Skyfire: A Chinese Disaster Movie from Simon West

If you are still disappointed you didn’t have a chance to invest in Jurassic Park with Sir Richard Attenborough, then maybe you can still get a piece of Jack Harris’s new resort hotel built around an active volcano. You better act fast, because this opportunity will not last long. Inevitably, hubris leads to spectacular tragedy in Simon West’s Chinese-produced Skyfire, which releases tomorrow on-demand.

When this island volcano last erupted, it was sudden and powerful. Young Li Xiao Meng barely survived, but her mother Sue Miller was consumed by the blast. Her scientist father Li Wen Tao was close enough to see it happen, but too far to save her. Twenty years later, Li has grown up to be a world class seismologist and the leader of Harris’s science advisory team. Of course, the highly leveraged developer refuses to listen to her when she warns him about the unusual readings her colleagues have detected.

Not one for alarmism, Harris sends his wife and business partner Wang Qian Wei to the volcano rim with a group of potential investors, because what could go wrong? Meanwhile, Li’s colleague Zhang Nan plans to propose to his girlfriend Dong Jia Hui, during a romantic getaway to her favorite underground swimming grotto. That sounds safe, right? Of course, everybody is in danger according to Li Wen Tao, who has seen enough to come drag his daughter off the island, whether she wants to leave or not. And then boom.

Considering the CCP’s concerted ongoing trade and soft-power campaign against Australia, it rather figures the Liverpool-born Jason Isaacs sports an over-the-top Aussie accent playing the Australian Harris. However, West deserves a lot of credit for largely curtailing the propaganda in Skyfire. In fact, you could argue Harris isn’t even a villain, but a tragically flawed hero, given his spectacular redemption scene.

West’s experience helming big Hollywood action movies (including Con Air, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, and The Expendables 2) is further reflected in the brisk tempo and some totally professional looking special effects sequences. Skyfire is not the first big budget Chinese disaster movie (that would probably the massively flawed Aftershock), but it is the most watchable so far. Still, every time the ground shakes, we expect the characters to look up from their cable cars to see brontosauruses striding by. Similarly, during the opening and closing credits, our mind’s ear keeps hearing Adele warbling “Skyfire!”

Despite Harris being the requisite Western caricature, Isaacs manages to humanize him to a surprising extent, in some key scenes. Likewise, Leslie Ma has some nice moments of grief and regret as the flawed Wang. Li Wen Tao is also a total stock character, but it is still entertaining to watch Wang Xueqi’s curt and crusty portrayal of the salty old scientist.

Stratton: Dominic Cooper in Her Majesty’s Naval Service

When Yanks think of Brits, we often form a mental picture of Benny Hill or Are You Being Served?, but some of the world’s fiercest warfighters are in the Queen’s service. Sometimes their own lingo doesn’t do them any PR favors. The Special Boat Service sounds pretty pedestrian, but they hang with the U.S. Navy SEALs any day. In fact, John Stratton is so frequently paired up with a SEAL colleague, he also becomes a friend. His death leaves the British commando seething for vengeance, but he will focus on foiling a catastrophic terrorist plot in Simon West’s Stratton (trailer here) which opens this Friday in Los Angeles.

Stratton and his soon-to-be late SEAL pal Marty Sturgess were supposed to swim in and out of an Iranian germ warfare facility, safely securing their double-secret super-strain, but the mission specs are wrong at nearly every juncture. It is like someone knew they were coming. That would be Grigory Barovsky, a rogue Russian, previously assumed dead. He massacred the Iranians and framed the Brits and Yanks. Stratton just barely escaped, but Sturgess is not so lucky.

Naturally, his next SEAL partner, Hank Monroe, happens to be an old friend of Sturgess and rather hot-headed in the way we Yanks get. However, Stratton can keep him focused on the immediate tasks, like recovering the ultra-lethal pathogen, ferreting out the traitor in MI6, and generally killing a bunch of terrorist scum.

Stratton is a highly appealing throwback to 1980s action movies, like The Delta Force, Navy SEALs, and Ffolkes, while also nicely representing the “Special Relationship” between the U.S. and UK with Stratton’s partnership with a Navy SEAL comrade. Dominic Cooper is impressively steely as Stratton. He definitely overshadows Austin Stowell’s Monroe, but the film is titled after his character, so what do you expect? Regardless, Stowell has a gee whiz earnestness that suits the film and character well enough. However, the best developed relationship and strongest chemistry is that shared by Cooper and Gemma Chan as the by-the-book mission controller, Aggy.

Admittedly, Thomas Kretschmann looks a little weary playing the villainous Barovsky, which is why the German reporter in A Taxi Driver was such a nice change of pace for him. Connie Nielsen and Derek Jacobi add some class to the joint as Stratton’s M-like boss Sumner and his Derek Jacobi-like dad Ross.

There are several neatly executed meat-and-potatoes action scenes and a number of Middle Eastern terrorists get their comeuppance in a manner worthy of 24. West is an action veteran, who clearly helms with a steady hand. There is nothing pretentious or sucker-punchy about the film, which is why it is such a breath of fresh air. Highly recommended for action fans, Stratton opens this Friday (1/5) in LA at the Arena CineLounge and also releases day-and-date on iTunes.