Crystal Inferno

It's nice to see somebody other than the Americans and Canadians taking on a disaster movie. Though the trouble is the film is lacking in the action they usually possess.

I will have to give the writers, Regina Luvitt and Philip J Ross, credit for making the story larger than the screen can handle. It is certainly one ambitious story. Brianna works for a company overseeing the construction of a new skyscraper in Antwerp. It is her business to run all the safety checks and confirm the building has been constructed to code, which we know it hasn't. The building's owner, Lucas Beaumont, decides that Brianna needs to be taken care off. Instead of killing her as he did her predecessor, he has his lackey discredit her with her husband. They create a series of faked photographs that give the impression of an affair. The hubby, Tom, is an idiot and believes the piccies. This course of action finds them at the lawyers months later... in the same skyscraper that Brianna should have been working. Due to cheap parts and materials, the building catches fire while the family are inside. WOW, that is a lot of backstories and it should have developed the characters and their relationships. The only trouble is the writers and the director, Eric Summer, blast through it without concern. It's a waste and as such is pointless. We could have started the whole film in the Lawyers offices. Which would have left extra time for the wonderful action to follow.

Except, there's very little action. What should have been an action tour-de-force for Claire Forlani as Brianna as she repels and climbs through a burning building to save her children and her marriage is nothing more than a sauntering shuffle through smoke and haze. There was so much in the main body of the film that Summers' could have accomplished to construct excitement. I mean, you're dealing with heights and fire and fire at great heights for Godsake!

As for the acting, this is just about as average as you can get. Nobody really gets into their characters. To be fair, when you see what type of characters they are you can't blame the actors and actresses. The worst, by a country mile, is the two children. It's not too surprising though because everybody is stereotypical as are the kids, so perhaps they were to come across as annoying, which they both do well.

This is a film to steer clear of. If you are wanting a nice and easy, leave your brain at the door, entertaining action film this is not the one. Do not be fooled by the trailer. Watch the trailer and enjoy that instead. It is the best part of the film after all.

Please swing on over and check out my Disastrous list to see where this damp drivel charted. You may find something better to watch.

Acting is straight out of stage-school. Wooden and rigid.

The plot is poor. The dialogue/script is very, very poor. This isn't even TV movie quality.

How on earth did Claire Forlani fall from Meet Joe Black to this rubbish? Avoid this. Don't waste 93 minutes of your life.

EDIT: I wrote after having watched the first 20-25 minutes. I wish I could now give it a lower score, as the film just got progressively worse... What Claire Forlani's character did in the lift shaft at about 55 mins is simply ludicrous. The acting surrounding an aerial accident a bit later is even worse.

I wish I could unwatch this diatribe.

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.

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.

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.