324. Skyscraper; movie review

SKYSCRAPER
Cert 12A
102 mins
BBFC advice: Contains moderate violence, threat, injury detail, infrequent strong language

Just when we thought the summer blockbusters could not be any more dull...
Skyscraper is a full-blow disaster movie which is so ludicrous and laughable that, despite Towering Inferno aspirations, it literally sent me to sleep.
So, I apologise if the ten minutes half-way through Rawson Marshall Thurber's movie are Oscar worthy, but I missed them.
I suspect, however, that they fell into line with the rest of this bloated heap of preposterousness.
Of course, Dwayne Johnson won't care about my view of the film - after all, he produced it and that will mean a hefty slice of box office takings which have already hit $300m on a $130m budget.
It really does appear that cinema audiences are becoming less discerning and, consequently, the bigger the bang, the bigger the bucks.
I look forward to a counter-argument from anyone who dares to put their head above the parapet and confesses to enjoying this.
I would point them in the direction of Towering Inferno which was made 40 years ago. It combined gripping action and a high quality cast who could act.
By contrast, Skyscraper's makers have served up bland dialogue, stereotypical hero and villains and rely on a big building and lots of flames to impress their audience.
The premise is that Johnson is a former soldier who had one of his legs blown off in an operation ten years previously.
He has now set up a small security firm which is asked to bid for a job at the tallest tower in the world in Hong Kong.
The super-structure is supposedly indestructible because of a dazzling array of safety features but anyone who has watched Towering Inferno knows that we have heard that before.
In the latter's case, the design was flawed - this time the safety features are knocked out by a gang of villains.
And to add to the spice The Rock's family are the only civilians in the stricken skyscraper.
Therefore, like Superman without a cape, he somehow has to scale the mountainous building, save his wife (Neve Campbell), kids (McKenna Roberts and Noah Cottrell) and its owner (Chin Han) and see off dozens of bad guys.
Oh, I forget that he is also running away from the police who think he might have set the fire.
Doesn't take a genius to work out how it is going to end, does it?

Reasons to watch: If you have never seen a disaster movie before
Reasons to avoid: Hackneyed and nonsensical

Laughs: None
Jumps: None
Vomit: None
Nudity: None
Overall rating: 3.5/10

Director quote - Rawson Marshall Thurber: "I grew up on action - Die Hard, Towering Inferno, The Fugitive, Renny Harlin’s Cliffhanger, of course. Skyscraper is. It’s a love letter to those action pictures that I grew up on."

The big question - Why don't the public demand better than this?

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