SKYSCRAPER : Tuesday 17th July 2018.

'SKYSCRAPER' just has American action drama written all over it with none other than all conquering hero Dwayne Johnson as the hunk of beef cake set to save the world, or the skyscraper in question at least, from a bunch of gun toting, no good pesky terrorist types. Directed, Written and Co-Produced by Rawson Marshall Thurber whose previous Directing credits include 'DodgeBall : A True Underdog Story', 'We're the Millers', and 'Central Intelligence' also with Dwayne Johnson, the film went on general release in the US and Australia last week. Described by many a Critic, including this Blogger, as a fusion of 'Towering Inferno' from 1974 and 'Die Hard' from 1988, the film cost US$125M, has so far grossed US$74M and has received mixed Reviews, although Dwayne Johnson's performance has been largely praised. The film is released in the China market on 20th July.

The story here surrounds former FBI Hostage Rescue Team leader and U.S. war veteran Will Sawyer (Dwayne Johnson) who in the opening segment set ten years before, is engaging in a night time hostage situation with a crack team of Special Op's personnel. A father has taken his wife and children hostage and is holed up at home threatening to kill 'em all. In bursts Sawyer through the wall and we see the father with his back to us, holding his young son and sobbing. Sawyer lowers his weapon, because he can see that the father is unarmed, and asks the perpetrator to stand down. At which point, the father releases the child, turns around and is seen to be wearing an explosive vest with the detonator in his hand, which he releases, and . . . . kaboom! Next up, the badly injured Sawyer is being stretchered into hospital, with an attractive female surgeon looking on saying that everything's gonna be just fine!

We next meet Sawyer in the present day. He is an amputee having lost a lower leg in that bomb blast ten years previously, who now assesses security and safety for skyscrapers for a living. He's on assignment in Hong Kong with his family living in the said skyscraper, known as 'The Pearl' - the world tallest building at 220 storeys. The construction process is nearing completion, although the upper floors from 94 onwards remain uninhabited, save for Sawyer and his wife Sarah who just happens to be the attractive female surgeon who patched him up ten years ago (Neve Campbell), daughter Georgia (McKenna Roberts) and younger son Henry (Noah Cottrell), who have been put up temporarily while Will conducts his business within the property.

Sawyer is that day to present his safety findings to Zhao Long Ji (Chin Han) a local multi-gazilionaire and owner of the skyscraper, for the purposes of finalising the buildings insurance requirements. Sawyer passes all the elements of his assessment except for the control base located a mile away in a secure facility, which he has not yet been able to inspect, but is set to do so the next day.

Later that night, when Sawyer is on the ground with a former colleague from his FBI days, who as it turns out has double crossed his friend and wound up dead at Sawyers hands after a confrontation involving close hand to hand combat within the confines of an apartment, an international terrorist kingpin Kores Botha (Roland Moller) and his group of merry men break into the building. The mercenaries torch the 96th floor which blocks access to the upper floors, while at the same time switching off all the hi-tech cutting edge fire suppressant devices so allowing the flames to spread rapidly to upper levels. Pretty soon the building is burning out of control and with the flames rising quickly.

The local Police spring into action headed up by Inspector Wu (Byron Mann) who suspect that Sawyer is in fact the main ring leader in the terrorist attack, because only he had access to security data contained on a tablet given to him earlier by Zhao to access the control base in order to review the security and safety protocols.

However, that tablet was stolen from Sawyer by Botha's ground based partners headed up by Xia (Hanna Quinlivan) who have in the meantime gained access to the control base, taken out everyone working there and disabled and over ridden all systems within the tower. The Police needless to say are hot on Sawyer's heels and chasing him down. Sawyer has meanwhile evaded arrest at the base of the skyscraper and is looking upward in disbelief at the inferno that has erupted high above the ground, and in which his family are trapped.

Sawyer spies a nearby crane on an adjacent construction site and heads for it, planning on getting close. He ascends perilously with the Police giving chase and the world's news camera's and the gathered crowds looking on. Now high above the ground, Sawyer takes a giant leap of faith that defies all the odds off the extended crane arm into a shattered window to gain access . . . which of course he does successfully, by his fingertips!

Sawyer is soon reunited with his family who have fled from their apartment floor and were making their way through a giant greenhouse atrium occupying several floors and housing lush greenery, waterfalls and natural features. This area is also rapidly becoming engulfed in flame but the family, now reunited, manage to escape, except for daughter Georgia who is being chased down by two of Botha's goons. Sawyer is able to get his wife and son to an elevator who use it to free fall to safety engaging the emergency brakes to stop their rapid decent just at the right moment of course. They get to the ground unscathed and help the Police identify Botha as a result of an encounter with him earlier in the day.

Meanwhile as Sawyer is rescuing his daughter from Botha's henchmen, he is caught by Botha himself and ordered to gain access to a solid titanium door behind which Zhao has retreated for safety and to safeguard an all important memory stick. That stick contains incriminating evidence against the kingpin terrorist concerning extortion running into millions and money laundering on a global scale. If Sawyer is unable to gain access as the leading security expert on the job, then Botha will throw his daughter off the roof - 220 storeys up!

This leaves no alternative for Sawyer but to comply, but to gain access he must override the security access controls hidden behind the massive air conditioning turbines that drive the properties carbon neutral heating and ventilation system. To do this, he must scale the outside of the building, using a length of rope secured from a window fitting and good ol' duct tape which he tapes sticky side out to both his hands and feet for extra grip. Clever stuff! He overrides the system thereby opening the door to Zhao's inner sanctum, temporarily.

Sawyer narrowly makes it back inside when his planned journey back goes awry and he is left dangling upside down with a rope yanking on his prosthetic leg, which of course gives way. But our hero can't plunge to his death from nearly 200 storeys up, so some quick thinking and deft manoeuvring sees Sawyer clamber back inside, and wedge his kevlar leg in the now closing doors of Zhao's strong room for him to gain access. The two hatch a plan to thwart Botha and rescue Georgia from the roof top, where Botha and his goons plan to parachute off to make their getaway.

In a close quarter gun fight inside the actual 'Pearl' Sawyer is able to overpower all the goons and dispense with them using his own particular set of skills, leaving the last man standing, Botha. The terrorist now uses Georgia to negotiate his own escape, but is kicked out of the building through a hole in the floor while holding a hand grenade. He is blown to pieces seconds later. Sawyer holds onto his daughter while flames lick all around them and there is nowhere left for them to escape to. On the ground Sarah retrieves the stolen tablet after a shoot out with the Police and overpowering Xia and the mercenaries at the parachute landing site. She realises that she can override the shutdown of the hi-tech fire extinguishing system built into the skyscraper by rebooting the computer system. This she does, and the system kicks in dousing the flames quickly, so saving Sawyer and his daughter from certain death. The family are reunited back on the ground and everyone is happy.

This is a fairly predictable by the numbers all action thriller that offers no surprises and really is straight out of the 'Towering Inferno' and 'Die Hard' play book. There are even some scenes that are direct obvious derivatives of those two films that clearly has inspired this film, not that the Director need apologise for this fact, as I guess there will be a whole new audience out there who are unfamiliar with those two movies. In Sawyer, we have a hero who clearly knows no fear, who's bravado knows no bounds, and is prepared to spray a can of Whoop Ass on anyone getting in the way of his family. And to this end he muttered the lines 'I love you' to his wife and kids about a hundred times during this film, which I found just a little OTT and clearly the scriptwriter here was struggling for meaningful dialogue amidst all the action set pieces when it was Sawyer all alone against the world! Johnson is clearly the big draw card here and it is his film alone, unlike Newman and McQueen in 'The Towering Inferno' and Willis and Rickman in 'Die Hard' who paired off against each other admirably and shared equal screen time. You need to see this on the big screen for all the vertigo inducing action, but as for the story and the originality, there is very little new to see here that hasn't been done already.

'Skyscraper' merits two claps of the clapperboard from a potential five.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-