disaster – alan williamson

This movie I walked into with my eyes wide open and with full expectation this was going to be a cheesy Sharknado type of disaster flick. The full on B style movie with awful laughable special effects and a lame story line. Boy was I surprised.

Relatively lame story line aside for the moment, from the opening scene of the girl driving over the cliff and the Rock coming in to rescue her as part of the LA Fire Air Rescue chopper squad, this edge of the seat stuff. Not since the opener of Cliffhanger has a movie had such a breathtaking start.

In terms of story line, this is basically a mix of the 2012 and The Day after Tomorrow movie. Father with estranged mother, who attempts to rescue daughter stuck in San Francisco, with genius professor (Paul Giamatti) who seen this all coming finally getting a voice to warn of further quakes.

The premise is that the San Andreas fault is breaking away, starting down in the Hoover Damn. The quality of the special effects is fantastic. The attention to detail is amazing, and even if you look behind the foreground, there is no obvious blurring or short cuts. San Francisco toppling buildings was very well done, and the tsunami coming over the Golden Gate Bridge was extremely well rendered.

There is wonderful opportunities for The Rock, to have cheesy lines every so often and do some kick ass moves. But you know what, it is actually okay, and by the time you are invested in this movie, you need this, you demand this. It works.

Alexandra Daddario plays his daughter, who in reality is only 14 years the younger to The Rock, but on screen she looks 17.

Carla Gugino plays the mother who at first wants to divorce and go and live with her super rich boyfriend, who doesn’t have the morals that we would expect when the chips fall. The family unit works.

There are some oh well that was lucky wasn’t it moments for sure. There are also major questions to ask, like for example, how come The Rock is allowed to skip town in a helicopter while LA is falling down around everyone. But let’s not let facts get in the way here.

Thoroughly enjoyable classic disaster movie that will keep you glued to the seat.