A glitzy party is being held at the luxurious high rise
complex, Tower Sky, for the entertainment of its extremely prestigious (not to
mention, rich) clientele. Single father and building manager, Dae-ho, is having
a tough time juggling his responsibilities to both the Tower Sky and to his
daughter, thankfully the woman of his dreams, Yoon-hee, who he also happens to
work with, is available to babysit for the day. And thanks to the advent of
video chat Dae-ho gets to check in sporadically with his daughter and lady love throughout the day via his fancy phone and rest assured, the
effect these interactions have is more pathetic than it is heartwarming.
Meanwhile, it's discovered that there are twenty floors in the building that
are without water, meaning in the case of a fire, everyone inside the building
would be in trouble and guess what? There’s a fire!
Before the proverbial excrement hits the fan however we are
introduced to a squad of firemen stationed elsewhere in the city and in my
opinion they could've made up the cast of an entire movie on their own
considering they have all the typical fireman tropes present including the
jaded veteran, the hotshot rookie, and the chubby comedic relief. They're a fun
sub-plot but unfortunately the screenwriter, Sang-don Kim, saw fit to not only
pile these guys on but a myriad other inessential characters for the purposes
of "who the hell knows". A few of these randoms include an old lady
trying to make ends meet, a bumbling chef trying futilely to propose to his
girlfriend, and a crew of religious zealots that see fit to hole themselves up
in a pool praying for help; not the best strategy but you'd be surprised how
that plays out. After we've had a few million more storylines shoved down our
throat, the fun is finally kicked off thanks to the help of a few
under-prepared helicopter pilots.
In case it isn’t
already apparent, I’m not a huge fan of the The
Tower’s exposition. It’s a bloated clumsily handled affair and I want to
tear it apart piece by piece, but to be honest, there’s some aspect of it
that’s kind of reassuring. It harkens back to the stupid simplicity of the
laughably bad disaster movie fad which included such gems as Armageddon and The Perfect Storm. Meeting the film’s ridiculously large roster of
characters is fun, but our interactions with them are shallow and when the
bodies start hitting the floor, I wasn’t at all affected by the cloud of doom
hanging over them.
Director Ji-hoon
Kim might not have a lot to work with in terms of character development but
when the Tower Sky is lit aflame and people start running for cover, the
intensity level is turned up to eleven for a solid forty minutes, climaxing in
a Backdraft style showdown between a
crew of firemen and a seemingly sentient inferno. As much fun as I was having
hooting and hollering at the television screen rooting for my favorite randoms
to make it through unscathed, the good times don’t last. The film’s bloated
framework finally gives way in the last act, imploding in spectacularly
lackluster fashion and succumbing to seemingly every disaster movie plotline
pitfall along the way.
I don’t want to
dismiss The Tower as a trivial
popcorn flick but it kind of is; and I think it’s safe to say none of the
performers involved were in danger of straining an acting muscle over the
course of filming. Let there be no confusion on this subject, The Tower is a stupid disaster movie but
it’s a stupid disaster movie of the highest order; and aside from a painfully
contrived conclusion I enjoyed the ride. Consider this a lukewarm
recommendation and check out the sick trailer if you're still on the fence (it's what convinced me to check out this film in the first place).
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