Film Review: Skyscraper

"The Pearl Is The Tallest, Most Advanced Building In The World..."

With Rampage up there with one of the most tedious examples of over-inflated, digitally enhanced works of blockbuster trash so far this year, following on from the similarly painful endurance test which was last year's Jumanji remake, it's fair to say my opinion of Dwayne Johnson's acting pedigree has somewhat deteriorated recently, but with the release of Skyscraper, the latest movie from Rawson Marshall Thurber who reunites with Johnson after their work together on Central Intelligence, Johnson returns to the bombastic, B-Movie-centric blockbuster hero many have come to love in a movie which revels in its' utmost absurdity and succeeds in being nothing more than one heck of a fun ride. Based on a screenplay written by Thurber, Skyscraper is the type of disaster movie unashamed to scream out its' influences as it swerves between a mix of Die Hard, The Towering Inferno and Panic Room, with Johnson's former FBI agent turned amputee security adviser, Will Sawyer, forced into a perilous situation as he attempts to save his family who have been trapped within the titular structure coined "The Pearl" and a terrorist plot helmed by Roland Møller's (Atomic Blonde) muscular if underwritten Kores Botha. 

With the movie taking no time out of its' harmless ninety minute runtime at all for meaningful characterisation, with even Sawyer's opening catastrophic life-changing injury flashed through without cliff-notes, Thurber's screenplay is much more interested in using Johnson's physicality to influence the story in a fashion which was gratingly absent from the actor's previous endeavours on screen, particularly in the likes of Rampage when Johnson's natural charisma was wasted in favour of over-inflated digital pixels and explosions. Whether it be a bruising and practical one-on-one fist fight, holding up crumbling bridges with just his hands or taking a leap of faith with the movie's most bananas moment as his character evades certain death when jumping from a crane into the heart of the fire ridden tower in order to save his family, Skyscraper is indeed ridiculous, but the type of movie which manages to phase through its' cheesiness and leave you with an almighty grin, even with the inclusion of corny plot exposition and character deceptions which are so obvious there really wasn't any need to attempt to hide them in the first place. Whilst offering nothing new whatsoever to the genre in which it sits, Skyscraper is a ninety minute guilty pleasure which reinforces the love for Johnson that was once lost, proving that when placed in the right scenario, The Rock is the man you need to save you from certain death.  

Overall Score: 6/10

Film Review: Ghost In The Shell

"Everyone Around Me, They Feel Connected To Something. Connected To Something I'm Not...!"

With the levels to which the hidden advertisement gurus have gone to in order to make sure this year's adaptation of Ghost In The Shell is popularly positioned within every cinema, street corner and television set, one of the main reliefs of finally sitting down and watching such is to be safe in the knowledge that never again will we see the propaganda-esque levels of publicity for Rupert Sanders' Americanised remake of the 1995 Japanese animation which in turn was based upon the famous manga series of the same name. Whilst the background to the development of the project was rife with controversy regarding the announcement of Scarlett Johansson in the leading role of a film which is primarily Japanese based, mirroring in an almost uncanny fashion to the awfulness which was The Great Wall, Ghost In The Shell fortunately is a solid enough by-the-numbers sci-fi flick which through a wide range of elements is strong enough to bypass the controversy surrounding its' leading star's heritage, yet still suffers from a wide range of issues which prevent it from being the culty spectacle it almost feels obliged to be.

Of the good elements of Ghost In The Shell, director Rupert Sanders has created a future world in which not only is highly plausible but beautifully admirable in its' construction. Think Blade Runner meets The Fifth Element with a hint of Minority Report and the surrounding boundaries of our heroine's setting is the grungy science fiction landscape which many films have attempted to utilise without a sense of physicality. Luckily for Ghost In The Shell, such physical spectacle is there to be admired, although one which is amongst a narrative which unfortunately isn't as groundbreaking as it thinks it is, with it taking plot threads and twisty turns into realms of extreme obviousness, particularly amongst science fiction fanatics like myself, whilst the real interesting notions, such as Scarlett Johansson's Major attempting to discover who she truly is in a Blade Runner-esque fashion, are left to one side in favour of various action set pieces. Having a soft spot for Peter Ferdinando, star of the Ben Wheatley directed A Field In England and High-Rise, his performance as the (SPOILERS AHEAD) villain-in-chief is passably fun, whilst Boardwalk Empire's Michael Putt is truly wasted as the cast-off cyborg thingy who speaks in a way which combines the weirdness of The Man From Another Place from Twin Peaks and Stephen Hawking. Solid and spectacular in places, Ghost In The Shell is the type of movie you can sense what the ultimate endgame of the narrative is a mile off but for a cheap Friday night blockbuster, it does the job suitably. 

Overall Score: 7/10