Retro Film Review: Skyscraper (1996)

In 1990s Croatia was known for two things - being involved in some mess related with Bosnia and incredibly large number of talented athletes for such small country. Among those athletes was Branko Cikatić, whose talent was in martial arts. Like many of his colleagues, Cikatić got the idea to use his talents for film career. Unfortunately, his first project was Skyscraper, 1995 action film directed by Raymond Martino.

Plot (or, to be precise, what goes for plot) of this film deals with Carry Wick (played by Anna Nicole Smith), helicopter pilot whose firm shuttles VIP customers from one corporate skyscraper to another. One day she lands at the wrong place and the wrong time - skyscraper recently being invaded by terrorists led by evil Fairfax (played by Charles Huber). It turns out that only Carry Wick, aided by her cop husband Gordon (played by Richard Steinmetz) and few other people, can wreck terrorist plans.

Cikatić, Smith and Huber - three actors who also happened to be associate producers - obviously had completely different ideas about what kind of film they were making. Cikatić thought that he was making classic martial arts film, so his villainish character every now and then had to engage in long fist-fights with people who could have been more easily handled with guns or knives. Anna Nicole Smith thought that she was making Playboy video, so large sections of Skyscraper contain scenes in which she displays her body. Charles Huber, on the other hand, thought that he was at stage instead in front of camera, so his character extensively quotes Shakespeare. Of course, all this means that Skyscraper lacks elementary coherence, but this is just one of film's many problems - low budget and pathetic attempts to mimic Die Hard are much more visible.

Even Croatian distributors, who had tried to cash on Cikatić's popularity and charisma, became aware of those problems. Skyscraper, despite being extensively promoted as "our boy's big Hollywood break", never appeared in Croatian cinemas. That was the end of Cikatić's film career, whose martial arts talent wasn't accompanied with the talent for choosing decent scripts.

RATING: 2/10 (-)

(Note: The text in its original form was posted in Usenet newsgroup rec.arts.movies.reviews on May 1st 2003)

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