San Andreas (4/10): A disaster movie that never delivers anything more than visuals.

"It's been a long time since I got you to second base!"

No matter how big of a fan of anyone from this cast you are, the entire screenplay is so full of cliches and the dialogue is almost entirely laughable that it makes it impossible for any one of them to save this film. Not even Dwayne Johnson (and he is an actor who usually delivers in action movies). This disaster movie is no different than The Day After Tomorrow, 2012, or Deep Impact. It is full of cliches and relies solely on CGI, but it doesn't have a soul. We've seen each one of these characters in dozens of movies before and I honestly didn't care for any of them in this film. It takes the familiar family dynamics from Taken, where a divorced father has to save his beautiful teenage daughter, while struggling with the fact that his ex-wife is moving in with a wealthy man, and it mixes it with the familiar elements of disaster movies like 2012. So in summary, it is basically a cross between 2012 and Taken. The effects didn't really blow me away either and the best scenes are already included in the trailers. I didn't hate San Andreas, but it doesn't deliver anything fresh or original. It's a disaster movie that lives up to being just that: a disaster.

The film introduces us to the hero right away as Ray (Dwayne Johnson), a rescue-chopper pilot is saving a teenage girl from a car accident as it has derailed off the road and is barely hanging in the air squeezed by some rocks along a mountainside. After the successful rescue mission, Ray gives his daughter, Blake (Alexandra Daddario) a call to invite her out for the night, but she and her mother Emma (Carla Gugino) have already made plans with Emma’s new boyfriend, Daniel (Ioan Gruffudd) a wealthy business magnate. Ray and Blake make plans to hang out together the next day, but a massive earthquake in Nevada   sends him on yet another rescue mission. In the meantime, Lawrence (Paul Giamatti), an expert in all things concerning earthquakes and tectonic plate movements develops a program that allows him to predict possible earthquakes in the future. He predicts that the Nevada quake is just the beginning of the disaster and that California will be hit the hardest. His prediction comes true as Los Angeles and San Francisco begin to shake. On his way back, Ray receives a call from Emma who is in a building in LA that is about to collapse. Emma happens to be in another building all the way in San Francisco with Daniel that is also falling apart. Ray makes it his mission to save both his ex-wife and his daughter before the quake completely destroys both cities. Meanwhile, Blake is saved by a pair of Brits, Ben (Hugo Johnstone-Burt) and his young brother Ollie (Art Parkinson), but this is just the beginning and more massive earthquakes are expected to hit them soon. 

Having the hero of the film play a rescue-chopper is a great excuse for the director, Brad Peyton (who had previously worked with Johnson in Journey 2: The Mysterious Island), to include jaw dropping aerial shots of the destruction. There are dozens of buildings collapsing and thousands of lives lost as Ray is trying to save his family. The CGI effects are solid, although nothing we haven’t seen before. It delivers what audiences are expecting from a disaster movie, but the characters are never fully developed. The dialogue in this film is incredibly dull and its hard to care for the characters despite how much of a fan you are of the cast. There are some funny moments thanks to the chemistry between Johnstone and Daddario, but there is not much more here. You know exactly who is going to survive and who is not so there is no tension either. It’s a film you come to see for the visuals alone and nothing else.    

Dracula Untold (3/10): There is nothing untold about it.

“My father was a great man, a hero, so they say. But sometimes the world doesn't need another hero, sometimes what it needs is a monster.”

If you are going to make a film about the origins of one of Hollywood’s most fearful monsters then you better have a solid script that focuses on the character development of Dracula rather than overstuff the film with special effects and action scenes. Director Gary Shore may have tried to give us an origin story, and he even gave it the title Dracula Untold, but what he really does is deliver another cliched and familiar action film. We really don’t learn anything new about this classic character in the film other than the fact that he was a good fighter and a loving family man who sacrificed himself to protect the people he cared for. I would argue there isn’t much of a unique idea in that premise and that the title untold is a bit deceiving. There just isn’t anything unique or appealing about this character to claim that you are delivering an origin story. The only thing Shore tries to do here is humanize the monster and make him seem engaging. Instead of trying to focus on the character however, Dracula Untold delivers one action scene after another relying on its computer generated special effects. The film might captivate some audiences who are looking for a fun time, but there is nothing memorable or legendary about it. I can imagine a documentarian making a film about Hollywood’s portrayal of Dracula and mentioning all the films that have centered on this monster but leaving this unremarkable film out of the list simply because it is easy to forget and it never seems to be a film about Dracula really. You can add Dracula Untold to the never ending list of tiresome and uninterestingly generic vampire films. The only pleasure I got from Dracula Untold was that it made me feel good about my decision of not having seen I Frankenstein.  

The script for Dracula Untold is probably responsible for the failure of the film because the cast did a pretty decent job. I thought Luke Evans delivered an interesting performance. He has some entertaining action sequences and looks the part as well. Dominic Cooper might not be menacing in this film but he gave a decent performance. Sarah Gadon was beautiful as Dracula’s wife and inspiration. I did’t have an issue with the performances at all, but it was mostly the overload of action scenes that didn’t manage to keep me interested. They seldom do (Hercules might be the only exception this year and it wasn’t a film I was crazy about either). I didn’t care too much for the CGI either so there was really very little this film had to offer me. I was just disengaged with the story and found it overly generic and too familiar. If you are going to give your film the title of Dracula Untold, you might as well give us something original and unique that hasn’t actually been told before.