This place used to be something, officer. Earthquake comes from director Mark Robson and writers Mario Puzo and George Fox. Charlton Heston, George Kennedy, Ava Gardner, Geneviève Bujold, Lorne Greene, Richard Roundtree & Marjoe Gortner are in the cast. A massive earthquake hits Southern California and begins to tear Los Angeles apart... "It's not bad that a film has heart when it’s dealing with disaster." If you go back to 1974, can you appreciate this movie a bit better? Maybe? Earthquake does show its age; we hear that a lot, but some films do last while others don't. It's easy now, in our world of computer-generated effects, to forget what filmmakers didn’t have access to when movies like this were made. As I usually do, I judge it as something from 1974, and it gives enough entertainment to satisfy my tastes for the genre and just plain fun. A lot of people complain about how long it takes for the movie to get going, saying it's boring, but I don’t see it that way. Sure, we want the earthquake and all the destruction that follows because it is a disaster film after all, but is it so bad that there's some feeling behind it? After getting to know the characters—seeing how they relate to each other and what they’re like—the disaster hits, and it doesn’t let you down. There’s total devastation as special effects and sound fill your vision and ears; people with good home theater systems will find that it literally shakes the house. Then we get a series of scenes that keep our attention, showing sad moments mixed with heroic actions as Heston and Kennedy try to save lives, even the town itself. And then comes the film's ending, where they don’t take an easy way out; the makers chose a darker conclusion than critics give it credit for. Some might make fun of a bit of blood or complain about some of the acting, but Earthquake does two important things. One is that it entertains as a visual experience (the model work is good), and the other is that it doesn’t shy away from how terrible an earthquake can be. As the camera pulls back to show a ruined Los Angeles, the impact is somber, and reflection is needed—and I'm sure people get that. 7/10

Source on TMDB