San Andreas movie review

When you heard, San Andreas, California and earthquakes immediately pop in your mind. For most of the California residents, they are used to having shocks every time. When I was living in Tagaytay, we also gotten used to the shocks caused by Taal volcano.

When I first heard about this movie, I had second thoughts. I already saw the scenario in the 2012 movie which is similar. But I still like to see how it will be done since it is very timely that here we have similar fears in the Philippines.

Although we haven't experience shocks regularly just like in California, there is a long fault line across the Metro Manila area. The question is when The Big One strike. Even though we are in the digital age, earthquakes are still a mystery. Even scientist still can't predict when will it happen. They only can detect if it happens.

Right now, people have fears since there are much talks about it. Not to long ago, our Visayan region was shook by a Big One that they were not anticipating it will happen. If that happens in this region, it was a predicted that there will be major casualties unless we prepare.

The movie San Andreas gives a detailed description of this scenario if it happens. You will see for yourself if their knowledge on where to go and what to do in times like these are accurate. The visuals are also awesome. If you are watching it in 3D, the imagery is good. It can be watched in regular 2D and you will still enjoy. But it will be a great movie experience if you watched in 4D to give it an interactive experience. You will experience your seat and foot rest movements depending on the scene like riding a helicopter for example.

Photos courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures

Dwayne Johnson did spectacular performance and it did not concentrate on his action scenes but also the human side of his role. It also didn't focused on The Rock since Alessandra Daddario is a revelation for this movie. She proved that there is more to her than Percy Jackson and the Olympians series. I look forward on her action movies in the future. The cast also are significant in their scenes especially Paul Giamatti. I was also caught by surprise when I found out that Arrow's Colton Haynes;who played Roy Harper/Arsenal; is also in the movie. I also like the new version of California Dreamin' which makes it sound more eerie like what Disney Music did with a classic Sleeping Beauty song.

The worst thing we can only experience in a disaster like this is fear. If we know what we can do and follow the protocols and prepare. It's OK to be afraid but we should refrain from getting irrational when the time comes.

I was told by a disaster expert who spoke in schools that in any disaster like storms and quakes, always have an emergency backpack ready for each individual to carry on his/her own with extra clothes, food(preferably with an easy open can), chocolate bar, bottle of water, flashlight, whistle, fresh set of batteries, radio(fm/am), first aid, medicines.

Just some additional items to bring. A handy Swiss Army knife is good in these conditions. According to a survival expert, the best chocolate to bring are the M&M's type. Since one piece can be consumed for a duration of time and you will not feel hungry. But the best preparation for everyone is to research.

I think this movie is a must-see not because I think it will be next blockbuster since Avengers: Age Of Ultron  but because this movie can raise the public's awareness. For more quality movie reviews, follow this blog and like L.E.N.S. blogs on Facebook.

ALEXANDRA DADDARIO IN “SAN ANDREAS”

Press release

Young actress Alexandra Daddario (HBO's “True Detective,” “Percy Jackson: Sea Monsters”) plays Blake, the 19-year-old daughter whom her parents (Dwayne Johnson, Carla Gugino) must rescue after the infamous San Andreas Fault gives, triggering a magnitude 9-plus earthquake.

Photo courtesy of Warner Bros.

As her parents race to San Francisco, Blake must rely on her own instincts and resourcefulness to survive and cut a path toward safety.

“Alexandra’s character is a strong woman, not a damsel in distress, and that was important to us,” says producer Beau Flynn. “I have two daughters, so I especially love to see women take on these roles, because the truth is, women are often the real heroes.”

Hundreds of miles away, Blake recovers from the terror of being trapped in a crushed car in an underground parking garage and struggles to regain her bearings. Unable to communicate with her parents by phone except for a few fleeting moments, she discovers that the lessons her father taught her about survival still resonate and guide her.

“Things can happen at any moment; life is so unpredictable,” acknowledges Alexandra Daddario. “It’s interesting to see her utilize all these skills she’s learned from her dad and tap into parts of herself she probably didn’t even realize she potentially had. She’s a strong character; very tough and knowledgeable but also a normal girl that people could relate to, and you see her evolve through this ordeal to become more of a woman than a girl. Of course, playing Dwayne’s daughter makes me feel a lot tougher than I actually am.”

“Alexandra is smart, talented and engaging. When she came in to read, we knew right away that we’d found our Blake,” Flynn recalls. “It’s not easy to convince the audience that you’re Dwayne Johnson’s daughter, and she matched up with him perfectly.”

Heeding her dad’s advice, Blake navigates on foot through the rubble, aftershocks and debris toward one of the city’s tallest and most famous landmarks, Coit Tower, where Ray and Carla have promised to meet her. But she’s not alone. Sharing her journey is the shy but brave Ben, a Brit played by Australian actor Hugo Johnstone-Burt. In the city for a job interview and vacation, with his younger brother in tow, Ben first crosses paths with Blake in the lobby of an ultra-modern skyscraper, with a sweetly flirtatious exchange that ends with her offering him her number. Not long after, as the building collapses around them, Ben refuses to leave his newfound friend behind.

“Worst luck in the world,” says Johnstone-Burt, reflecting some of the lightness and humor his character brings to the mix. “Here’s the poor guy on holiday and having a job interview, he just gets the number of a pretty girl and then it all hits the fan.”

Underscoring the fact that you never know who will reach out a hand when it’s most needed, the three of them – Blake, Ben and his precocious little brother Ollie, played by the then-12-year-old Irish actor Art Parkinson – throw in together as a team, alternately helping and leaning on one another. Says Daddario, “When the earthquake hits, they forge a tight relationship and continue moving.”

It takes a leap of faith for Ben and Ollie to stick with Blake when everyone else heads in the opposite direction, but Blake’s faith is in her dad and where he promised to meet her.

 “San Andreas” is distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company. Here's my review(click here) of the movie.

INFAMOUS “SAN ANDREAS” FAULT TRIGGERS WORST EARTHQUAKE IN HISTORY

Press release

New Line Cinema's action-thriller “San Andreas” imagines the largest magnitude earthquake in recorded history. A seismic swarm along a previously undetected fault near Nevada’s Hoover Dam crosses the border to trigger California’s notorious San Andreas Fault, which erupts in a massive jolt that rocks Los Angeles to its core. But it doesn’t stop there. The shockwave travels up the fault line, setting off a ripple effect of chaos and destruction all the way to San Francisco.

It was the fusion of wide-scale calamity and intensely personal connections that drew Dwayne Johnson and director Brad Peyton to the project, while it was still in the latter stages of development with producer Beau Flynn. The three had previously collaborated on the worldwide hit “Journey 2: The Mysterious Island,” and welcomed the chance to work together again on such a vastly different story where everything – the action, the scale, and the emotional beats – is amplified.

Photo courtesy of Warner Bros.

Says Peyton, “This is different from anything I’ve done before. It was more demanding in its larger-than-life elements but also in striking that tonal honesty. I wanted the characters to ring true so audiences could see it through their point of view as opposed to standing back and witnessing it from a safe distance. Because, as impactful as the action is, at the heart of every story are people you care about.”

The idea for “San Andreas” originated with Flynn, a longtime fan of classic disaster films who was eager to update the genre with today’s 3D capabilities and cutting-edge technology to create photorealistic images. Beyond that, he concedes, “The reason this movie resonates so much with me is that within three weeks of my moving to Los Angeles, the Northridge earthquake hit. I had never even felt a tremor before, and to experience a major earthquake was terrifying, powerful. It makes you feel very small and humble. I was always fascinated by the San AndreasFault, specifically, even though I grew up in Miami, 3000 miles away. It’s just something I think people are aware of, consciously or not. It’s in the zeitgeist.”

To keep audiences on the edge of their seats, the filmmakers raised the cinematic stakes on “San Andreas.” Applying creative license to a real-world threat, the story’s far-reaching scenarios aim for a heightened sense of action and drama. Nevertheless, while not everything depicted on screen is fact-based, the film still acknowledges the reality behind it.

In March 2015 the U.S. Geological Survey estimated the odds of California experiencing a magnitude 8 or greater seismic event in the next 30 years has increased, as has the possibility of multi-fault ruptures, like links in a chain. Attention has long been focused on the infamous SanAndreas but there are others steadily building pressure, including the Puente Hills Fault, running from Orange County to downtown L.A., and the underwater Cascadia Subduction Zone, from Northern California to Vancouver Island, with its potential to set off coast-engulfing tsunamis. Quakes have recently been reported in Nevada, Virginia, Oklahoma, Missouri and previously unidentified hot-spots across the country, and remain a global fact of life – with a USGS estimate of approximately 500,000 detectable quakes around the world each year, 100,000 of which can be felt and as many as 100 that will cause damage.

“I took all my own fears and translated them into the script,” says screenwriter Carlton Cuse, “knowing Brad would execute every sequence at a very high level, and he exceeded my expectations.”

Within the broad canvas of a catastrophic quake, “San Andreas” finds its heart in the deepest instincts such an unpredictable and uncontrollable force of nature provokes: our need to reach out to others and to confirm what’s most important to us. “Disasters have a way of bringing out the best in people,” Peyton suggests. “Individuals gain focus and find strength. Ordinary people become heroes, while heroes push themselves to the limit.”

Concludes Flynn, “I think it’s fair to say no one knows exactly what they would do when faced with a fight-or-flight scenario, and that’s something we explore in the movie.”

Opening across the Philippines in both 3D and 2D format on May 28, 2015, “San Andreas” is distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company.

PRODUCTION BEGINS ON EARTHQUAKE FILM “SAN ANDREAS”

Online release

Burbank, CA, April 16, 2014 – Principal photography begins Tuesday, April 22, on location in Australia for “San Andreas,” starring Dwayne Johnson.  The action thriller from New Line Cinema and Village Roadshow Pictures reunites Johnson with director Brad Peyton and producer Beau Flynn, following their collaboration on the global hit “Journey 2: The Mysterious Island.”           

Johnson training for San Andreas

After the infamous San Andreas Fault finally gives, triggering a magnitude 9 earthquake in California, a search and rescue helicopter pilot (Johnson) and his estranged wife make their way together from Los Angeles to San Francisco to save their only daughter.  But their treacherous journey north is only the beginning, and when they think the worst may be over…it’s just getting started.

 

            The film also stars Carla Gugino (“Night at the Museum”), Alexandra Daddario (“Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters”) and Archie Panjabi (TV’s “The Good Wife”), as well as Hugo Johnstone-Burt (Australian TV’s “Home and Away”) and Art Parkinson (TV’s “Game of Thrones”).

 

            “San Andreas” is being produced by Beau Flynn (“Hercules,” “Journey 2: The Mysterious Island”).  Tripp Vinson (“Red Dawn”) will also serve as producer.  Richard Brener, Samuel J. Brown, Michael Disco, Rob Cowan and Bruce Berman are the executive producers, and Hiram Garcia is co-producer.  The screenplay is by Carlton Cuse and Chad Hayes & Carey Hayes, story by Jeremy Passmore & Andre Fabrizio.  

 

            The creative filmmaking team includes director of photography Steve Yedlin (“Looper”), production designer Barry Chusid (“The Day After Tomorrow”), editor Bob Ducsay (upcoming “Godzilla”), VFX producer Randall Starr (upcoming “Into the Storm”), VFX supervisor Colin Strause (“The Avengers”), and costume designer Wendy Chuck (“Twilight”). 

“San Andreas” is slated to open worldwide beginning Friday, June 5, 2015.

 

The film will be shot on location in The Gold Coast and Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, and in Los Angeles and San Francisco.

 

A New Line Cinema presentation, in association with Village Roadshow Pictures, “San Andreas” is a FlynnPictureCo. Production.  It will be distributed in the Philippines by Warner Bros. Pictures, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company.