Am I Missing Something?

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

Made long before the advent of CGI, disaster movie Earthquake relies on a combination of full-scale chaos, clever miniatures, green-screen work and matte paintings to convince the viewers that Los Angeles is being torn apart by the force of nature. And it works brilliantly, the damage caused by the film's devastating quake (and the subsequent aftershocks) just as impressive as many a modern day disaster flick.The drawn out drama might drag the film down a bit, making it slightly less successful than those benchmark classics of the genre, The Towering Inferno and The Poseidon Adventure, but Earthquake is still essential viewing for fans of cinematic catastrophe, with collapsing buildings, raging fires, a burst dam, and plenty of extras meeting grisly fates making for a whole lot of fun (who can forget that elevator crashing to the ground with a comical red splat?).Of course, the all-star cast doesn't hurt either: Charlton Heston ably plays the hero, engineer Graff, whose life intertwines with numerous other characters during the course of the movie, including his estranged wife Remy (Ava Gardner), single mum Denise (Geneviève Bujold), tough cop Slade (George Kennedy), stunt motorcyclist Miles (Richard Roundtree), Graff's boss Royce (Lorne Green), and sexy babe with a ridiculously massive fro, Rosa (Victoria Principal). Smaller, but no less important parts are played by Marjoe Gortner as a psychotic national guardsman, and Monica Lewis as Royce's secretary Barbara.All that and a rather downbeat ending to boot! 8/10

Various interconnected people struggle to survive when an earthquake of unimaginable magnitude hits Los Angeles.This movie is notable for the use of an innovative sound effect called Sensurround which created the sense of actually experiencing an earthquake in theaters. Due in part to this technology, the film won an Academy Award for Best Sound (Ronald Pierce, Melvin M. Metcalfe Sr.). Well done! Although relatively little happens for the first half, that does not seem to matter. We still enjoy getting to meet this motley cast of characters. There is some name-dropping (e.g. Zsa Zsa Gabor) to remind us we are in Los Angeles, and the action is well paced. I especially enjoyed seeing people fall off the tall buildings.

To the point, while on a binge of disaster films, it occurred to me that Earthquake quite simply had no story other than the disaster itself. The first half refuses to engage, with characters that undergo a dull drama. I am not impatient--in fact, I don't mind the wait in The Towering Inferno, which some may find tedious. However, once all the pieces are put into place for the big one in this film, you get eight solid minutes of destruction. The second half, including aftermath, gives you what you wanted from a movie called Earthquake, even with some dated effects. You still get that 70's oomph.It's not The Poseidon Adventure by a long shot, but for those seeking destruction, this delivers the goods, and certainly better than others of the genre such as Airport and its sequels. This film is underrated here on IMDb. In conclusion, if I could give Earthquake a 6.5, I would; but I like to round up. Thanks for reading, and remember; it's all IMO.

Earthquake is directed by Mark Robson, written by George Fox and Mario Puzo and stars Charlton Heston, Ava Gardner, George Kennedy, Genevieve Bujold and Lorne Greene.Following the success of films like The Poseidon Adventure, Airport and The Towering Inferno along came Earthquake. Unlike many other films in this genre Earthquake is just terrible, it's characters are for the most part shallow and even unlikable and too much time is spent focusing on their lives and problems and not enough on the disaster itself.For the time the special effects were good and the film was released in cinemas with Sense Surround.There is a stellar cast in this film but sadly even they cannot save this one. Stuart(Charlton Heston) and Remy Graff(Ava Gardner) are a bickering married couple who can't stand each other. Graff is having an affair with single mother Denise(Genevieve Bujold) and she thinks he will leave his wife for her. The other characters we encounter include a stunt motor bike rider(Richard Roundtree), an embittered cop(George Kennedy)who befriends a young woman called Rosa(Victoria Principle)and Remy's rich dad(Lorne Greene). There's also a bizarre cameo from Walter Matthau playing a drunk.Apart from a couple of earthquake sequences that do look impressive and scary most of the effects look dated today and the film drags on much longer than it should do. One for disaster fans who want to see as many films from the genre as they can, for the rest of us this is one to avoid.