ioan Gruffudd), and, oh yeah, there’s a report of mini-earthquakes – lots of them – happening right by the Hoover Dam, which is directly where an excited Professor Hayes and his assistant head to check out the scene. Before you can say Giuseppe Mercali or Charles F. Richter (oh, come on, look it up!), the visual effects folks make their entry – and their work is superb, extremely impressive, through the whole film – and suddenly there’s no Hoover Dam, the professor is going to have to find a new assistant and all rescue helicopters are headed to the desert. Hold on, new reports are showing that even more little quakes, but bigger than the ones in Nevada, are cropping up all along California’s San Andreas Fault. You know, Los Angeles right up to San Francisco. But before the effects department ratchets things up many notches, there are some new characters to deal with: an engineering grad named Ben who’s looking for a job but meets cute Blake, and his precocious little brother Ollie, who hopes romance blooms from that meeting. Why the film is cluttered up with the presence of these two lads (and why they’re played by British actors) is a puzzle. We want action! And then we get it. While Ray is flying around looking for people to save, the ground in L.A., where Emma is dining out, starts shaking, and soon the ground in San Francisco, where Blake is visiting with Daniel – and where Ben has gone on that job search – starts rockin’ and rollin.’ It doesn’t really matter who in this group Ray saves first, and who they then go to save together. What matters is that, according to the professor, “California’s entire tectonic plate has shifted.” Translated: Buildings come tumbling down, waters, thanks to the requisite tsunami, go rising up, dust fills the air, and there are more panicked people running through the streets than in your standard Godzilla movie. The film has too much personal drama tacked on (though the business of one “protective” fellow turning coward is fun), and the pacing gets repetitive – peril, quiet moment, peril, quiet moment. But most viewers will be OK with that because when those visual effects kick into gear, “San Andreas” turns into one of the most realistic, fantastic-looking disaster films you’ve ever seen. Two cool ingredients include 1) the fact that Dwayne Johnson, action hero, isn’t here to save the world, but to save his family, and 2) a funny snippet of dialogue about “getting to second base” at AT&T Park. The only out-and-out fault (sorry, that’s an earthquake joke) is the idiotic inclusion over the end credits of an awful rendition of the Mamas and the Papas’ great song “California Dreamin’,” sung here in overly operatic style by the overly praised Sia. Ed Symkus covers movies for More Content Now. SAN ANDREAS Written by Carlton Cuse; directed by Brad Peyton With Dwayne Johnson, Carla Gugino, Paul Giamatti, Alexandra Daddario Rated PG-13 By Ed Symkus More Content Now MailTribune.com By Ed Symkus More Content Now Posted May. 29, 2015 at 12:01 AM » Comment or view comments Reader Reaction » STAY INFORMED Email NewsLetter Sign Up Today Sign up for our newsletter and have the top headlines from your community delivered right to your inbox. Southern Oregon Directory Featured Businesses Loading... 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