MOVIE REVIEW: San Andreas

As timely as today's headlines, with the strong one in Nepal and the almost everyday recurring ones in places surrounding the Pacific Ring of Fire, San Andreas is an action packed/CGI effects heavy film that's notches above recently released natural disaster flicks such as The Perfect Storm and 2012. It stars Dwayne Johnson as Ray, a rescue chopper pilot whose passion to his job is marred when his wife Emma (Carla Gugino) moved out of their place with their daughter Blake (Alexandra Daddario) and asking for a divorce to marry a rich real estate billionaire Daniel Reddick (Ioan Gruffudd)...then tremors are felt, first in the Hoover Dam area near Las Vegas were there weren't any known fault lines then it moves to California where the infamous fault is located hence the movie title.

San Andreas works primarily because the film simply focuses on Ray's family and people close to them. Despite having a built fit for an action hero, most will sympathize with Johnson's character because of his wife's new love. Unlike his previous characters and his persona as The Rock, people can easily relate to his predicament. In a parallel story in the movie, Paul Giamatti plays a noted earthquake expert who foresaw the catastrophe with the help of his fellow worker who was killed in action. His character is our guide and as a moviegoer, I also learned something about quakes thru him.

The effects, most specifically the ones in San Francisco, quite gave me a scare because I walked and spent sometime on those places AT&T Park to be specific and based on experts analysis, it really could happen in real life. San Andreas might just be now a movie but it also gave us ample warning to be ready and prepared.

MOVIE REVIEW: Mad Max: Fury Road

I had reservations watching Mad Max: Fury Road since almost all apocalyptic themed films are almost the same in execution and the last one in the series Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome was released 30 years ago. Things changed once the opening credits started. This new reimagining, conceptualized by it's original creator director George Miller is an exciting, beautifully shot action film anchored surprisingly not by Tom Hardy's lead performance of the iconic Max Rockatansy but by Charlize Theron's phenomenal Imperator Furiosa. 

Max and Furiosa team up to escape the wrath of the ruler of their area Immortan Joe (Hugh Keays-Byrne) and brought along his 5 wives to escape to her birthplace. 90% of the film happens on "Fury Road" when the villains are chasing the leads and where all the glorious action and mayhem occurs. Cinematographer John Seale found beauty in a post apocalyptic world and it ain't like those similarly themed films.

Hardy channeling his The Dark Knight Rises' character Bane's mask and voice has the Mel Gibson aka the original Mad Max's aura and demeanor. He displayed strength and flexibility in all the action scenes in the film. Ironically even though the title says Mad Max, the film's lead is actually Charlize Theron whose character Furiosa provides the required action scenes yet gives great emotion as the mother figure of the 5 wives plus the trauma of her past experience before driving the War Rig. Her performance here in Mad Max: Fury Road ranks alongside Sigourney Weaver's Ripley in the Alien Series and Linda Hamilton's Sarah Connor in Terminator 2 as one of the best female performances in an action movie in recent memory.

Also starring Nicholas Hoult, Zoe Kravitz and Rosie Huntington-Whitely, Mad Max: Fury Road successfully brought back the franchise that we all thought would never see the light of day again.