Review: Skyscraper


Dwayne Johnson stars as an ex-Fed who changed jobs after a botched hostage situation left him with a prosthetic leg. He’s now a security consultant and married with several kids to the nurse (Neve Campbell) who patched him up. The main plot here involves Johnson accepting a security gig at a new ginormous building, moving his family in, and then having to save one and all from nasty terrorists led by Botha (Roland Moller). Pablo Schreiber is Johnson’s ex-Service buddy who got him the gig in the first place, and Noah Taylor is a slimy jerk in a suit.



The artist formerly known as The Rock strikes out with this toothless, unoriginal blend of “Die Hard” and “The Towering Inferno” from 2018. Written and directed by Rawson Marshall Thurber (the comedies “Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story” and “We’re the Millers”, it’s both ludicrous and tedious, and there’s nothing the reasonably talent cast can do to liven it up much.



We start with the biggest action movie cliché scene in cinematic history, the one where the hero makes a fatal mistake in a hostage crisis that sees him completely switch jobs by the time we next see him. Yeah, Stallone did that in “Daylight” about 20 years earlier and it was a cliché then, too. Did I mention that he ends up married to the nurse (Neve Campbell, always good to see in films) who saved his life? Yeah. There isn’t a cliché Mr. Thurber won’t dredge up for this, I’m afraid. Meanwhile, if you want to hide your snake in the grass character, you probably shouldn’t give the role to someone known for playing an utter sleazebag rapist in a popular TV series. Poor Aussie actor Noah Taylor doesn’t get it much better, playing a wimpy suit in on the criminal scheme. The only thing the filmmakers seem to care about here is the title structure itself. Apparently, I was meant to be so wowed by this…um, big building that I didn’t need anything else. Why? It’s a building. It’s tall. And? Sorry, but I don’t get it.



This movie is “Battleship” dumb, and that’s before you get to the much-ballyhooed stunt from the trailers (and it’s truly idiotic). The Rock is charisma personified and Neve Campbell is likeable too, but they can’t rescue this heavy anchor of a clichéd script, nor the utter ridiculousness of it all. Seriously, it may be the most ridiculous film I’ve seen in about twenty years…but I’m not sure such a tedious and flat film deserves that distinction. Dull and stupid, with not much energy or enthusiasm to it.



Rating: C-

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