Director: Rawson Marshall Thurber
Writer: Rawson Marshall Thurber
Cast: Dwayne Johnson, Neve Campbell, Chin Han and Noah Taylor
After years working hostage negotiations and fighting terror Will Sawyer gave it all up to finally settle into life as a family man. He traded in his gun and badge for his wife and twins, and never looked back. His domestic bliss is interrupted when a madman sets fire to the worlds tallest building, with Will’s wife and children inside. Will must rely on his wits and tactical training to save his beloved family from the towering inferno.
Skyscraper is yet another, The Rock saves the day production. Don’t get it twisted we love Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson. He’s always funny, the stunts are always ridiculously complex and let’s be honest he’s just fun to watch. The plot is more of the usual. The fire isn’t just an accident it is part of a crazy criminal’s convoluted plan to steal something. The plan was aided by an old acquaintance of Sawyer who planned to get his revenge by making Will Sawyer the fall guy. Naturally, one thing goes wrong and now the entire plan must shift gears. As always, the bad guys have underestimated the gentle giant’s devotion to his family, and now they must pay! The film is about 90 minutes of the same formulaic story arc we have come to expect. Cookie cutter plot aside we thoroughly enjoyed this movie. The fight scenes were epic and the stunts unreal. The creativity and imagination it must have taken to envision the Rock scaling a building with duct tape is reason enough to check out this film. Doing a duct tape walk outside of a burning building is only one of the insane stunts in this film. In another scene, our fearless hero uses cables to hold an entire bridge together as his wife does a tightrope walk over roaring flames, with their son on her back. Without a doubt, the best part of all of this is that the hero is an amputee! Not only is he kicking ass, scaling tall buildings and making flying leaps he’s doing it all with a prosthetic limb.
Accompanying Will Sawyer on this fiery rampage is his loving wife Sarah played by Neve Campbell. The former Scream Queen is a badass in her own right, Sarah fights as hard as her hubby to save the children. She is by no means a helpless dame. Exuding girl power, she fights off bad guys, keeps the kids together, and delivers one of the films most satisfying beatdowns. She’s no damsel in distress she holds her own against the horde of cartoonish villains. Speaking of villains the bad guys in this piece are a hapless bunch of cliche’ killers. The usual suspects include a fancy British guy, a girl with perfect hair, hundreds of faceless henchmen and a buff ringleader who would threaten a child to get what he wants. As expected they all get their comeuppance in satisfying ways that will have you cheering.
No one goes to a Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson film looking for Shakespeare. We go to be entertained and Skyscraper delivers. From the start, this movie is a wild adrenaline rush full of dazzling special effects and wild stunts. Last year, we watched The Rock save the world by driving really fast, earlier this year we watched him save the world and his ape bestie from oversized predators. Now see Skyscraper and watch him defy gravity, to save his wife and kids. No matter the scenario Dwayne Johnson saving folks is a story that never gets old. Predictable? Yes, but never boring.
Skyscraper hits theaters on Friday, July 13th!