Watch The Great Los Angeles Earthquake For Free

Wonderful character development!

Let's be realistic.

An Exercise In Nonsense

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

Very good pre and post quake special effects, a believable buildup, and overall decent acting all contribute to a very entertaining if somewhat horrifying movie experience. It's definitely worth a watch.What detracts from the film are a number of bogus subplots which add nothing because they are either contrived, stereotypical, or too obvious political lectures. The assassination has absolutely nothing to do with anything, and doesn't fit into the movie. Most people are not going to be watching this to see the dynamics of a family squabbling over a birthday party or marrying off a daughter. Many of us are tired of being hit over the head with a sugar coated lecture about illegal aliens being God's gift to humanity. There was no need to have another subplot about evil real estate owners somehow being responsible for a massive quake. And the angst over nobody wanting Claire to speak up was misplaced. If anything she may have contributed to the casualties by causing mass panic with her assistant.Why put all these mini-morality plays into a good disaster movie? There are ways to make us care about the characters without shoving them down our throats.Still, worth seeing, especially for those of us who live or lived in Los Angeles. There is just 'something' about seeing what is familiar reduced to ruins that is an humbling experience.

This film wasn't too bad for a TV movie; but nonetheless, it isn't too good either.The film is too long in the first place. The kind of simple plot lines employed here could have been told in a two hour time-frame, they didn't need to be dragged out over the three hours the film is. These sub-plots indeed are pretty boring and lacklustre - typical TV movie stuff; but this time an earthquake shakes things up some.Worse still, the main plot is almost inexcusable. The star, Joanna Kerns, is a seismologist and she thinks she has figured out a methodology to predict earthquakes. Using this method, she decides an Earthquake is going to hit LA pretty soon. Of course no one believes, or wants to believe her, because there's too much red tape involved in following up such a warning - like evacuating the city for nothing if it ends up being a false alarm. So she becomes the strong willed and much maligned protagonist, fighting against the system in order to save lives.This plot line was ripped straight out of 1974's Earthquake (with Charlton Heston and Ava Gardner), so everyone knows how the film is going to end; they've seen it before! And everyone knows that those bureaucratic skeptics in the film are wrong. Heck, the film's title is a dead giveaway that there will be a quake, and that everybody should have listened to the seismologist! This is why the film makers didn't have to drag out the scenes dealing with this for such a long time before wowing us with the actual quake.Other than that, the quake scenes were surprisingly good for a TV movie. There was enough bang and blast to keep anyone amused, and the special effects carried it off quite well. The problem is that not many people (except extras) die in the end, and this is a bit disappointing, because after such a simplistically boring plot line being dragged out for such a long time, one yearns for a bit of a jolt at the end. This doesn't not come, however.'The Big One' is not too terrible a movie, but you may need to engage your trusty fast-forward button....

This movie wasn't bad, as it dealt with the biggest earthquake Los Angeles could have. The film focuses equally on the preparation the city makes and the actual earthquake itself. All in all, not too bad, with decent performances.** 1/2 out of ****

Convinced that an earthquake is going to destroy Los Angeles, a seismologist tries to alert the authorities of the city and the population. Traced on " films disaster ", this fiction turns out without surprises.