Crystal Inferno

I have been a fan of the disaster movie genre ever since I saw 'The Towering Inferno' in the cinema back in the day. And since then every disaster movie seems to follow the same formula. A couple, children, a builder etc. Having said that I thought the strain between the couple was well set up. I can accept the not so stellar special effects I can even take dodgy acting but please change the formula re children.

Okay, this film does include every disaster flick cliche in the book, but that isn't the worse part of the film. The acting is way beyond amateurish in almost every case. The worse offenders are the kids, but then again they are young. Unfortunately, there are so many plot holes, you can drive a truck through them. Given all that, if you are in the mood for a mindless bit of film that doesn't require any thinking on your part, and you do enjoy disaster flicks, I wouldn't call this a total waste of time, unless you have something better to do.

Coming over as a Video on Demand Dwayne Johnson Skyscraper ripoff.

Disaster hits a skyscraper after the developers cut corners on safety.

Divorcing couple Brianna (Claire Forlani) and Tom (Jamie Barber) find themselves having to rescue their children who sneaked in after coming across some evidence that their mum was not cheating.

The kids find themselves trapped as a fire rages throughout the building. It is left to Brianna to turn into an action woman.

Outside of the main leads the acting is weak. The special effects look cheap, although there are one or two nice shots despite the low budget.

The movie is merely functional without much of a story. The dialogue is bad.

Story could have been good .. BUT seriously did they try to get all the worst actors they could find? Not all were bad but most. Just couldn't get over the acting and I like watching b movies and usually bad acting is fine it's part of it but not this time..

The story lacks originality and follows well established tropes with villainous corporate types, wholesome archetypes and just-add-wickedness mayhem. A real Syfy ready summer flick. The one positive and strong exception to this slightly mundane premise is the female lead of Supergirl/Wonder Woman heroine-ness of Claire Forlani'mother/professional character. Sadly the miss use of Jamie Bamber was a obvious disappointment, to equal Forlani.

The special effects are the typical display of scaled-down practical tricks that one expects from this level of disaster movie blended with lower budgeted CGI effects. This doesn't mean that the film is bad or cheap, just didn't want to equate "Inferno: Skyscraper Escape" to the Syfy channel, but yeah this one would work beautifully on their lineup. The effect have ample quality and impact with only a mild drop in CGI quality.

Overall the movie gives a straight-to-Redbox, low budget performance that works as far as action entertainment value for fans of microbudget disaster/action flicks. There is a strong female lead that plays to the heart of the story. There is some superbad acting and some melodrama that falls flat but for what it is, "Inferno: Skyscraper Escape" is a decent flick that should satisfy fans of this type film.