Whenever you hear people talk about the greatest action films of all time, Die Hard is always near or at the very top of that list. The idea of an every man being caught in a bad situation and have to fight out of it using his wit and skills was used to make one of the most rewatchable and most copied films of all time. Several Die Hard rip offs have emerged. Speed is Die Hard on a bus, Under Siege is Die Hard on a sub, and so on and so on. While it can be annoying to see multiple movies copy something that has been used before, you can’t deny that this is a formula that works. And now with Skyscraper, Dwayne Johnson takes a stab at this story by playing a one legged man in a burning building. And this may make lose all of my credibility as a reviewer, but I was shocked as to how much fun I actually had with this film.

Skyscraper is set in Hong Kong and follows Will Sawyer, played by Dwayne Johnson, a former FBI agent who became an amputee after a mission. When a group of terrorists come looking for an item that is located in the Skyscraper that Will works at called “The Pearl”, it’s up to The Rock to stop the terrorists and get his family to safety. From hearing that synopsis, you can probably tell that this is not the most original plot. The story for this movie sounds like something out of a cheap 1990’s action movie. Sure it’s dumb, but somehow the movie was able to make it work. It takes itself just seriously enough that you are able to get on board, but not so seriously that you are pushed away due to how melodramatic it is. Yes, the whole idea of having a flash drive be your macguffin for this movie has been done to death, but you are able to go along with it due to how much fun you’re having. You genuinely care for Will and hope he is able to get his family out of this building, and that is in large part due to how surprisingly great Dwayne Johnson is in this role. The Rock is always fun to watch on screen, but “a wide array of acting talent” is not what one usually thinks when his name is brought up. But here, he plays this part in a much more grounded way then usual and actually seems like an every man. You understand that he can’t do everything due to only having one leg but the determination he has for saving his wife Sarah, played by Neve Campbell who is also great, and his kids, is presented in a such a great way that you forget that. It’s rare for a movie to make me feel like The Rock can get hurt, but this movie somehow managed that. Another character I really enjoyed was Zhao Long Ji, played by Chin Hao, the sketchy owner of “The Pearl”. Zhao is always shown to be a slimy character through out the film, and his allegiances are questioned right until the end. Sadly, the charm of this film wares off when it comes to the villains, who are all under developed way to over the top. Pablo Schrieber is especially bad in this film as it seems like he is trying to do a bad Gary Oldman impression. But other then that, the story and writing get’s its job done here. The writer new they weren’t winning any Oscars with this screenplay, but they didn’t take that as an opportunity to phone it in.

While the plot of this film is definitely pulled straight out of a 1990’s action movie, the direction definitely makes it feel more up to date. The camerawork and filming of this movie is very dramatic and is meant to exude a lot of terror and suspense for what is going to happen. All of the action scenes look and feel very nice as shaky cam is very rarely used and the scenes hardly ever just consist of Dwayne Johnson simply shooting at a bunch of bad guys. Don’t get me wrong, there is a lot of that, but the movie tends to mix it up. Something I was genuinely surprised about with this film was that the stakes were actually pretty high. Because the movie does a good job at making you care for this family, you genuinely worry as to whether or not they’ll be able to make it out of this situation alive. There were many times during this movie that I honestly thought that our heroes wouldn’t make it out or were going to get killed, which is a rarity in these types of movies. I also have to say that I thought the production design was a particular stand out for this movie. The design of “The Pearl” is very sleak and rich looking, which only adds to the juxtaposition when the building starts to get destroyed. Action movies are set in enclosed spaces all the time, so its always nice when the space that you are stuck in looks a little unique. One of my major complaints with this movie is that I often times found myself getting lost in the spacing of the skyscraper. There are scenes that will jump to the roof “The Pearl”, then to the bottom floor, then to the 64th floor, then to the 86th floor, and about five more locations that it feels redundant to list. You will find yourself getting lost in these parts because you’ll be confused as to where you are in relation to everybody else, and if the film would have done a better job at making each floor distinct, this problem could have been avoided. This movie is about an hour and forty minutes, which I feel was a pretty fair run time for this type of film. The movie feels like its about to end at one point, only for Will to go back into the building in order to save another family member, but it doesn’t feel like the movie is being padded out. When you have a big dumb action movie like this one which is written effort and well directed, there really isn’t much to complain about.

I see a lot of stupid and lazy block busters every summer. Movies such as Independence Day: Resurgence, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, and any of the Transformers movies all come to mind in this category. But while its very hard to win me over on a lazy film, I can enjoy a stupid one if it puts enough effort to make itself watchable, and Skyscraper definitely succeeds there. In the end, Skyscraper is a ton of fun that contains a lot of hard hitting action and a genuinely good performance from The Rock. While I can’t say that you should rush out to see this film, I would recommend seeing this in theatres if you find a matinee showing. This is one movie that most definitely aims high.