The Rock stars in what is essentially Die Hard Meets the Towering Inferno. He plays a security advisor for a state-of-the-art skyscraper in Hong Kong. Criminals storm the building looking to extort the billionaire owner and set it ablaze. Adding to the peril is the fact that The Rock’s wife (Neve Campbell) and two kids are trapped in the building. It’s then up to The Rock to save them and stop the bad guys.
Written and directed by Rawson Marshall Thurber (who also helmed Central Intelligence, which starred The Rock), Skyscraper is a lean and mean meat and potatoes action flick that gets the job done. It knows exactly what it is and doesn’t try to overstep its bounds. Thurber delivers the goods in the action department and the scenes of The People’s Champion hanging hundreds of stories in the air from his fingertips really work. The most amusing sequence comes when he uses duct tape on his hands to climb outside the building like Spider-Man. The finale set in a high-tech hall of mirrors is cheesy too, but it’s still fun.
To his credit, The Rock’s earnestness goes a long way. He tones down his macho persona a bit for this one as he plays a humble family man. Making the role unique is the fact that he plays an amputee. The scenes where he puts on his prosthetic leg try their best to pull at your heartstrings. That might’ve felt genuine had The Rock not conveniently forgotten about his handicap as he runs full sprints throughout his action sequences. (He only seems to limp during his dialogue scenes.) At least Thurber resisted the temptation to have The Rock say he’s a “One-legged man in an ass-kicking contest”.
Campbell is good too. Unlike most of these things, she isn’t just your standard issue wife in jeopardy. She’s a combat surgeon, so she can handle herself better than most of the wives you see in a Die Hard rip-off.
As far as rainy-day action movies go, Skyscraper towers above the rest.
Thurber and The Rock once again teamed up for Red Notice.
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