Earthquake
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Movie Reviews of Earthquake
Movie Review: Soap opera stuff, with variable special effects
Summary: 2 Stars
EARTHQUAKE
(USA - 1974)
Aspect ratio: 2.39:1 (Panavision)
Theatrical soundtrack: 6-track stereo (Sensurround encoding)
Several disparate characters are drawn together in the aftermath of an earthquake which devastates Los Angeles.
Soapy addition to the 1970's disaster cycle, featuring an all-star cast going through the dreary motions (who CARES if Charlton Heston is threatening to leave wife Ava Gardner for younger woman Geneviève Bujold?) until their problems are resolved - one way or another - by an earth-shattering catastrophe. The earthquake itself is impressive in some places (collapsing miniatures, burning buildings, expansive matte paintings, etc.) and dreadful in others ('shaky-cam' inserts, animated 'blood splatter', optical distortions which LOOK like optical distortions, etc.), though some moviegoers were lucky enough to view the film theatrically in Sensurround, an ultra-deep bass enhancement which caused structural damage in a number of theaters!
Directed by industry veteran Mark Robson (BEDLAM, ISLE OF THE DEAD) and produced by Universal at a time when most of their output looked like big screen TV features, the movie was intended to give THE TOWERING INFERNO (1974) a run for its money and came off looking pretty ropey in comparison, though it DOES have a strong cast (including George Kennedy, giving the film's best performance as a disillusioned cop whose faith is restored in the aftermath of the quake). The moralistic ending is particularly hard to swallow.
Movie Review: Shake it up, baby
Summary: 2 Stars
Yowie! Here's one perfectly awful movie. It is watchable, however, and is enjoyable from the standpoint of it being rather ridiculous. The casting, for one thing, is bizarre. Having Ava Gardner cast as Lorne Greene's daughter, when in real life she was actually 2 years OLDER than him, is laugh-out-loud funny. And then there's bad toupe-wearing Charlton Heston, cast as Gardner's husband, who has little time for his wife but plenty of time for his French-accented lover (whose name I don't even want to attempt to spell right now; just look at the credits). Right-wing nut Heston isn't exactly Moses in this, is he? Evangelist Marjoe Gortner (remember him? You don't? It's just as well) plays a wacko (how fitting) who tends to get on people's nerves (especially the audience's). This is enjoyable schlock courtesy of Universal Pictures, who also gave us all those lousy Airport movies. If that sounds appealing, go for it.Movie Review: ok, i'll admit it -- it WAS fun watching charlton heston drown ...
Summary: 2 Stars
the least of the big 3 of disaster movies (the others being "poseidon adventure" and "towering inferno") that hit across movie screens in the mid 1970s. the sensurround gimmick obviously doesnt work when seen on tv, the screenplay and acting are pedestrian, and the special effects now look a cut above flash gordon serials.
Movie Review: Ben-Hur Helps During A Minor Tremor
Summary: 1 Stars
Fact: Most of the disaster films of the 1970s were god-awful abominations of cinema. Earthquake, Airport, The Swarm etc. The lone exception probably being The Towering Inferno, and that's mostly by the good graces of Paul Newman and the great Steve McQueen. How bad is Earthquake? The directing is an absolute embarrassment, the writing is horrid, which is sad considering it was co-written by The Godfather book/movie writer Mario Puzo, the special effects were laughable even for the time period, and most of the actors/characterization in this movie is dead and/or dying, the lone exception being Ben Cartwright from Bonanza because let's face it, he's Ben Cartwright from Bonanza. Also, Walter Matthau is in here for absolutely no reason at all.
Charlton Heston plays a businessman who is having an affair with a young mother, while having marital troubles with the nagging Ava Gardner. Ava Gardner is also the daughter of Lorne Greene, aka Ben Cartwright, even though they clearly look the same way (in actuality Ava is 7 years younger than Greene). George Kennedy plays a cop that picked the bad day to be on the job. Richard Roundtree is a motorcyclist who thinks he's a lot better than he clearly is, and then there's Marjoe Gortner. Everybody that I asked who remembered Earthquake all said the same thing, they remembered Marjoe Gortner and how he ruined the movie. It's easy to see why they'd say it. Gortner plays a grocer who can only be described as an arrest away from officially being considered a pedophile and/or sexual predator, and he has pin-ups of male body builders on his wall, giving the assumption to his roommates at least that he is gay, to which they proceed to call him offensive slang and throw things at him. He also happens to be a National Guard Sargent, so when he's called to patrol the city during the Earthquake, he snaps, kills people, and comes close to raping a girl. I don't know exactly what the purpose of this character was supposed to be, since he really isn't consequential to any of the proceedings, the character comes off as offensive in every possible way. Did I also mention that the way all these actors portray their characters can be best described as wooden?
I could go on riffs on how the director was incompetent to say the least, the ending was needless and perplexingly bad to say the least, but in the end, Earthquake is just a bad movie on many different levels, for two hours, without any redeemable qualities. Nobody really liked it back then, and the only reason it was popular was because it came out in the absolute height of the 1970s disaster movie era, where it came out in the same year as The Towering Inferno and Airport 1975. Today, Earthquake has aged like sour milk left in a hot shed for 30 years. Nobody really liked it back then, and today it's just an utter embarrassment of filmmaking for all involved. In fact, the only thing good that ever came out of this movie was a Universal Studios ride, and even that is somewhat debatable.
Movie Review: GET IT TOGETHER UNIVERSAL!!!!!!
Summary: 1 Stars
If there is someone from universal studios that is going to read this all i have to say is "GET IT TOGETHER UNIVERSAL" 20TH CENTURY FOX HAS RELEASED THE TOWERING INFERNO AND POSEIDON ADVENTURE " SPECIAL EDITION" and it is so incredible!!!!! it really has brought the 70s disaster movies back to its best. Now with the new movie "POSEIDON" floating into the theaters tomorrow MAY 12th, Which by the way is still an IRWIN ALLEN PRODUCTION and his Wife SHELLA MATHERS ALLEN is one of the executive producers, This movie is going to be the next "TITANIC" The special editions show so much information about every little detail that it is longer then the movies themselves. ITS SO MUCH FUN !!!. i HAVE TO ASK WHY WAS EARTHQUAKE RERELEASED ON THE SAME DAY TOWERING INFERNO S.E. WAS RELEASED. It is no big deal nothing more then better sound. WHO CARES. WE WANT TO SEE SPECIAL FEATURES GALORE. EVERYTHING ABOUT EARTHQUAKE.. So people DONT BOTHER to get the re release of EARTHQUAKE because , it is a WASTE OF MONEY BUT, DO BUY THE OTHERS AND GO SEE POSEIDON, ITS INCREDIBLE!!!!! oh by the way the ONLY reason thati gave it one star is because i still love the movie. but, if UNIVERSAL is going to spend money on put this out, THEN MAKE IT WORTH OUR WILD. BORING BORING BORING