The Doorman - A Standard Action Thriller Movie with Few Similarities to Die Hard

When this movie was advertised as part of April's new release on Catchplay+, I was quite happy as I did not get the chance to see it in the theater when it premiered sometime ago due to the pandemic. And so I decided to watch it yesterday, a day after its release. This time I watch by myself as my wife was finishing her series. 

Brief Story Line

Ali Gorski (Ruby Rose - John Wick: Chapter Two, Batwoman TV series etc) was a former marine who suffered from PTSD and agreed to work as a doorman for an old hotel as recommended by his uncle Pat (Philip Whitchurch - My Hero TV series etc). She was partnered with a more senior doorman named Borz (Aksel Hennie - The Cloverfield Paradox, The Martian etc). The Carrington hotel was having renovation during Easter holiday and very few people decided to stay during the work, including the family of Jon Stanton (Rupert Evans - The Man in the High Castles TV series etc) with his two children Max (Julian Feder) and Lily (Kila Lord Cassidy).

However, what seemed to be a very simple job for Ali turned dangerous when a bunch of criminals led by Victor Dubois (Jean Reno - The Da Vinci Code, The Adventurers etc) came inside the hotel and locked it down. Ali had no choice but to fight against Dubois' men and save the people in The Carrington.

End of Brief Story Line

Yes, after seeing some of the early part, I felt few similarities to that classic Die Hard movie, where a bunch of people were trapped in a building with some criminals locking the said building and only 1 person running around ruining their plan. Except in this case, the people were not as many and the protagonist was a female ex marine instead of a cop. Oh and definitely less humor & wit.

This movie itself started off pretty brightly with some nice action. And to my surprise, I actually enjoy this one better than expected, especially after reading the very poor comments about the movie. Even if the plot was predictable and no major surprises or twists, I thought it was not as low standard as I would have imagined. Obviously you cannot compare this against Die Hard, cause if you do, you will end up feeling totally disappointed. However, if you see this as an action thriller movie, I think there is possibility you would be entertained by it.

I felt the action was pretty good with Ruby Rose in particular quite awesome in the hand to hand fight (she is after all experienced in playing action movies and TV series which came in handy). Other cast though, were not really impressive. Jean Reno was not convincing as the villain, while Rupert Evans seemed to be without expressions which was surprising considering both of them had vast acting experience. The rest of them were easily forgettable as well. Some of the actions were pretty brutal and the violence were quite apparent, which explained the R rating of the movie. It might not have been totally spectacular but it was sufficient to me for what I believe to be a modest budget film.

This movie was directed by Ryuhei Kitamura whose prior works included Godzilla: Final Wars, Lupin the 3rd, The Midnight Meat Train etc. Duration of the movie was just nice of 97 minutes. It did not have any mid or post end credit scene. Overall this is a pretty standard action thriller movie which has some decent action sequence, but definitely not an explosive movie with intelligent story line or wonderful script/acting. It's just a movie provided for simple entertainment. So if you are interested, you can give this a try on Catchplay+.

Mike's movie moments rating: 3 out of 5 stars