Die Hard on the Rocks

SKYSCRAPER (2018)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

After watching "Skyscraper," my thoughts were obvious to anyone who loves movies: this was a direct rip-off of the original "Die Hard." I am not going to perform those checks, you know, oh a massive skyscraper, check. Nope, not going there. Anyone in my age range might think further back to "The Towering Inferno" though that was an Irwin Allen disaster flick with an all-star cast and the fire was not purposely set, plus no there were no terrorists. "Skyscraper" has a musclebound hulk of a hero who is protecting his family from a fiery building and some terrorists. There are minute differences between this "homage" and the Bruce Willis action pic yet there are enough thrills to keep everyone entertained if not necessarily nourished.

Dwayne Johnson is the former FBI agent, Will Sawyer, who has one of his legs fitted with a prosthetic (a standoff a decade earlier left him with an amputated leg). Now he's a top notch security consultant who provides his expertise on the security of a new high-rise, partly residential, 240-story skyscraper in Hong Kong known as the Pearl (it even has turbine power on the side of its building, and a massive garden area!) Before long, Will's family is inside one of the residential units (though I was not clear if they already lived there) and all hell breaks loose when various villains armed to the teeth invade the skyscraper and hack into its computer base to shut down all sprinklers and start a fire that gets worse in the upper floors. You see, the billionaire who built the Pearl, Zhao Long Zhi (Chin Han), has a precious flash drive that contains banking data on some criminal masterminds. I hate to question the logic of all this but why are villains going to purposely incinerate all the upper floors when the billionaire businessman Zhi has a penthouse in one of the upper floors and has the flash drive they so desire? Why go through all the pyromaniac nonsense in the first place? And since the billionaire entrusts Will with a tablet that apparently can turn the skyscraper's security system back on, why is the security system not turned on sooner?

Of course, we don't go to movies like "Skyscraper" for screenplay logic, we go for the action and there is enough here to please softcore action fans (I say softcore because it is rated PG-13). Will jumps across from a crane to an open window in a stunt that looks like one Schwarzenegger might have attempted in one his 80's action films. Will and his family have quite a few cliffhangers to endure (an elevator scene will have you grabbing the arms of your seat) and a stirring digital mirrors climax (an homage to "The Lady From Shanghai"?) though nothing here comes close to the dizzying action and claustrophobic highlights of "Die Hard" or even "The Towering Inferno."

Sure, the villains are a mixed bag of anonymity and the building, impressive in its design, is a definite CGI construct. Dwayne Johnson makes for a relatively engaging reluctant hero and Neve Campbell is relatively inexpressive as his wife who has combat experience and speaks many languages. "Skyscraper" may not tower over most of its ilk but its inferno trappings will provide a few buckets of urgent fun.