SummaryFormer FBI Hostage Rescue Team leader and U.S. war veteran Will Ford (Dwayne Johnson) now assesses security for skyscrapers. On assignment in China 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...
SummaryFormer FBI Hostage Rescue Team leader and U.S. war veteran Will Ford (Dwayne Johnson) now assesses security for skyscrapers. On assignment in China 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...
Skyscraper doesn’t change the action-movie game the way “Die Hard” did, but it’s a solidly entertaining summer diversion best enjoyed on the biggest theater — or even better, drive-in — screen you can find. And if you’re afraid of heights, make sure there’s an armrest — or even better, an arm — that you can grab.
On the scale that ranges from implausibly entertaining to entertainingly implausible, Skyscraper comfortably falls toward the compulsively over-the-top end, generating thrills by straining credibility at every turn, relying on Johnson’s invaluable ability to engage the audience while defying physics, common sense, and the sheer limits of human stamina.
Rawson Marshall Thurber's Skyscraper is one of the most idiotic action movies to come down the pike in some time. It's also a lot of fun if you're willing to go with it, and getting viewers to go with things is one of several fronts on which The Rock routinely earns the money he gets paid.
There are few surprises delivered in Skyscraper, an entertaining if middlebrow thriller whose very name — blandly descriptive, generic — seems to advertise its fungibility.
No one churns out big-budget action mediocrity these days as regularly as Dwayne Johnson. So now, just three months after his giant gorilla-a-go-go Rampage, we have Skyscraper — a film that suggests what would happen if you took The Towering Inferno and Die Hard and stripped them of the qualities that made both work.
There’s no better time than summer for a fun, brainless thriller. All you need is three key ingredients: a charismatic hero, a hateable villain and a snappy screenplay...Skyscraper, regrettably, cuts likable star Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson off at the knees by failing to deliver on the other two.
lacks a layered surface to scratch on..
13 July 2018
****
1 And A Half Out Of 5
Johnson's character in the beginning of the feature, says "I'll just high-five the guy" after attempting to wish in a foreign language, which unfortunately seems to be the motto of the makers - if impossible to justify it, just sleep over it or more accurately leap over it.
**** is a plot driven commercial feature about a guy pushing his limits to save his family despite of being restrained and barred by the nature. It is short on technical aspects like visual effects, (which is a downer considering that it depends a lot upon it) sound department and better editing. It is shot decently with some pleasing scenes here and there, that are implemented to attract the viewers which too wears off sooner than expected. The writing is cheesy, corny and amateur with forced humor installed to balance the commercial aspect of it which isn't palpable to Johnson's character whose effort to breed the sincerity and seriousness communicates unevenly. The characters are loud, unnecessarily expressive and aren't polished appropriately, leaving them a bit chalky around the edges to swallow. The action sequences are shot brilliantly with Johnson in command who hits hard and brutal with convincing hand-to-hand combat where his hard work is clearly visible on the screen. He is good on physical sequences although struggling; even though improving, on acting skills and also isn't supported to that extent by the supporting cast like Neve Campbell and Chin Han.
Rawson Marshall Thurber; the writer-director, seems to have taken the opportunity granted for neither his sloppy writing nor shallow execution convinces the audience to be invested in it. The Johnson's hard work and few choreographed action sequences are the only high points of the feature.
**** lacks a layered surface to scratch on, for the revealing hollowness in a material is neither impressive nor advantageous.