‘If you can’t fix it with duct tape, you’re not using enough duct tape.’ Will Sawyer (Dwayne ‘the Rock’ Johnson) says it as he applies wadding to the wound left by a hunk of metal that he’s pulled out of one of his Olympic pecs. I love the tongue-in-cheek Rock, but when he’s dead serious, as he is in this over-the-top disaster flick, he’s almost laughable. Will, who lost half a leg when with the FBI, runs a prestigious security business. After inspecting all the workings of Hong Kong’s state-of-the art Pearl Tower, the tallest on Earth, he and his wife Sarah (Neve Campbell) and their two kids have moved in to one of its apartments, when saboteurs light a fire on the 96th floor. Will, who was out of the building, must save the family – single-handed, and on one-and-a-half legs. It’s a hoot, if you are into this sort of thing. The scene in which the Rock leaps from a crane to the burning building is massive – even with a prosthetic leg he is able to cover a distance that would set a new world record. And the bit where Sarah walks the plank over an infernal abyss, with daughter Georgia on her back, is pretty specky, too (being an army surgeon, Sarah is no ‘helpless woman’, as in the old days). The movie’s pyrotechnics are impressive – a helicopter blowing up is like wow! – and the sensation of things happening at a great height is brilliantly created, but it just goes on and on, with the Rock grimacing and grunting as he overcomes one insurmountable hurdle after another. A ridiculously far-fetched plot makes you wonder why they bothered writing one in the first place – nobody came for the story – but the pay-out in a maze of mirrors finale works a treat. There is plenty of violence – the crook, armed with a machine gun, gets a clear shot at Will, but misses (is that a spoiler?) – but there’s no bad language or nudity to be offended by.
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