Skyscaper Review -

I guess you can go back to the story of the Tower of Babel to know that humans love to build higher and higher into the heavens. Just like in that story, the cinematic gods have met that hubris in the movies by knocking us back down Earth on numerous occasions. Ok that sounds a bit deep for a movie like Skyscraper; so let me just throw out how much I love 1974's Towering Inferno.

Will Sawyer (Dwayne Johnson), a former FBI agent and war veteran, experienced a horrible and career ending event. He's now started his own business and has been invited to Hong Kong by a former colleague (Pablo Schreiber) to asses security for a skyscraper to end all skyscrapers - called The Pearl. In tow are his wife, Sarah (Neve Campbell) and two children. If you've watched the trailer or are maybe just familiar with Dwayne Johnson movies, you will know this is not going to be an idyllic family vacation. Some very nasty people set an inferno of a fire at The Peal and essentially trap Will's family and the owner of the building (Chin Han) in The Pearl. Will battles to rescue his family and find out what the big bad guys (and one particularly lethal lady) want.

Every summer there is talk of when the dumb outweighs the fun in a "dumb summer blockbuster" and I get it. For example is Skyscaper just an updated Die Hard rip off? Sure that's a bit valid. Are some of the bigger stunts impossible to believe? Why yes they are. There's one particular scene that rivals Bruce Willis jumping a car Duke of Hazard style into a helicopter (thank you for that Die Hard or Live Free). All of the boxes are checked for a sit back and just enjoy type of summer movie and I don't think that Skyscraper inched to close to the dumb versus fun divide. During the movie it seems everyone is either fighting fire, running from fire or dangling over fire. Totally fine with me because I sat in the through the movie 2012 and came out with my intelligence mostly intact. One surprising aspect of Skyscraper? Neve Campbell. Her character, Sarah is given a genuine backstory that is actually used during the movie, making her intelligent, observant and physically capable. I had several flashbacks of "You go Sidney" (No I'm not a senile old man quite yet. That's a Scream reference).
I'm giving Skyscraper a B and say go enjoy it.