Review of Skyscraper (2018) by Charlie O — 03 Aug 2018

The people who wanted to make this movie probably pitched it as Die Hard crossed with Towering Inferno. Which sounds good, but like the ugly underachieving child of two celebrities, this movie doesn't live up to its hype, not even in a sad, uncreative and very derivative way.

The previews don't hint that Dwayne Johnson plays an amputee in this movie. Why? Well, I guess that's just a little politically correct surprise lurking for movie goers. There's really nothing much added to the plot by his missing leg--oh, OK, it makes his fight scenes marginally harder--so the only reason I can see for this pointless addition is leftist politics. So as always--impossible to escape it--I'm sitting there eating my popcorn, hoping for the escapism offered by movies, but I have to be reminded that Hollywood has an agenda to shove in my face and there it is, in my face.

Also, Dwayne Johnson's character does not care for guns. Oh, great, more leftist crap shoved in our movie-going faces because, you know, gun control.

Watching this movie, you just know right off the bat how the final scene will be fought out in the mysterious sphere atop the skyscraper. The guy who made the sphere says it will be the city's top tourist attraction so, oh my word, what's in there?

Nothing. Nothing worth all the build up. It's just a stupid "hall of mirrors" when you get right down to it.

The movie is heavy on Chinese themes and you can just see the producers PANDERING to that overseas market. Well, make American movies for Americans, why don't you? You want to make movies for the Chinese, you traitorous Trump-hating swine, then go to freaking China, why don't you? But I doubt the Chinese will like this movie, either, because I guess they have a word for "progressive" Western values being pushed hard through Western movies, and it marks any film as dead on arrival. And that's this film. It's a forgettable fest of unoriginal block buster "tropes" in the erroneous internet-derived meaning of the word. I'm so glad I have Movie Pass Dot Com, so I can virtually make Hollywood pay ME to sit in that theater seat and endure something like this.