Skyscraper

In China to assess building security, U.S. veteran Will Sawyer (Dwayne Johnson) is framed for the blaze consuming The Pearl, it tallest and presumably safest, while he must save his family above the fire line of the "Skyscraper."

Laura's Review: C

This movie so desperately wants to be "Die Hard" I almost feel a little sorry for it. But writer/director Rawson Marshall Thurber ("Easy A") has fallen into the 'bigger must be better' trap, rendering everything, from the 225 story Pearl building powered by a double spiral wind turbine that make it look like a giant blender to the Rock's super powers to the "Lady from Shanghai" climax with mirrors that have no reason for existing ridiculous. "Skyscraper" is the very definition of an amusement park ride movie tricked out for multiple disasters. At least its effects are good despite their implausibility. A prologue establishes Will Sawyer as a former FBI Hostage Team leader traumatized by a hostage situation gone terribly wrong. He loses his left leg below the knee, but finds his silver lining in the naval surgeon who saves him, then becomes his wife. In the present day, Will, his wife Sarah (Neve Campbell) and their eight year-old twins Georgia (McKenna Roberts) and Henry (Noah Cottrell) are the first people to occupy the upper floors of The Pearl. Referred by former team member Ben (Pablo Schreiber, "Den of Thieves"), Will has won the contract to verify the safety of those residential floors before Insurance broker Mr. Pierce (Noah Taylor) will sign off. But Ben is in cahoots with Kores Botha (Roland Møller, no Alan Rickman), who plans to burn out building owner Zhao Long Ji (Chin Han) in order to retrieve a drive in the safe of his penthouse. The tablet assigned to Will that control's the buildings systems is stolen and Ben's plan to keep Will's family out of harms way with a panda experience is upended when they return early. And so we have an Asian building and its owner, a family in peril working for him, a dad trained in law enforcement with a foot problem, a ballsy wife, the suspicious cop on the ground (Byron Mann' Inspector Wu), a bad guy with an accent and a rooftop helicopter. All we're missing is a sympathetic limo driver and Christmas music. This film, however, has no memorable dialogue. We are expected to just go with Johnson get beaten to a pulp, outrun an assassin (Hannah Quinliven), climb and operate a gigantic building crane, leap off of it into the building and other outrageous stunts while left to wonder just why Zhao Long Ji didn't hand over his incriminating data to the authorities and end all this before it started. Sarah's final contribution on the ground with Wu, based on her inability to reboot her iPhone, is head-slappingly hilarious. We've seen this performance from Johnson so many times before that Han comes off as the more interesting character. Campbell gives more than she gets from the enterprise. Until the MST3K gang applies their magic, "Skyscraper" should only appeal to cheap thrill seekers. Grade:

Robin's Review: DNS

DNS