The movie begins with a teenage Molly Dunn, watching her father accidently killed during an earthquake, so it’s no surprise that she grows up to be a seismologist. Unfortunately, grown up Molly lost credibility when she mistakenly called for “the big one” that never happened. Remember the 1997 movie, Dante’s Peak (except Dante’s Peak was about a volcano)? Think of the San Andreas Quake story line formula as a cross between the ideologies of Dante’s Peak and the 2015 film San Andreas (different from San Andreas Quake).

Molly Dunn (Jhey Castles) is now all grown up, discredited in her field and teaching a course at a local college. She is also the wife of a helicopter pilot (what a surprise) and step-mother to Ali, a rebellious step-daughter. Can the story get any more “been there done that?” Molly has invented a program that will warn of any impending earthquake along the San Andreas Fault.

The warning comes and soon Molly is in a race with Nick (Jason Woods), one of her students, who also turns out to be Ali’s boyfriend. They have to rescue Ali. Needless to say they travel on foot and use hot-wired vehicles in order to get downtown, grab Ali and get to the roof for a helicopter airlift.
If you’re expecting a high tech movie, however, San Andreas Quake isn’t it. In fact, in the ”extras” on the DVD, Grace Van Dien, who plays Ali, mistakenly calls the movie San Andreas Fault. The special effects are typical in what you would expect to find in a B-rated sci-fi movie, obviously fake.

At times, the movie is so predictable and the acting is so bad, you really want to laugh and can’t help but wonder if it was intentional. For example, Lane Townsend plays Hank, Molly’s helicopter-flying husband. The extent of his facial expressions, however, seems to be one look of constant wide-eyed confusion every time something happens. If you’re just a fan of earth dooms-day movies, however, the type you would find on the SyFy channel on a Saturday afternoon, then this is definitely the movie for you.

I give this movie 2 out of 5 stars for its overall predictability and lack of originality.

Director: John Baumgartner

Rated: This was a straight to video movie and is actually unrated.

Runtime: 84 minutes.



I rented this movie from the video store and have not been compensated for this review.