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Fresh and Exciting

I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

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.

If nothing else, this 1974, mega-blockbuster, disaster film was certainly well-worth a few good laughs (unintentional laughs, that is).Featuring a hilarious barrage of cheesy, old-school special effects (and plenty of cornball character interaction), Earthquake's decidedly over-melodramatic story even had the Hare Krishnas getting into the overall spirit of this particular catastrophe story.With the escalating excitement of Earthquake's tale reaching 9.9 on the Richter Scale, it was definitely all-American heroism that prevailed throughout this picture's 129-minute running time (with, of course, a little rocky romance, thrown in for good measure).Showcasing a star-studded cast, headlined by Charlton Heston & Ava Gardner, 1974's Earthquake turned out to be the 4th highest grossing film of the year. And, with that, it easily earned back it $7 million production costs, 8-fold, in no time flat.Unfortunately, Earthquake didn't even come close to living up to its disastrous potential. In the long run, it got itself so bogged down dealing with too many irksome personal dramas that repeatedly punctuated its story-line.

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.