Dwayne Johnson should be the world’s biggest action star right now. Why he isn’t, I have no idea. Why can’t he can’t into better projects that feature him? Because when he gets inserted into something like a “Fast & Furious” movie or a “G.I. Joe” sequel, or even as a sidekick in a Michael Bay-Mark Walhberg movie, he is easily the best part of those films, whether they are good or bad. But then we have something like “San Andreas.” When he gets the chance to be the lead, it is almost always in a movie that is just not good, no matter how much charisma he pumps into it. Like “Hercules,” we have Mr. Johnson bringing his A-game to a movie that just doesn’t work out, for a myriad of reasons.

In “San Andreas,” Ray (Dwayne Johnson) is dealing with the recent separation and impending divorce from his wife whom he still clearly loves Emma (Carla Gugino), and it’s one of those separations that seem to be as amiable as it gets. Emma has a new super rich architect boyfriend named Daniel (Ioan Gruffudd) which does make things a little awkward. And in the middle of all this is Ray and Emma’s college age daughter Blake (Alexandra Daddario). And when the movie starts, despite Ray having to break plans with his daughter because of work related stuff and despite the divorce, all of these people get along pretty great. Whereas other movies would use this to make Ray seem like a workaholic and his family resentful of it, Blake is super understanding of her dad’s job. And when Ray and Emma have a little tiff over her plans to move in with Daniel, Ray gets in touch with Emma the very next day and apologizes and she accepts it and it is all hunky-dory. And when it seems like Daniel would be trying to move in as “new dad” and possibly have a hard time relating to Blake, he turns out to be kind and thoughtful, and he’s all like “I’m not here to replace your dad or what you have with him, I just wanna be like cool and stuff,” and Blake is all smiles and she’s like “hey thanks man I really appreciate that.”Continue Reading …