Skyscraper (1996)

Maybe the old and new movie with the same title don't have anything to do with each other after all - apart from both taking place in a fortified high-tech skyscraper within which a group of killers wreck havoc, this time with unknown purpose... but this time it's also an erotic thriller - sort of, and though Anna Nicole Smith looks great you wouldn't say she's a very convincing actress.

Nor are the other tough guys - or her husband - though they look good too. Most of them. I think I recognize a couple...

The script's not particularly deep, but the helicopter pilot role was new, and there are some intimate scenes so it's not all bad. The action's pretty explosive - though messy and half-assed, with bullets rarely hitting their targets, and goofs such as one fall onto the hood of a car clearly being filmed in at least two different takes don't really raise your sense of immersion in the movie.

It's almost like that old, B-movie style action of the eighties though, a decade past it's time, and I don't mind. It was a blast, albeit with bad budget, quality, and a busty bimbo in the main role that impresses with little else than her looks.

Anna's a tragic story though, if you didn't know. She overdosed on drugs in 2007 - barely a year after her only son did the same. On her drugs. Her first marriage ended with her (90-year old) husband dying within a year after their vows, and the second ended with a divorce. She didn't have a lot of movie roles, which isn't strange, so best appreciate the few she did.

Maybe the big mistake they did here was trying to play on the Die Hard franchise - since it's a degrading difference if you compare the two. For what it's worth it did it's job. Looked good. Entertained. It was alright.

 rated 3/5: not bad