By: Keaton Marcus

Genre/Action/Thriller

Age Rating/12+

Lemonradar/50% sweet/sour

So What’s The Story?

Hi, this is Keaton Marcus from Sweet and Sour Movie Reviews and today I will be reviewing half-reboot to classic Actioner flick Die Hard, now titled Skyscraper starring Dwayne Johnson. Will Sawyer (Johnson), a former FBI agent is called up with his wife and two kids to be the first family ever to go to the upper floors of the biggest skyscraper in the world known as the Pearl; But when the upper building gets lit on fire by supposed terrorists and with the family trapped inside, Will must save them and get out before it is too late.

How Was The Cast?

One of the things that is similar between Die Hard and this year’s Skyscraper is that they both star immensely famous action stars: Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Bruce Willis, however the two flicks are completely different in quality and story in so many ways. Dwayne Johnson with his muscular persona, is known for the Fast and Furious franchise, Moana, Central Intelligence, Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, Rampage etc. A really important thing to known about the majority of The Rock’s films is that no matter how utterly brainless the film is Johnson’s natural charisma always makes the pic watchable, and even fun; We have seen many inconceivably poor flicks from actor Dwayne Johnson in the past, including the terrible R-rated Comedy Baywatch, the family-friendly pic The Tooth Fairy, and the unrealistic video-game adaption earlier this year, Rampage; While Skyscraper is brainless, and never gets the full potential of its inviting premise, the film rides on Johnson’s muscular Will Sawyer, despite the over-bearing, and choppy action sequences and the actor’s disappointing adherence to generic formula. Secondly, Sarah Sawyer played by mis-used actress Neve Campbell known for the Scream franchise and Wild Things. Although refreshingly unfamiliar, there are better choices for the role, and Campbell never seems to show her previous talents amidst the un-intelligent script writing, or the poor directing, failing to deliver a compelling performance or to make a reasonable diversion compared to all of the other better choices, overall making Campbell’s character mis-used and barely in the film, with no character development. Lastly there is the main villain to the story named Kores Botha and played by Danish actor Roland Moller known for The Commuter, Atomic Blonde, Land of Mine etc. Overall if Moller was not compared with Mr. Rickman from the classic Die Hard, I would consider him a reasonable solidly crafted villain, but thinking about the competition between the two “bad guys” Rickman is obviously the way better talent with a better setup, script and motives which all thrive in the original, however with Moller’s Botha director Rawson Marshall Thurber could have done a much cleverly told villain.

Is It Worth Your While?

Directing this “reboot” of Die Hard, is Rawson Marshall Thurber known for Central Intelligence, Were the Millers, Easy A etc. Although not working with Dwayne Johnson a lot, Thurber does a decent, half-hearted job on creating a reasonably entertaining action flick with cherished star “The Rock”, however since Thurber is more in the comedy genre I never felt truly proud of his work on this movie, though I did after watching John McTiernan’s Die Hard, though in the director’s defence after watching the ads for Skyscraper we all knew it would never match up to the classic; But surprisingly, the film ended up a flick that may be unoriginal and just a bit short on length, setup and story, but with an undeniable sense of fun and Dwayne Johnson’s always purely awesome/badass character director Rawson Marshall Thurber’s Skyscraper is worth watching once with 3D effect in the cinema. Special effects wise, surprisingly the film did not go as far on production budgets as it could have gone standing at a reasonable 125M which is pretty much average for Dwayne Johnson flicks, however as I said with the 3D effect on the big screens, Skyscraper proves more than worthy with undeniably impressive visceral effects and CGI and although there is not enough balance between the 3D CGI and the storyline or plot which happens to be the case with most modern action movies concluding to be pretty normal. Like I said with the weak storytelling and plot, which was mostly okay since the ads promised a fun, but dumb flick, but since Die Hard spent so much more time setting up the characters, main plot and concept it is almost upsetting that I have even compared it to the classic; In my opinion the main issue to this problem is that this flick only stands at 1hr 32mins minus the 10-minute credits which is usually very uncommon as I was expecting a 2 hr movie like most action films today.

Aging ‘The Pearl’

Compared to Die Hard, which is initially rated R for intense violence, Skyscraper is almost nothing deserving an average PG-13 MPAA rating; Though a few things to known is that there is still a chunk-load amount of action including many shootouts and hand-to-hand-combat, there are a few suspenseful moments including an intense flashback to an explosion from an FBI mission blowing up little children off-screen and almost killing Will whom you see after in the hospital with lots of blood to the face and a lost-leg. In the movie there is also some infrequent but strong language such as f..k, s..t and some minor contributions such as hell, damn, Jesus Christ and Oh my God. Sexuality wise there is a few quick kisses between Sarah and Will as they are engaged and a flirting moment, but nothing of concern whatsoever.

Skyscraper V Die Hard

Skyscraper 60% sweet/sour

Violence: ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆

Language: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆

Sex: ⭐☆☆☆☆

Age Rating: 12+

Die Hard 97% sweet

Violence: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Language: ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆

Sex: ⭐☆☆☆☆

Age Rating: 15+

Skyscraper 60% sweet/sour

Storyline: ⭐⭐☆☆☆

Cast: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆

Role Models: ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆

Die Hard 97 % sweet

Storyline: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Cast: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Role Models: ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆

News Related to Skyscraper

$plurge, $tream, $kip: Skyscraper features a solid performance by Dwayne Johnson and some fun, suspenseful sequences, which may or may not deride the audiences from the brainless plot and directing.