Scott_Mercer
A somewhat fun little time waster.Elements of DIE HARD combine with THE TOWERING INFERNO, as well as small parts from THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE and EARTHQUAKE, to make a somewhat diverting action/disaster flick for the non-discriminating fan.Some of the plot points don't make too much sense, but other little bits and bites are well-woven into the silly saga of the innocent tourists trapped in the burning high rise with terrorist/thieves, such as Michelle's revenge upon the goon who trapped her in the elevator, and the conveniently-placed throwing star in the hero's pocket that finally takes out the head Bad Guy...sometimes in writing a screenplay, even an action romp like this, it's tough to make all these bits work out.There must have been a bit of a budget for this film, which apparently aired on the Fox Family channel in 1999. (Yeah, I didn't think this could be a post 9 - 11 idea). The special effects are pretty good, direction is okay apart from a few confusing bits I noticed, acting is pretty good, notably from the two leads, and photography is pretty nice, with good and impressive of shots of fire, flame-overs and explosions.Over all, this is a decent film for action film freaks. I bought this film on DVD for one dollar...at that price it certainly is worth it, and MUCH better than most one dollar DVDs I have picked up. Wouldn't go out of your way to get it, but it certainly is not horrible enough to fall into the category of so bad that you'll be laughing at its incompetence.If you want a similar film (with an even sillier plot) that is "so bad it's good", then I suggest you check out the Anna Nicole Smith vehicle SKYSCRAPER. See my review of that film under that title.
Drewboy-2
I saw this film last night on TV at a hotel in Daejeon, South Korea. It really did make me think, okay, one part "Towering Inferno", one part "Poseidon Adventure". But now that I see this film was made in 1999, can't help but wonder if it might've been watched by Al-Qaida and Osama bin Laden and been an inspiration for them, especially the helicopter crash sequence. Also, it gets SO irritating to see that a movie is set in an American city that I've lived in (Seattle) but then absolutely nothing looks familiar and sure enough, it turns out to be filmed in Vancouver BC which stunt-doubles for so many places in America. Film in America, please! But all in all, a good suspense piece.
Phoenix_13
I was not terribly impressed by this movie, but it was not horrible. It's quite obviously a low-budget, made-for-TV rip-off of DIE HARD, but well-acted by Roberts, Prochnow, and most of the rest of the cast.Apparently, Fox TV was using the old HIGHLANDER series' actors' pool for the supporting cast, since no fewer than seven characters in this movie were alums of one HL episode or another.Not a terribly exciting movie; nothing original. One or two really big plot holes, but at least in comparison to some of the real stinkers I've seen recently (in an effort to find more of Prochnow's films), not bad.If you're a truly die-hard (no pun intended) fan of Prochnow or Roberts, you'll probably enjoy this film. Otherwise, just go watch DIE HARD again.
Renaldo Matlin
Not surprisingly the bad guy (Prochnow) outshines the good guy (Roberts) in this average action-flick. The stunts and computer effects are not half bad, and a nice tongue-in-cheek attitude and good production value make up for most lulls in the plot. At times the actors actually seem to be enjoying themselves, and that's more than one should expect from this DIE HARD-clone (the hero is even named McConnell... hello? McClane!). Eric Roberts and Jürgen Prochnow in "The Towering Inferno" meets "Die Hard" on a TV-budget. How can you go wrong with that on a Friday night? :)
AD
