I've seen my first Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson movie: San Andreas (2015). It was on a couple of the TVs at the gym when I was there Thursday night. The only other thing that I've seen him in is an old episode of Star Trek: Voyager (Tsunkatse). I missed the beginning of San Andreas, as California was already in ruins when I climbed onto the stair stepper. Fortunately, it was pretty easy to figure out what was going on- a huge earthquake, complete devastation, and The Rock (oops, Ray) being all heroic. For the 20 minutes I was on the stepper, he was flying around in a helicopter with a woman who turned out to be his ex-wife, avoiding falling debris and looking for their daughter. Later, while doing 20 minutes on the stationary bicycle, the helicopter has crashed into a mall... whew- they walked away without a scratch! Ray steals a truck from looters and he and the little woman are on the move again, until they are stopped by the San Andreas Fault which is a gaping chasm cutting the state in half. Fortunately they meet an old couple who own an airplane but want a truck, so they trade. They're back in the air! They head back toward the city... more scenes of devastation and running people. I'm on the rowing machine and have lost track of the action, but look up to see them parachuting. What? Obviously I've missed the destruction of the plane. Undeterred, the next time I look up- from the elliptical this time- Ray and his wife are in some sort of boat motoring around the flooded city streets looking for their daughter. The daughter- Blake- coincidentally just happens to be in a flooding building with a guy- her boyfriend?- and his little brother. Ray and his wife locate their daughter but just then- egad!- the building is hit by another tsunami wave and Blake and her companions are under water (I'm now on the treadmill). The Rock jumps into the water, swims to the building and smashes his way in. His wife, not having his big muscles, uses the boat to ram a hole in the structure. They rescue the three but- oh no!- Blake isn't breathing! Not to worry though... by the time I'm on the mats stretching, Ray is performing CPR; there's nothing this man can't do. I didn't see the very end of the film, but it was obvious that Blake will be okay, Ray and his ex-wife will reconcile, and California will pull together and rebuild. Heck, maybe Ray can fix everything: the man is a powerhouse. Okay, so this wasn't exactly Citizen Kane, but San Andreas was surprisingly fun. Completely ridiculous, impossible, and hilariously over-the-top action, absolutely. But always entertaining. I don't see many action movies; when I watched The Island, I was really annoyed when, after an interesting beginning, it turned into one long boring chase scene. San Andreas, however, has no pretenses about being anything other than what it is, and it does what it does pretty well. Also, Dwayne Johnson seems a very personable action hero. I'm not saying I'd want a steady diet of his movies, but I'd watch him at the gym anytime. I just thought about this, which has absolutely nothing to do with the movie. I go to the gym with two of my sisters at least twice a week, and there is a mystery that is beginning to obsess us. At least a couple months ago, I sat down on a stationary bike and started to put my water bottle in the holder but found that it was full of Tootsie Roll wrappers. Startled, I realized that someone must have been using the machine and chowing down on the fudge candies at the same time. Ever since then, almost every night we've been there we've found empty Tootsie Roll wrappers somewhere: in the changing rooms, by the lockers, under the coat racks, by the door- everywhere. We can only assume that someone who exercises at the gym just before we do is a Tootsie Roll addict and a litter bug. It's very odd... especially the idea of someone steadily eating candy while exercising. If only we could get there a little earlier and catch the elusive Tootsie Roll muncher in the act!
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