The Quake (Skjelvet)

Should be required viewing for all of today's Hollywood franchise jockeys. It shows you how to make one of these things without sacrificing your characters' souls (or your own, for that matter).

For the more open-minded, The Quake offers visceral thrills.

There are fewer special effects shots than we'd see in a Hollywood version, but they are shrewdly deployed and suitably unsettling.

The Quake isn't your standard catastrophe drama, even if it does leave viewers shaking in their boots.

It's just intelligent and serious enough to give you your escapist cake - deluxe popcorn perils in all their big-screen glory - without making you eat the familiar guilt of empty-calorie overload.

Joner is a capable actor, but he's required here to remain for such a long time in a one-note condition of mental fragility that our sympathy for the character starts to give way to exasperation.

It's a shame his film surrendered to its own impatience to get to the "good stuff." It feels like whole chunks of the movie are missing. We never even get resolutions to the corrupt construction company and possibly-murdered ex-colleague subplots!

[S]omewhat expectedly, this film doesn't measure up to its predecessor, but still passes for a popcorn action blockbuster.

While not as mind-blowing or exhilarating as The Wave, The Quake is, without a doubt, a very solid, enjoyable, and thrilling experience.

There's plenty of intelligence in this film and a fair amount of entertainment -- it just may not make the earth move for you.

Andersen shows he's assertively capable of staging scenes of mass-destruction on a relatively minimal budget... with thrilling aplomb.

The final act generates some genuine white-knuckle tension to compensate for the tedious conspiracy theories and personal bickering.