Earthquake (1974)

Get ready to be shaken, stirred and possibly even tickled as Los Angeles is destroyed by a major earthquake (hence the title) made over 40 years ago, Earthquake still has the magnitude to entertain even if some will find the first 50 mins a little slow but don't be discouraged once the knee trembler strikes it should offer enough to keep you entertained. The characters are a little clichéd we have Ava Gardner and Charlton Heston in a troubled marriage, it seems that its not just L.A. that is falling apart, there is George Kennedy as a disgruntled cop, Genevieve Bujold as a single mom, Victoria Principle as a young woman who attracts the men and whole host of other actors who were famous during the 70's. The special effects range from good to laughable, just remember this was before cgi and the scenes where we see the skyline wibble and wobble are still quite impressive to this day as is the post quake action. So if you don't mind your action, flared, bell bottomed and campy this 1970s blockbuster one of the best, biggest and least disastrous disaster movies of its time could be the film for you.

Compare this movie with San Andreas (2015). They have the same theme, even the dam event and the lost girl and child drama. Earthquake is 40 years before and it cares for PEOPLE, where San Andreas cares for special effects and, no matter the thousands of dead, cares about the few main characters. This is silly and quite immoral too. In Earthquake you see people DYING as well as we did in the dramatic and hyper emotional shots of 9/11. Main characters die and some of them survive as it may happen in real life.I was 17 when the movie arrived her in Italy and I never saw it because... I didn't like Charlton Heston (and still I don't :)I am sure that even without Sensurraund I would have been very impressed by the special effects and sound and characterization of people, even the less important. Think about the tough moments between Rosa and the nut guy who tries to rape her or the LA officer who gets suspension because he punched the county officer.Plot and acting are not perfect but compared with San Andreas they seem like Laurence Olivier playing Shakespeare!8/10

Earthquake (1974) ** 1/2 (out of 4) Highly entertaining but brain-numbing stupid disaster picture has the "big one" hitting L.A. where a wide group of strangers must try to survive not only the disaster but its aftermath.EARTHQUAKE, in regards to its story, is downright awful from start to finish with one of the laziest and dumbest screenplays that the genre ever gave us. Thankfully, there's an all-star cast and some dazzling special effects that save it and in the end there's no doubt that it's worth watching if you're a fan of the genre. After all, the special effects won a special Oscar and I don't think anyone could argue that the effects are mighty impressive.The special effects are certainly the main reason to watch the film as we get to see a giant city fall thanks to not only an earthquake but there are also tall buildings on fire as well as a large amount of water from a dam that bursts. All of the special effects are quite impressive even to this day with the one exception being the blood splat during an elevator scene. The most impressive stuff deals with the actual earthquake as we get to see the ground crack in front of our eyes and buildings get ripped apart in seconds. The miniatures used are extremely believable and there's no doubt that the effects make you feel as if you're really witnessing an earthquake.As with any 70s disaster picture, this one here features a terrific cast with Charlton Heston leading the way as a man dating a younger woman (Genevieve Bujold) while trying to break away from his alcoholic wife (Ava Gardner). None of the three are Oscar worthy but they're entertaining enough. We've also got the "King of the Disasters" George Kennedy offering up a good performance. The supporting cast also includes Richard Roundtree, Lorne Greene, Victoria Principal and Marjoe Gortner. Walter Matthau also appears in an awful performance and role as a drunk.Speaking of the last two actors mentioned. There's a subplot dealing Gortner's character who we first see doing a nice act then seeing him getting picked on and then a really bizarre finale. I'm not sure why this character snaps but it's a really bad and somewhat embarrassing moment. Even the stuff with the Matthau character just seems to be from another film and looks awful here. The entire melodrama is pretty useless from start to finish and it's clear these stereotypes were just thrown together to be heroes or to die.EARTHQUAKE isn't a horrible movie thanks to the cast and there's no question that the special effects makes it a must see.

My main complaint with this movie is the fact that it is very, very, very slow, and there are some silly, silly decisions. I would be interested in the relationships between the characters in terms of the love interest, but sadly it's not particularly interesting and it has to be truncated by a massive natural disaster which does sort of throw things off.So what's the artichoke? Stewart Graff is a Los Angeles architect, who tires of his dead-end marriage with his argumentative and attention grubbing wife Remy. Secretly he has an affair with the widow of a friend and actress Denise, who has a young son named Corry (at this point it could be a completely different movie!). We're then introduced to a Policeman named Slade, a Daredevil named Miles, and a grocery store owner/National Guard officer named Jody. What follows are a series of quite long winded character introductions that go on for the best part of an hour, which would be okay if it weren't for the fact that it goes on for too long! Anyway, about an hour in the horrible Earthquake strikes, and sends our characters into dismay and a fight for survival as their city crumbles around them, both socially and physically.Now, the good points. The parts involving the earthquake are played very well. The practical effects involving the destruction of the city are very well done, although with the cases of obvious models taking you out of it a bit. Also, some of the characters we meet you do find yourself siding with, like George Kennedy as Officer Slade, trying to keep order and justice in a city ravaged with destruction.But as for the rest, aside from the long drawn out character moments, there are some superbly dumb moments. For example, after the earthquake has struck, they setup a temporary refugee centre in an underground car park, at a time when violent aftershocks are bound to happen! And sure enough...Also, some of the characters act stupidly too, like Slade is suspended from his job for chasing down a criminal although he leaves his department's jurisdiction. The higher ranking officials seem to have a thing for dismissing evidence of an upcoming disaster even though there's nothing to deny the fact that it's going to happen. Although these may be personal peeves, they are ones that do take you out of the movie because you can't help but notice how stupid some of these characters are.Bottom line, this movie is a fairly generic natural disaster film, but sadly laden with very slow character moments and very silly decisions that do become quite jarring. But I will say this, when the disasters do happen, the practical effects are very good and will keep you gripped, but the problem is you have to go through a lot of very slow and quite dull moments. If you can survive those, then I'd say give it a watch if you want just a silly disaster film.