I would not want to title Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson as the Schwarzenegger of this era because it sort of devalues his personality and brand. No, he is Dwayne Johnson who is a humbling and charismatic guy that is driven to perform his best and to give his best product on-screen. The best thing about his work is that he is consistent on the basis of entertainment. Yes, Baywatch was absolute garbage and Rampage did not quite work for me. But, everything else has been solid. Here, we have another Die Hard rip-off but not in a historical building but it in technologically advanced skyscraper that is taller than the Nakatomi Tower. Yes, there are cliches and moments of dialogue that will make you roll your eyes, but we have had not many fun summer action movies in quite a while and this is a summer action movie that is not quite a blaze of glory but it is a fun popcorn flick.
Former Marine/FBI agent Will Sawyer (Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson) is an amputee from a failed hostage situation ten years ago. He works for security in Hong Kong and is married to Sarah (Neve Campbell), a surgeon she met when Will was injured ten years ago. They have twins, Henry (Noah Cottrell) and Georgia (McKenna Roberts). Will has to go to a meeting with architect of The Pearl skyscraper, Zhao Jing Li (Chin Han) and he also meets his friend, Ben (Pablo Schreiber), who was there during the hostage situation and suffered burns on his neck. Will and Ben meet with Mr. Zhao's business partner, Mr Piece (Noah Taylor) and they all take a tour of the Pearl.
While in the Pearl, some criminals begin to break in. Sarah and the kids return to their place since Henry got sick from school and Sarah notices two criminals disguised as staff members and becomes suspicious. The criminals argue that they are not supposed to be there. They spread powder across the floor that is ignited by water. Their leader, Kores Botha (Rolland Moller), uses a flare to trigger the sprinklers, causing the powder to start a fire. It becomes chaos as Will and Ben return to the Pearl and Ben gains the upper hand by pointing at him at gunpoint but Will overtakes him as Ben is dying from being accidentally shot saying that criminals want a tablet and his family is not supposed at top of the skyscraper, which he sees burning as he goes in there to rescue them from the criminals.
This is stupid fun. You have to throw your logic out the window to have a good time as Johnson's character rescues his family from the criminals. There are some mind-blowing and scary visual effects that make the peril even more tense as characters have to walk on a beam from one side to another as flames are engulfing the metal below. If you have a fear of heights, I would not recommend you to go see this movie. But the scale is quite epic in such a great skyscraper. It mixes in material from Die Hard and The Towering Inferno and I would throw in a bit of Backdraft. What the movie does well is that it never gets you off the hook and never gets you bored as it just cuts straight to the chase with such adrenaline and I think I enjoyed this movie more than his other action-fare or disaster-fare of recent years. It may be his best film of this genre in a while.
Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson has given another driven performance which elevates the movie into watchable status that you cannot take your eyes off the screen. But, again, there are a few absurd moments like him jumping off a crane into a building, he makes the stunts believable. Also, what was more impressive was Neve Campbell's performance as she has more to do here than wives trapped in a hostage situation from other movies. She is a surgeon who delivers by kicking ass and is managing to get out of a situation. Also, even though they are familiar from other movies, the villains are quite solid here with a corny reason why they are in the building.
Director Rawshon Marshall Thurber, who worked with him on Central Intelligence and has directed Dodgeball and We're The Millers, collaborates with Johnson quite well and throws everything against the wall with suspense, great action, corny logic and a silly plot as the more serious the plot goes, the more silly it gets. But, I did not care because this is pure summer entertainment that makes you grin with guilt and being honest into saying that you had a good time. We need more of these fun and silly throwback 80s and 90s movies to make a summer movie season enjoyable after some dark movies and what I can say, it is a throwback that is purely entertaining.
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