Skyscraper (2018)
August 27, 2018 10:39 AM - Subscribe
Framed and on the run, a former FBI agent must save his family from a blazing fire in the world's tallest building.
Haha hope so! I only made it through half of this movie, should have trusted the critic score on rotten tomatoes rather than the audience one!
posted by ellieBOA at 12:18 PM on August 27, 2018
posted by ellieBOA at 12:18 PM on August 27, 2018
Its probably a bad sign that the thing that stayed with me is that the intro voiceover has two mistakes in it. A mispronunciation of Babel and a description of the tower as powered by double helix wind turbines integrated into the tower. The turbines are clearly triple helixes in every shot of them.
posted by biffa at 4:37 PM on August 27, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by biffa at 4:37 PM on August 27, 2018 [1 favorite]
"Babel" can be pronounced "Babble" or "bay-bul" correctly - what did they use?
posted by smoke at 6:36 PM on August 27, 2018
posted by smoke at 6:36 PM on August 27, 2018
Babble. Thanks for that. Never heard it pronounced like that, but I mostly hear British English.
posted by biffa at 3:24 AM on August 28, 2018
posted by biffa at 3:24 AM on August 28, 2018
I've never heard it anyway other than "Babble".
posted by octothorpe at 1:33 PM on August 28, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by octothorpe at 1:33 PM on August 28, 2018 [2 favorites]
If the only two reasons for introducing a prosthetic leg into the film are 1) to show weakness when it's taken away (duh, it's The Rock, but, seriously, even The Rock can't climb a 2000ft crane in 10 minutes and 2) use it to wedge a door open, maybe rethink the whole prosthetic leg gambit.
I'm having trouble working out whether this or Rampage is the worst The Rock film this year.
San Andreas was great. Because he was acting with people; not invisible buildings, and not invisible nothings.
More The Rock people films, please.
posted by urbanwhaleshark at 4:05 PM on August 28, 2018
I'm having trouble working out whether this or Rampage is the worst The Rock film this year.
San Andreas was great. Because he was acting with people; not invisible buildings, and not invisible nothings.
More The Rock people films, please.
posted by urbanwhaleshark at 4:05 PM on August 28, 2018
Oh. And if they wanted it to be called Babble it would be written Babble. It's not.
posted by urbanwhaleshark at 4:07 PM on August 28, 2018
posted by urbanwhaleshark at 4:07 PM on August 28, 2018
Multiple pronunciations of Babel seems entirely appropriate.
posted by Chrysostom at 4:17 PM on August 28, 2018 [18 favorites]
posted by Chrysostom at 4:17 PM on August 28, 2018 [18 favorites]
I have been favouriting then unfavouriting that comment for five minutes.
posted by urbanwhaleshark at 6:52 PM on August 28, 2018
posted by urbanwhaleshark at 6:52 PM on August 28, 2018
Still waiting for The Rundown II myself. Why is that not a thing?
I hope they have Skyscraper on the plane back to the US, this is exactly the kind of movie I like to watch on airplanes.
posted by under_petticoat_rule at 1:49 PM on August 29, 2018 [1 favorite]
I hope they have Skyscraper on the plane back to the US, this is exactly the kind of movie I like to watch on airplanes.
posted by under_petticoat_rule at 1:49 PM on August 29, 2018 [1 favorite]
This was... okay I guess? But it's impossible not to draw comparisons to Die Hard because this is so obviously a "what if Die Hard but the Rock and we sell it to China" concept.
And if you're going to reference Die Hard so strongly you've really got to bring more than this did; because mostly this highlights all the things that Die Hard did well and this movie didn't. It doesn't have any memorable lines; it doesn't have a well-defined motive for the villain; hell, it doesn't have a memorable villain. There's no sense of space; the interior of the syscraper's mostly just a huge flaming void. How does the Rock get from the middle floors to the roof? I dunno. Why is the "unlock the penthouse doors" cable in the middle of the big-spinny-peril turbine? I dunno; for dramatic effect? Why make Neve Campbell's character kind of a fighting badass and then literally jettison her from the movie halfway through?
I'm having trouble working out whether this or Rampage is the worst The Rock film this year.
Rampage was somewhat more fun, I think.
posted by We had a deal, Kyle at 10:07 AM on March 3, 2019 [1 favorite]
And if you're going to reference Die Hard so strongly you've really got to bring more than this did; because mostly this highlights all the things that Die Hard did well and this movie didn't. It doesn't have any memorable lines; it doesn't have a well-defined motive for the villain; hell, it doesn't have a memorable villain. There's no sense of space; the interior of the syscraper's mostly just a huge flaming void. How does the Rock get from the middle floors to the roof? I dunno. Why is the "unlock the penthouse doors" cable in the middle of the big-spinny-peril turbine? I dunno; for dramatic effect? Why make Neve Campbell's character kind of a fighting badass and then literally jettison her from the movie halfway through?
I'm having trouble working out whether this or Rampage is the worst The Rock film this year.
Rampage was somewhat more fun, I think.
posted by We had a deal, Kyle at 10:07 AM on March 3, 2019 [1 favorite]
If the only two reasons for introducing a prosthetic leg into the film are 1) to show weakness when it's taken away
...which is an analogue to McClane in bare feet, obvs.
Noticeable also that having introduced the leg, the movie spends most of its time carefully ignoring it: it puts the Rock into a suit so they don't have to animate the prosthetic as much; it shoots him from the waist up; they just have him walk with a slight limp to remind us about it.
posted by We had a deal, Kyle at 10:22 AM on March 3, 2019 [1 favorite]
...which is an analogue to McClane in bare feet, obvs.
Noticeable also that having introduced the leg, the movie spends most of its time carefully ignoring it: it puts the Rock into a suit so they don't have to animate the prosthetic as much; it shoots him from the waist up; they just have him walk with a slight limp to remind us about it.
posted by We had a deal, Kyle at 10:22 AM on March 3, 2019 [1 favorite]
I put this on when I accidentally took my sleep drug in the morning and needed something to keep me awake but I couldn’t care about it too much in case I did repeatedly fall asleep.
This was perfect. I fell asleep multiple times in the first hour but was woken by gunfire every ten minutes or so. By the time I was actually cognizant of my surroundings for more than 5 minutes at a time I was just content to glaze out to Rock shoulder fanservice. My partner helpfully filled me in on what I had missed when there seemed to be sometime plot relevant happening. I started being a functioning human being again right before there were happy family reunions to be had. 10/10 experience.
YMMV in literally any other context.
posted by brook horse at 11:38 AM on August 24
This was perfect. I fell asleep multiple times in the first hour but was woken by gunfire every ten minutes or so. By the time I was actually cognizant of my surroundings for more than 5 minutes at a time I was just content to glaze out to Rock shoulder fanservice. My partner helpfully filled me in on what I had missed when there seemed to be sometime plot relevant happening. I started being a functioning human being again right before there were happy family reunions to be had. 10/10 experience.
YMMV in literally any other context.
posted by brook horse at 11:38 AM on August 24
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posted by Chrysostom at 11:55 AM on August 27, 2018