 ***PLEASE NOTE: A Blu-ray 3D disc is only compatible with 3D Blu-ray players.*** Tagline: Don't Look Down. Skyscraper, a proudly ridiculous thriller, is mostly about its other towering figure: Dwayne Johnson, whose colossal physicality is complemented by a delicate expressivity rare in blockbusters. This action movie has about four gripping sequences of heart-pounding suspense, but they're surrounded by too much ridiculous, ineffective stuff; stressful scenes of kids in peril tip the balance. Storyline: FBI Hostage Rescue Team leader and U.S. war veteran Will Sawyer now assesses security for skyscrapers. On assignment in Hong Kong he finds the tallest, safest building in the world suddenly ablaze and he's been framed for it. A wanted man on the run, Will must find those responsible, clear his name and somehow rescue his family who are trapped inside the building - above the fire line. Reviewer's Note: Reviewed by Martin Liebman, October 14, 2018Though the film is built around massive structural grandeur, Skyscraper actually tells an intimate tale of a disfigured and desperate father fighting to save his wife and children at all costs. Will Sawyer, portrayed by Dwayne Johnson, is a physically broken man, but his mental toughness and emotional connection to his family are without flaw or fail. The film pairs him again with Director Rawson Marshall Thurber, with whom he worked on Central Intelligence. Skyscraper is a soaring, if not a bit cliché, Action film that shrinks the scope of The Towering Inferno and modernizes the story of Die Hard while building and maintaining a singular focus on Will's determination to save his family, no matter the challenge, the hardship, or the threat to his own wellbeing. Full Review of the 2D film: Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman, October 14, 2018 When press reports about Skyscraper first started populating my email and newsfeed some time ago, because I am an inveterate nerd and many of my friends are unashamedly nerds as well, I posted to one of my social media accounts asking if Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson was playing the Julie Harris part. For those of you scratching your heads over this obscure reference, there was an old, now not very well remembered, musical in the 1965-66 Broadway season called Skyscraper which was the venerable Ms. Harris' sole entry in that idiom. (Let's just say that there's a reason that particular Skyscraper is not very well remembered.) This particular Skyscraper has very little singing and dancing, but it may still strike even non Broadway geeks as more than a bit reminiscent of other properties, since it deals with what might be called a Die Hard hero attempting to deal with The Towering Inferno. Skyscraper is one of those action adventure entries that simply requires complete surrender to its increasingly preposterous plot conceits, though those who do give in to some of the film's more ludicrous elements will probably find enough of an adrenaline jolt to make the viewing experience worthwhile. Much as with The Towering Inferno, Skyscraper deals with an impossibly tall building which may not have the structural issues that the monolith in the earlier film did, but which is still vulnerable to attacks by nefarious villains, resulting in a conflagration that consumes the upper floors and which former FBI agent Will Sawyer (Julie Harris, er, Dwayne Johnson) more or less single handedly deals with as he attempts to rescue folks trapped inside, folks which of course (of course) include his wife and adorable children. Note: A couple of salient plot points are unavoidable in discussing Skyscraper, some of which those unacquainted with either the film or the character Johnson plays may consider spoiler material. Those folks are encouraged to skip the following summary if they fear any unwanted revelations. Though my hunch is relatively few have seen it, a Chinese film I reviewed a little over a year ago, Sky on Fire, has several curious similarities to Skyscraper, aside and apart from their shared reference to the heavens overhead, which may at least help to indicate that a lot of Skyscraper is going to seem pretty cliché ridden to anyone who has seen any given disaster movie or other film where a hero has to battle impossible odds to save his family. That said, Skyscraper packs an undeniable wallop in several expertly staged set pieces, even if the overall feel of the story is definitely "been there, seen that". The film begins by establishing Sawyer's bona fides as a hostage negotiator in a scene which takes place "ten years ago". While Sawyer seems to be on the verge of settling a crisis involving an out of control man holding his family under siege, things go horribly wrong, leading to one of the stranger "meet cute" moments in the annals of film, when a badly wounded Sawyer, barely conscious in an emergency room, looks up to see a lovely surgeon, who, once the film ports forward a decade, is now shown to be his wife, Sarah (Neve Campbell). Not only is Sawyer happily married, he's the loving father to two adorable twins (one boy, one girl), with his whole family "camped out" in the luxurious abode of The Pearl, the world's tallest building which graces the Hong Kong skyline but which has yet to officially open. Sawyer, missing half of one of his legs as a result of the horror depicted in the film's opening flashback, has left the FBI and now works as a private consultant, and his former FBI buddy Ben (Pablo Schreiber) has helped get Sawyer employed by The Pearl's mastermind Zhao Long Ji (Chin Han). Sawyer has been tasked with assessing the building's safety so that Zhao can attain insurance, and, perhaps because screenwriter and director Rawson Marshall Thurber knew going into this enterprise a lot of folks would be thinking of The Towering Inferno, the very first thing Sawyer addresses is the building's ability to contain fire. (Yeah, right — guess how that one turns out.) Sawyer also gives an "A+" rating to the building's entire security apparatus, with the caveat that he needs to personally check an offsite location that actually monitors and controls the building's safety. Zhao gives Sawyer a tablet that has a "biometric" interface that will only allow Sawyer to access administrative levels of the software controlling the building's many safety features. (Yeah, right — guess how that one works out.) Without getting too much into the weeds of a film that kind of ticks off the "action adventure" boxes in order to get to the next big set piece, suffice it to say there's a traitor in Sawyer's midst (three guesses as to whom, with the first two not counting), and soon enough a whole horde of nasty villains has invaded The Pearl (something that seems to defy Sawyer's own assessment of how safe the structure is, especially considering the silly method the first interlopers gain access with). It doesn't take long before a deliberately set conflagration consumes the 96th floor, with Sarah and kids trapped, but kind of interestingly with Zhao and his fussy insurance guy, along with Zhao's security detail, supposedly safe scores of floors above the fire. There are all sorts of silly shenanigans that ensue, and some may feel the underlying "McGuffin" of why all of this is happening doesn't just defy logic, it kind of taunts it. Again without getting into plot dynamics that may not hold up too well to any serious examination, Zhao has a bit of a secret involving a shakedown artist named Botha (Roland Møller), and Botha is on the hunt for a data drive (why is it always a data drive?) that Zhao has in his possession. That all kind of flies by the wayside late in the film, however, when (again, predictably) Botha takes one of the Sawyer kids hostage. What really works in Skyscraper is the amazing stunt work and at least some of the special effects, along with some spectacularly staged fights (a knock down, drag out fight early in the film involving Sawyer and his first nemesis is a real highlight). The various ways Thurber manages to get Sawyer hanging off the side of a building dangerously in flames is actually kind of amusing after a while, and Thurber seems to know he's playing with his audience's anxiety levels, offering a surrogate group of witnesses who gather below the carnage and gasp in shock or break out in applause as Sawyer either comes close to dying (repeatedly) or manages to persevere against impossible odds (even more repeatedly). There's nothing new or innovative about Skyscraper, but the film doesn't really have any pretensions about what it is or what kind of entertainment it wants to deliver. It's a good popcorn munching affair that will certainly get pulse rates pounding, and my hunch is we may soon be seeing Will Sawyer tackle some other pesky disaster like rescuing survivors from an upside down cruise ship. Skyscraper has some terrifically exciting set pieces, and Johnson gives it his all as a man on a mission to save his family. The plot is littered with a number of absolutely ridiculous conceits, and so a certain amount of tolerance may be needed by more jaded viewers. As an undemanding, message free example of how to get the adrenaline flowing, though, Skyscraper delivers. Technical merits are first rate and the supplemental package is also appealing. Recommended. [CSW] -3.4- The 3D added 0.5 points to the score so instead of 2.9 it got a 3.4. It is a lot better in 3D. Plenty of action. Clean movie even the kids can watch with you. A cross between Die Hard and Towering Inferno. Does not make it overly original, but it does make it entertaining. Nothing surprising to me. The suspense for novices should keep them properly entertained. Tie ins from what you see in the beginning come full circle in how things will get resolved in the end. Good acting, good special effects. Only thing I might criticize would be the need to keep both eyes on the movie at all times if you are a detail person. There are text points, there are location notations, and there are subtitles. So if you have to catch every last thing to keep it all tied together (like me) then do not look away or leave the movie w/out pauses. [V4.5-A5.0] MPEG-4 AVC - 3-D 7/10 - D-Box really enhanced this movie.. Cast Notes: Dwayne Johnson (Will Sawyer), Neve Campbell (Sarah Sawyer), Chin Han (Zhao Long Ji), Roland Møller (Kores Botha), Noah Taylor (Mr. Pierce), Byron Mann (Inspector Wu), Pablo Schreiber (Ben), McKenna Roberts (Georgia Sawyer), Noah Cottrell (Henry Sawyer), Hannah Quinlivan (Xia), Adrian Holmes (Ajani Okeke), Elfina Luk (Sergeant Han), Kevin Rankin (Ray), Gretal Montgomery (Ray's Wife), Jett Klyne (Ray's Son). IMDb Rating (09/23/18): 5.9/10 from 37,796 users
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