(Video) San Andreas - Đường Nứt Gãy San Andreas (USA, 2015, Eng. & Viet. Sub, HD)

Rating: PG-13 (for intense disaster action and mayhem throughout, and brief strong language)
Genre: Action & Adventure
Directed By: Brad Peyton
Written By: Jeremy Passmore, Allan Loeb, Chad Hayes, Carlton Cuse, Carey Hayes
In Theaters: May 29, 2015 Wide
On DVD: Oct 20, 2015
Box Office: $155.2M
Runtime: 1 hr. 54 min.

Một ngày có vẻ như lý tưởng đã biến thành thảm họa khi đường nứt gãy khét tiếng San Andreas khởi động một trận động đất khủng khiếp có cường độ lên đến 9 độ Richter, cường độ lớn nhất được ghi trong lịch sử.  Khi mặt đất nứt toang ra và các tòa nhà bắt đầu vỡ vụn, Ray Gaines (do Dwayne Johnson đóng) - một phi công trực thăng cứu hộ của Sở Cứu Hỏa Los Angeles - phải lần theo dấu vết của sự đổ vỡ từ Los Angeles đến San Francisco để mang người vợ mắc nạn (do Carla Gugino đóng) và đứa con gái duy nhất của họ (do Alexandra Daddario đóng) đến nơi an toàn.

A seemingly ideal day turns disastrous when California's notorious San Andreas fault triggers a devastating, magnitude 9 earthquake, the largest in recorded history. As the Earth cracks open and buildings start to crumble, Ray Gaines (Dwayne Johnson), an LAFD search-and-rescue helicopter pilot, must navigate the destruction from Los Angeles to San Francisco to bring his estranged wife (Carla Gugino) and their only daughter (Alexandra Daddario) to safety.

'San Andreas:' Impressive effects, but lacking in vital elements 

The Film:

Disaster films have always been something of a cinematic tradition dating back several decades to films like “The Towering Inferno” and “Earthquake” to more modern entries like “The Day After Tomorrow” and “2012.” Back in the day, they were films that were quite revered, evident by the fact that “The Towering Inferno” garnered eight Oscar nominations, including a nod for Best Picture, while “Earthquake” nabbed four nominations of its own (it also received a special award for its visual effects). Nowadays, they are seen simply as spectacles, where filmmakers use them as excuses to go as wild with special effects as possible, which basically comes down to putting as much destruction on the screen as they can. This doesn’t mean that they can’t be fun to watch, but it does mean that the superficial elements can’t be the only thing that gets any attention, which brings us to the latest attempt to continue the long-standing tradition, “San Andreas,” a film that once again takes us back to the earthquake-prone city of Los Angeles.

As the film opens, we meet Ray (Dwayne Johnson), a rescue pilot for the city of Los Angeles. His life is a bit hectic at the moment with his daughter Blake (Alexandra Daddario) going off to college and his wife Emma (Carla Gugino) wanting to finalize their divorce, and that’s not to mention the bombshell of learning that both of them are moving in with Emma’s new boyfriend Daniel (Ioan Gruffud), but he tries to take the situation as best he can. Meanwhile, an expert on earthquakes, Lawrence (Paul Giamatti), and his assistant believe that they have come up with a way to predict them, which leads them to test their hypothesis at the Hoover Dam. However, they get more than they bargained for when a massive earthquake rocks the area, destroying the dam and proving that they were right. As if this disaster weren’t bad enough, the same indicator signs that helped them predict that quake are now showing all along the San Andreas Fault, which spells disaster for the entire area. When the big one does eventually hit, Ray and his family are thrown into a deadly situation that will have them doing whatever it takes to get back to each other.

Like with any disaster film, the special effects are the real star of the show, though back in the 70s, there would be rather impressive casts right beside them that included big names like Charlton Heston, Ava Gardner, Paul Newman, Steve McQueen, and William Holden. In the last decade or so, we’ve had to settle for names like Dennis Quaid, John Cusack, and, in this most recent disaster flick, Dwayne Johnson. That’s not to say that they’re bad actors, but they’re a far cry from what we used to get with such films. All this is to say that the visual effects have taken over top billing and have pretty much eclipsed the casts when it comes to the disaster genre nowadays.

As for the effects of “San Andreas,” there’s no doubting that they are rather impressive. Everything shakes and breaks apart real good, and the damage and flooding puts you right in the middle of this almost-constant series of disasters. That being said, it does indeed seem like it is happening almost constantly throughout the film, and after a while, it becomes quite tedious sitting through scene after scene of things breaking apart, people running around in a panic, and random people getting killed by falling debris. The film runs for nearly two hours, so you can easily imagine how tiresome and repetitive it gets, which leads right into the film’s main problem.

To offset the scenes of disaster, normally what the filmmakers would do is insert a strong human element into the film so that the audience has something to cling onto throughout whatever terrible ordeal the characters are being forced to deal with. Think back to those people trapped in the burning high-rise in “The Towering Inferno” or the people trapped in the upturned ship in “The Poseidon Adventure” (another star-studded, multi-Oscar nominated film). We cared about the story because the characters are nicely developed and become more than one-dimensional stand-ins trying to survive the worst experience of their lives.

When it comes to “San Andreas,” what we get are flat characters that are given the most basic of set-ups (Ray’s family problems, Blake randomly finding a love interest right before the quake), which the filmmakers mistakenly thought would be enough to make the audience care. However, since they’re given the most basic of outlines, it merely leads to some awkwardly placed and maudlin scenes in which they do their best to play up the deep emotions of the characters. To put it simply, we get those one-dimensional stand-ins that the older movies would usually do their best to avoid, which only goes to assert the dominating force of the special effects.

Indeed those special effects are done well, but unfortunately “San Andreas” is missing its human element and its emotional core, major ingredients that would make this entire destructive endeavor worthwhile. This continues to be a problem with disaster films of recent years, and it once again looks like it’s not going to be remedied anytime soon, so in the meantime, it looks like all we can do is revisit those classics that made this genre such a huge success in the first place, all the while holding out hope that it will be so again somewhere down the line.

Video/Audio:

“San Andreas” comes to Blu-ray in a 2.4:1, 1080p High Definition transfer of outstanding quality, presenting a sharp picture that does a great job of showing off the almost-constant action of this special effects extravaganza. The 5.1 Dolby Atmos audio is equally impressive, giving you all of the dialogue and numerous sound effects in excellent quality. Overall, the film has been given exceptional treatment, which is all one could ask for when it comes to a massive disaster flick such as this.

Special Features:

Commentary with Director Brad Peyton: Peyton’s commentary is unfortunately rather superficial, offering up little tidbits here and there, but nothing all that informative, so it’s not really worth sitting through.

San Andreas: The Real Fault Line (6 Minutes): An interesting look behind the scenes at some of the big action sequences, including the quake during the restaurant scene and the flooded building near the end of the film.

Dwayne Johnson to the Rescue (9 Minutes): A sort-of continuation of the previous featurette that takes a look at the opening and closing rescue sequences. It too is worth taking a look at.

Scoring the Quake (6 Minutes): A featurette focusing on the music. If this is an area that interests you, then you may find it worthwhile.

Deleted Scenes (5 Minutes): Bits and pieces that were easily cut from the final film.

Gag Reel (1 Minute): A very brief collection of outtakes that aren’t particularly funny.

Stunt Reel (3 Minutes): A collection of behind the scenes material focusing on the stunt crew. Unfortunately it doesn’t show you very much, so it’s not really worth watching.

Conclusion:

“San Andreas” may have impressive special effects, but without a well-developed human element or an emotional core, it becomes a rather empty experience that fails to pull the audience into its tale of epic destruction. If the filmmakers had taken the time to develop fully-realized characters instead of disposable stand-ins, then the film might have had some success, but as it is, it’s merely a tedious mishmash of action without a heart.

Score: 2.5/5

Jeff Beck

   

  

Review: Dwayne Johnson Delivers Muscular Thrills in 'San Andreas

The disaster movie model holds up better than the hundreds of crumbling, shattering buildings in the earth-rattling San Andreas, a film that finds Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson (and his biceps) battling Mother Nature to a stalemate. Expecting the film to live up to the staggering heights of classic '70s disaster flicks is probably too much, but director Brad Peyton, who teamed up with Johnson on the equally campy Journey 2: The Mysterious Island, knows that he's got a star who can literally carry this kind of old school action spectacle on his broad shoulders.

The tropes of disaster films have become so ingrained at this point that we no longer expect any variation, and San Andreas certainly doesn't try to break the mold. Johnson plays heroic helicopter rescue pilot Ray Gaines, a guy so good at what he does the Los Angeles news sends crews to chronicle his exploits. Basically, Johnson is playing Johnson here; his t-shirts are a size too small, he always looks like he just bathed in baby oil and anything can be solved with a flex of his biceps and some strong words. That's the Johnson audiences paid to see and they get it in spades. Gaines has a soon-to-be ex-wife (Carla Gugino) and a beautiful young daughter (Alexandra Daddario), who we all know will be in need of rescue when disaster strikes. But they also need to be rescued from the mother's new boyfriend, a sleazy architect (Ioan Gruffudd, always good at playing the rich sleaze bag) who builds skyscrapers we know are destined to crumble.

So lots of easy setup here by screenwriter Carlton Cuse (Lost), who gives us some family drama to tug at our heartstrings while the entire west coast shakes, rattles, and rolls into oblivion when the largest earthquake in history strikes. Paul Giamatti plays CalTech's Dr. Lawrence Hayes, and gets all of the geeky geological stuff about fault lines that nobody really cares about. His job is to make everything sound ominous, and to predict stuff we already know is going to happen. When he tells us the worst is yet to come, we already know it.

That San Andreas is predictable as Johnson sweating buckets isn't going to surprise anybody. That the film is still largely entertaining throughout is all that really matters, and that is due to Johnson's alpha male performance and genuine chemistry with Gugino. While their characters' marital issues are laid out pretty thin, the past tragedy they share is what inspires their dogged quest through Hell (meaning Hollywood) to save their wayward daughter. That we can buy into easily, with Gugino and Johnson delivering solid performances as the frantic parents. As great an actor as Giamatti is he's had more than his share of junky roles and this is another one. But he also knows how to calibrate his performance perfectly to the level of the material, so we can sense him having quite a bit of fun as the stodgy professor urging citizens to evacuate "because your lives depend on it".

Peyton acquits himself well with this Emmerich-sized disaster, delivering an impressive mass destruction of San Francisco and Los Angeles, with the decimation of the Hoover Dam the biggest payoff scene. But when you've seen one CGI building collapse you've seen a thousand, and pretty soon it loses any real shock value. It doesn't help that Johnson and Gugino's characters are often above the fray, literally flying over the worst of the chaos. The bulk of the survival action involves Daddario and co-star Hugo Johnston-Burt as a British tourist and potential love interest, plus Art Parkinson as his precocious little brother.

Reverberating like massive aftershocks, the film goes from one exciting set piece to another with little time to catch a breath in-between. It also doesn't leave much time to think about the plot, such as it is. Disaster movies may be the most reliable genre Hollywood has to offer, but as a recent flick like Into the Storm proves, they're also remarkably easy to screw up. San Andreas is predictable fun, but with Johnson swinging in to the rescue it also delivers plenty of muscular thrills.

'Khe nứt San Andreas': Phim thảm hoạ nghẹt thở

(Thethaovanhoa.vn) - Tuy chỉ là một thể loại phụ (Sub-genre) và đã qua rồi thời kỳ phát triển đỉnh cao nhưng phim thảm họa vẫn nhận được sự quan tâm đặc biệt của các nhà làm phim lẫn khán giả. Trong số đó có San Andreas (Khe nứt San Andreas).
1.Thể loại phim thảm họa được chia ra làm nhiều nhánh khác nhau. Thảm họa do thiên nhiên dường như là đề tài quen thuộc nhất đối với khán giả. Gần đây, The Day After Tomorrow, 2012, The Impossible (Thảm họa sóng thần), Into The Storm (Cuồng phong thịnh nộ) là những ví dụ điển hình cho dòng phim này.

San Andreas (Khe nứt San Andreas) lấy bối cảnh tại một số thành phố ven biển thuộc bang California, Mỹ. Sau một cơn địa chấn kinh hoàng, cả dải miền Tây chìm trong đổ nát mà tâm điểm là thành phố San Francisco.

Ray (Dwayne Johnson) - nhân viên phi công thuộc đội cứu hộ tuần tra đang trên đường nhận nhiệm vụ thì được tin cô con gái (Alexandra Daddario) đang bị mắc kẹt trong một tòa nhà. Anh phải giải cứu cả gia đình trước khi cơn sóng thần ập đến.

2. Dù phim thảm họa đã có những giai đoạn phát triển rực rỡ nhưng đến thời điểm hiện nay nó đã trở nên bão hòa. Cách thể hiện bắt đầu cũ mòn.

Cũng giống với các tác phẩm kể trên, San Andreas (Khe nứt San Andreas) có mô típ tương tự. Không khai thác ở tầm vĩ mô, bộ phim tập trung vào hành trình tìm lại sự sống của một vài cá nhân trước thảm họa thiên nhiên thảm khốc.

Rất may là đạo diễn Brad Peyton xử lý các tình huống liên quan đến tình cảm gia đình tương đối tốt, tạo được cảm xúc cho người xem. Mối quan hệ giữa vợ chồng Ray và Emma tuy chưa hợp lý ở một vài điểm thắt nhưng rất nhanh được khỏa lấp bằng đường dây liên hệ với hai người con gái.

Đáng ngạc nhiên là nam diễn viên vai u thịt bắp Dwayne Johnson thể hiện khá thành công tính cách, tâm lý nhân vật. Trước đây, khán giả chủ yếu thấy anh qua các vai diễn hài hoặc hành động từ đầu tới cuối chứ hiếm khi Dwayne Johnson thể hiện xung đột về mặt cảm xúc tốt như trong San Andreas.

Xem phim thảm họa, điều khán giả mong chờ nhất dĩ nhiên là phần kỹ xảo. Với sự phát triển tột bậc của công nghệ làm phim hiện nay, dĩ nhiên San Andreas hoàn toàn đáp ứng được sự mong chờ này.

Tuy chưa tạo được không khí hoang mang cực độ thậm chí là sợ hãi như 2012 nhưng San Andreas vẫn khiến người xem phải kinh ngạc. Những tòa nhà trọc trời sụp đổ, cơn sóng thần khổng lồ càn quét thành phố San Francisco đủ để khán giả nghẹt thở, nín lặng. Không có điểm gì phải chê về phần… thảm họa trong San Andreas.

Nhìn chung đây là một tác phẩm thỏa mãn thị giác, thính giác của người xem. Nếu mùa Hè là mùa của phim giải trí thì San Andreas đích thực là một phim thuần túy giải trí.