SKYSCRAPER Review: A classic summer popcorn movie starring the Rock, duct tape and a prosthetic leg

Take Towering Inferno, throw in some Die Hard, and sprinkle in a little Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol for good measure, then mix it all together with a liberal helping of Dwayne Johnson and voila! You have Skyscraper.

It’s a classic summer popcorn movie starring the Rock, duct tape and a prosthetic leg. Everyone else is relatively insignificant, except perhaps for Neve Campbell, who plays his wife, and seems to have checked her chemistry and acting chops with the concierge downstairs.

The diaphanous plot involves Will Sawyer (Johnson) a small time security expert with a traumatic past, taking his family with him to Hong Kong as he consults with the builder of the brand new tallest building in the world. But the security is all too quickly and easily hacked by bad guys who have unclear reasons for wanting to burn the place down—while Sawyer’s family, and a handful of others because the building hasn’t officially opened yet, are trapped inside.

Perhaps writer/director Rawson Marshall Thurber (Central Intelligence, Dodgeball), who is clearly better at comedy, wanted to reduce the amount of collateral damage and pare the story down to one man on a mission to save his wife and two fairly stoic children. But I missed the subplots and character development of the other films of the same genre. There’s not much at stake here, because you know the Rock never loses. It all boils down to ‘how,’ never ‘if.’

So you basically have a collection of death-defying tall building stunts, explosions and fights strung together on the thinnest of plot lines—an excuse for Johnson to leap around through perilous situations, dish out witty quips, and and take off his shirt…and his leg.

But Johnson is so charming and engaging as the battle worn hero that most people won’t care. While the film isn’t likely to win any awards, I’m sure it will earn big bucks at the box office and confirm Johnson’s position as the highest paid and post popular actor on the planet.

If this Skyscraper review intrigued you, find times and tickets at Fandango.com.

SKYSCRAPER review by Lisa Johnson Mandell