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Skyscraper (2018)
Take a big dish of Die Hard, throw in a generous helping of The Towering Inferno, and then throw in a dash of The Lady From Shanghai and you've got a 2018 action thriller called Skyscraper, another entry from the "Put your brain in check and enjoy" school of filmmaking because trying to figure out everything that's going on here will give you a headache, but I swear my heart stopped about eight times during this non-stop roller coaster ride.
The film stars Dwayne Johnson as Will Sawyer, a security/safety expert who lost a foot in a hostage incident years ago, who is sent to Hong Kong to supervise the security and safety systems for the newest entry in the tallest building in the world competition, a building which we're told is 3 times the height of the Empire State Building. The upper part of the building is supposed to be residential and as part of a test of Sawyer's work, they have moved his wife (Neve Campbell) and two children into the residential area. A long standing blood feud explodes between the Asian billionaire who designed the building and an international criminal mastermind out for revenge, setting the building on fire with Sawyer's family still trapped inside.
Admittedly, I can't be absolutely certain about the accuracy of the story described above because the exposition provided for this story was pretty confusing. This is another one of those movies where it's really hard to tell who the good guys are and who the bad guys are...oh, except one.
There's no doubt that Dwayne Johnson's Will Sawyer is a good guy. Yes, the character reminded me a lot of John McClane, minus the cockiness. Even though we know Johnson is the star of the film, there is nothing in what this character goes through that is a slam dunk. If you're looking for a film steeped in realism, this is not the film, but if you're looking for an often logic defying circus of an action film that will have you on the edge of your chair and holding your breath, this is the film. I don't think I have let an action film grip me so emotionally since Face/Off. Thanks primarily to the backstory which opens the movie, we are instantly on Sawyer's side and want to see him and his family safe and our desire for the character definitely requires some patience and a strong heart.
Director/writer Rawson Marshall Thurber, whose previous credits include Dodgeball: A Underdog Story and Easy A totally belies his inexperience with the action genre here, though his writing could have made some minor plot holes a little more comprehensible. He has employed first rate production values here, with special nods to film editing, sound, art direction, and Steve Jblonsky's heart pumping music. Needless to say, Dwayne Johnson once gain raises the bar on the material and makes it really easy to forgive the film's minor problems. Action fans, belly up.
Take a big dish of Die Hard, throw in a generous helping of The Towering Inferno, and then throw in a dash of The Lady From Shanghai and you've got a 2018 action thriller called Skyscraper, another entry from the "Put your brain in check and enjoy" school of filmmaking because trying to figure out everything that's going on here will give you a headache, but I swear my heart stopped about eight times during this non-stop roller coaster ride.
The film stars Dwayne Johnson as Will Sawyer, a security/safety expert who lost a foot in a hostage incident years ago, who is sent to Hong Kong to supervise the security and safety systems for the newest entry in the tallest building in the world competition, a building which we're told is 3 times the height of the Empire State Building. The upper part of the building is supposed to be residential and as part of a test of Sawyer's work, they have moved his wife (Neve Campbell) and two children into the residential area. A long standing blood feud explodes between the Asian billionaire who designed the building and an international criminal mastermind out for revenge, setting the building on fire with Sawyer's family still trapped inside.
Admittedly, I can't be absolutely certain about the accuracy of the story described above because the exposition provided for this story was pretty confusing. This is another one of those movies where it's really hard to tell who the good guys are and who the bad guys are...oh, except one.
There's no doubt that Dwayne Johnson's Will Sawyer is a good guy. Yes, the character reminded me a lot of John McClane, minus the cockiness. Even though we know Johnson is the star of the film, there is nothing in what this character goes through that is a slam dunk. If you're looking for a film steeped in realism, this is not the film, but if you're looking for an often logic defying circus of an action film that will have you on the edge of your chair and holding your breath, this is the film. I don't think I have let an action film grip me so emotionally since Face/Off. Thanks primarily to the backstory which opens the movie, we are instantly on Sawyer's side and want to see him and his family safe and our desire for the character definitely requires some patience and a strong heart.
Director/writer Rawson Marshall Thurber, whose previous credits include Dodgeball: A Underdog Story and Easy A totally belies his inexperience with the action genre here, though his writing could have made some minor plot holes a little more comprehensible. He has employed first rate production values here, with special nods to film editing, sound, art direction, and Steve Jblonsky's heart pumping music. Needless to say, Dwayne Johnson once gain raises the bar on the material and makes it really easy to forgive the film's minor problems. Action fans, belly up.