Imagine Die Hard (1988) starring full-figured Texan centrefold Anna Nicole Smith instead of Bruce Willis but filmed on a fraction of the budget. It's a concept that captures the imagination, but is it worth seeing?
The second collaboration between Smith and director Raymond Martino, following To The Limit (1995), a thriller co-starring Joey Travolta (brother of John), Skyscraper is one of a string of bland but bombastic action movies produced in Los Angeles by the now defunct PM Entertainment.
Smith plays Carrie, a pilot for private helicopter travel operator Heliscort, used by businessmen to get through the city from one meeting to another in the quickest way possible. Our first glimpse of Smith comes during the opening aeriel sequence in which we see her inappropriately long red nails as she guides the helicopter.
There is then a brief interlude for a little exposition in which we learn a) her husband is a cop, and b) she wants a child and he does not. Obviously, both these attempts at characterisation come into play as the narrative unfolds.
Carrie is unwittingly involved in a villain's activities, transporting him from one death scene to another, just as Jamie Foxx would do later in Collateral (2004). Her husband is, coincidentally, investigating the deaths and when his partner is killed it becomes personal.
When she becomes aware of her unwitting role in the day's events, Carrie fights back. Doing all she can to keep a valuable briefcase out of the villain's hands, protect a small child and rescue the hostages.
Following in the footprints of soft porn action filmmakers such as Andy Sidaris, Skyscraper is a more competent action film than one might expect. Against the odds, this is a production of some quality. A satisfying action film that just happens to have a sexploitation gimmick as its unique selling point.
An early shower scene becomes a typical softcore scene and another sex scene follows later. When the action plot is in full swing, Smith pauses to reflect on better days and a ludicrous exploitation of the flashback device. As the situation becomes more serious, Smith loses some of her clothing in an attempted rape scene that sat uncomfortably with the light tone of the film. Aside from all this PM's action formula is pretty much the same as in films starring the likes of Sam Jones, Gary Daniels and Jeff Wincott etc.
Smith handles the action material as well as can be expected. She has a brief gun-fight and gives the villain a pounding with a couple of slight martial arts moves. Her character is not an elitely trained soldier or a cop, as in most films of this type so we don't expect a great deal from her.
As this is a rehash of Die Hard it seems only appropriate that she get to do a take on Bruce Willis' famous fire-hose-jump sequence; her character swings around for a few minutes before busting through the window.
This minimal amount of Smith-led action is simply not enough for a PM audience to be satisfied, so we have the actions of the villains, as well as the cop husband, to fill out the standard PM action quotient. There is a small amount of martial arts – including a detachable sequence involving two bit players, of the kind you would only get in a B-movie.
One of PM's trademarks is the rocket launcher, and so these are used a half dozen times, another is the man-falling-from-building stunt. There are three of these. With a couple of man-on-fire sequences round out the mix.
There's plenty here to keep genre fans amused.
The second collaboration between Smith and director Raymond Martino, following To The Limit (1995), a thriller co-starring Joey Travolta (brother of John), Skyscraper is one of a string of bland but bombastic action movies produced in Los Angeles by the now defunct PM Entertainment.
Smith plays Carrie, a pilot for private helicopter travel operator Heliscort, used by businessmen to get through the city from one meeting to another in the quickest way possible. Our first glimpse of Smith comes during the opening aeriel sequence in which we see her inappropriately long red nails as she guides the helicopter.
There is then a brief interlude for a little exposition in which we learn a) her husband is a cop, and b) she wants a child and he does not. Obviously, both these attempts at characterisation come into play as the narrative unfolds.
Carrie is unwittingly involved in a villain's activities, transporting him from one death scene to another, just as Jamie Foxx would do later in Collateral (2004). Her husband is, coincidentally, investigating the deaths and when his partner is killed it becomes personal.
When she becomes aware of her unwitting role in the day's events, Carrie fights back. Doing all she can to keep a valuable briefcase out of the villain's hands, protect a small child and rescue the hostages.
Following in the footprints of soft porn action filmmakers such as Andy Sidaris, Skyscraper is a more competent action film than one might expect. Against the odds, this is a production of some quality. A satisfying action film that just happens to have a sexploitation gimmick as its unique selling point.
An early shower scene becomes a typical softcore scene and another sex scene follows later. When the action plot is in full swing, Smith pauses to reflect on better days and a ludicrous exploitation of the flashback device. As the situation becomes more serious, Smith loses some of her clothing in an attempted rape scene that sat uncomfortably with the light tone of the film. Aside from all this PM's action formula is pretty much the same as in films starring the likes of Sam Jones, Gary Daniels and Jeff Wincott etc.
Smith handles the action material as well as can be expected. She has a brief gun-fight and gives the villain a pounding with a couple of slight martial arts moves. Her character is not an elitely trained soldier or a cop, as in most films of this type so we don't expect a great deal from her.
As this is a rehash of Die Hard it seems only appropriate that she get to do a take on Bruce Willis' famous fire-hose-jump sequence; her character swings around for a few minutes before busting through the window.
This minimal amount of Smith-led action is simply not enough for a PM audience to be satisfied, so we have the actions of the villains, as well as the cop husband, to fill out the standard PM action quotient. There is a small amount of martial arts – including a detachable sequence involving two bit players, of the kind you would only get in a B-movie.
One of PM's trademarks is the rocket launcher, and so these are used a half dozen times, another is the man-falling-from-building stunt. There are three of these. With a couple of man-on-fire sequences round out the mix.
There's plenty here to keep genre fans amused.