Review by James Lindorf
One of the main villains in Director Ryûhei Kitamura’s action thriller The Doorman insists that “it’s just a girl, she won’t be a problem,” and star Ruby Rose is out to prove him wrong. Rose plays Ali Gorsky, a former Marine who recently left the service after a mission left her decorated but still ended in the death of the diplomat and young girl she was assigned to protect. Returning home to New York, she takes a job at The Carrington, a formerly luxurious ten-story apartment complex undergoing massive renovations. Her boss Borz (Askel Hennie), promises an easy gig with almost nothing to do while Ali works to come to terms with her PTSD. While Ali may not have much to do, Borz is extremely busy as the inside man for a group of art thieves led by Jean Ren0 (Leon The Professional). The complex closes for renovations on October 14th, 2020.
Director Kitamura is known for filming action of all kinds with films like Versus and Godzilla: Final Wars under his belt. He is also no stranger to thrillers after directing the 2008 Midnight Meat Train based on the story by Clive Barker. With his background and a script from Lior Chefetz and Joe Swanson, the writing team behind last year’s Sky Raiders, Kitamura has everything he needed to make a tense action-filled adventure. Even though the script borrows a little from many famous action films, The Doorman is essentially Die Hard in an apartment complex. Both follow a singular hero dealing with family drama being forced to take on a group of “terrorists” in an unfamiliar location with no help from local law enforcement. Where Die Hard is considered the greatest action movie ever made and is eminently quotable, The Doorman is less yippee ki-yay and more, meh, I guess.
It may be a little weird for some viewers to see someone with a physicality that would seem more at home on a runway than on a battlefield headlining an action film. However, that feeling should be short-lived as Ruby Rose proves that her being cast here, in a John Wick film, and Batwoman was deserved. She is capable in every action scene, whether it involves weapons or hand to hand combat. Kitamura and cinematographer Matthias Schubert (Coyote Lake) do a lot to help the action scenes. This is mostly accomplished by staging them in a variety of areas; they also take away from some of the scenes with the choice of camera movements. During the climactic fight, the camera does three complete rotations around the fight on a vertical access, and it is obnoxious. If this happened in the first 10 minutes, and I was watching purely for my enjoyment, I would have turned the movie off, fearing more of the same. The action is easily the best part of the film. Most of the character relationships and acting are surface only, and they failed to provide a sense of place. The movie takes place all over The Carrington, but unlike Nakatomi Plaza, we rarely know where exactly the characters are. Is the fight taking place on the 5th floor, the 10th, or maybe it’s the basement?
The Doorman does just enough to be entertaining throughout its 96-minute run time, but its complete lack of unique elements means that it will be quickly forgotten in the mix of the hundreds of other Die Hard knockoffs.
Rating: R for Brief Teen Drug Use, Violence Throughout, and Adult Language
Genre: Mystery And Thriller, Action
Original Language: English
Director: Ryûhei Kitamura
Producer: Phin Glynn, Jason Moring, Shayne Putzlocher, Sara Shaak, Harry Winer, Michael Philip
Writer: Lior Chefetz, Joe Swanson
Release Date (Streaming): October 14th, 2020
Runtime: 1h 36m
Production Co: Double Dutch International
