San Andreas has officially cemented its place in my disaster movie top 5 list. It is a “no holding back” movie loaded with epic survival moments set to the backdrop of heart pulsing natural disasters and great visual effects! Oh and it has Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson being his huge, bad ass self.

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Johnson plays search and rescue helicopter pilot Ray Gaines, and you get to meet him and his crew almost straight away when a rock slide pushes a car off the side of a cliff. It’s an intense opening scene and if you incorporate your home theatre system the sounds mixed with the thrilling rescue attempt is more than enough to get your hair standing on end.

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Gaines has just been served divorce papers by his estranged wife Emma (Carla Gugino) and they have a young daughter, Blake (Alexandra Daddario). As the story begins Gaines finds out that Emma and Blake are about to move in with Emma’s rich boyfriend Daniel (Ioan Gruffudd), who starts off as a seemingly nice guy but doesn’t waste too much time revealing to the audience the expected loser that he is.

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That’s about as much background as we are given about our main characters (which is fine because we’re really here to see earthquakes) before we are introduced to the standard disaster movie science guy in the form of seismologist Lawrence Hayes (Paul Giamatti), who has created a computer model that is actually capable of predicting earthquakes in advance. He finds himself right in the middle of a devastating earthquake but just before things start to stabilize around Hayes he realizes that the San Andreas fault line is about to be responsible for the biggest earthquake ever recorded.

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Unfortunately Emma and Blake are caught in the quake and find themselves stranded in life threatening situations. Luckily they know just the right guy to help out and Gaines flies off to save his family, getting caught up in some truly scary and manic situations, and that’s of course where San Andreas delivers most of its thrills – and trust me it’s thrilling to watch in crystal clear high-definition!

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Now as I am sure you can surmise by now, San Andreas is not meant for people seeking a deep, meaningful movie experience. No, this movie is made to make you jump in your seat and clench your fists, it’s meant to get your adrenaline flowing and simply to enjoy. And in that regard, it delivers in every aspect.

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Director Brad Peyton crams disaster situation after disaster situation into the movie’s 114 minute running time and shows them all off with some truly exhilarating CGI. The pacing is fast and there is plenty of action, which Johnson effortlessly takes in his stride with a strong performance as the movie’s leading man. The rest of the acting is solid as well and the cast do a good job making the chaos seem believable.

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I really enjoyed myself watching San Andreas. The story (what there is) is enthralling, the images are crisp and bold and the sound is intense. If you have not seen San Andreas before then consider yourself lucky to enjoy it for the first time on Blu-Ray. If you have seen it but not on Blu-Ray, well then you should consider doing that as well.

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BLU-RAY TECHNICAL DETAILS:

The visuals in San Andreas as I have said before are really great; the images are razor-sharp and come across naturally. Warner Brothers have produced a visually stunning movie with lots of depth to the images and with equally impressive sound as well. You hear every crunch of metal and the sounds of splashing waves in Dolby TrueHD 7.1, and it is good!

  • Resolution: 1080p/24
  • Video Aspect: 2.40:1
  • Audio Format: English Dolby Atmos, Dolby TrueHD 7.1

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Bonus Features:

There are 7 bonus features on the disc but my favourite one by far must be “San Adreas: The Real Fault Line,” which basically gives you a deeper understanding to where Brad Peyton got most of his inspiration from for the earthquakes and gives more information about the actual San Andreas fault line. They also show us the massive sets that were built to bring the movie to life and it is very impressive. The other features are pretty cool as well.

  • Commentary by Director Brad Peyton – Director Brad Peyton, performs his very first director’s commentary.
  • San Andreas: The Real Fault Line – A short featurette on how the filmmakers tried to depict what such a large earthquake would really be like, while still taking some liberties in order to be entertaining.
  • Dwayne Johnson to the Rescue – A look at the making of the movie, focusing on its star and the various stunts he was asked to perform.
  • Scoring the Quake – A look at the creation of the soundtrack for ‘San Andreas’, which was composed by Andrew Lockington.
  • Deleted Scenes – A collection of eight deleted scenes from the movie. Also included is an optional commentary track from Director Brad Payton who explains more about the segments and why they were deleted.
  • Gag Reel – A short, but fun, collection of flubs and bloopers from the shooting of ‘San Andreas’.
  • Stunt Reel – Behind-the-scenes footage of some of the stunt work that took place during the shoot.

 

Last Updated: December 24, 2015

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