From: i99.mclachlan@btopenworld.com   
      
   SKYSCRAPER   
      
   (US 1995)   
      
      
   Color by Fotokem; Ultra Stereo.   
      
   RT:  99 mins   
   Pro Co:  PM Entertainment Group   
   Dir:  Raymond Martino; Scott McAboy, Cole McKay (2nd Unit Dirs);   
   Pros:  Richard Pepin, Joseph Merhi; Co-Pro:  Scott McAboy;   
   Wrs:  John Larrabee, William Applegate Jr;   
   Assoc Pros:  Anna Nicole Smith, Charles Huber, Branco Cikatic.   
   Phot:  Frank Harris; Maurice McGuire (2nd Unit);   
   Film Ed/Dir of Post Prod:  Kevin Mock; Ron Shaw, Bob Brooks (addit ed);   
   Mus:  Jim Halfpenny;   
   Pro Des:  Steven Ramos.   
   Stunt Co-Ord:  Cole Mckay;   
   Precision Driving:  Bill Young;   
   Ariel Co-Ord:  Kevin LaRosa.   
   EFX Co-Ord:  Larry Roberts.   
      
   Cast:  Ann Nicole Smith, Richard Steinmetz, Charles Huber, Branco Cikatic,   
   Calvin Levels, Jonathan Levels, Jonathan Fuller, Lee De Broux, Deirdre   
   Imershein, Deron McBee, Vince De Palma, Alan Brooks, Gary Imhoff, Michael   
   Spound, Bob McCracken, Floyd Levine, Eugene Robert Glazer, Seth Isler,   
   Michael Chinyamurindi, Daniel Wayne Smith.   
      
      
   SYNOPSIS   
      
   Los Angeles.  Carrie Wink, a pilot with the Heliscort helicopter taxi   
   service picks up a couple of impatient businessmen from the roof of the   
   Zitex Corporation building and takes them to a rooftop on the other side of   
   the city.  After she drops off the two passengers she informs her boss that   
   she is heading home until her next job but can be contacted via her pager.   
   The two businessmen, meanwhile, are driven to an alley in a run-down part of   
   LA.  There they meet up with some government agents in order to secure a   
   deal over a piece of electronic hardware which one of the businessmen has   
   stored in a metal case handcuffed to his wrist.  Just as the deal is   
   concluded a third party launches an assault with machine guns and rocket   
   launchers, resulting in much carnage.  Despite this the surviving   
   businessman manages to escape with the briefcase and makes his way into the   
   stairwell of a nearby building.  He is followed by the leader of the   
   attackers onto the roof of the property who then successfully shoots the   
   briefcase from the man's wrist before sending the man plunging to his death   
   below.  At her apartment Carrie and her husband's lovemaking is interrupted   
   by call for the latter to report for duty at police headquarters to   
   investigate a shoot-out in an alleyway.  This starts off an argument between   
   the couple whereby the wife desperately wants a child but her spouse, Gordy,   
   wants to leave the decision on hold for as long as possible.  The matter   
   remains unresolved and Carrie vents her frustration by providing Gordy with   
   a white-knuckle helicopter ride to police headquarters.  After dropping off   
   her husband, Carrie is instructed by her employer to travel to a hotel and   
   pick up someone called Fairfax.  Fairfax turns out to be the leader of the   
   gang who attacked the businessmen earlier and he is accompanied by one of   
   his henchmen.  At a building in another part of town, the rest of Fairfax's   
   group, using a stolen van and a man working on the inside, gain entry into   
   the premises and kill the guards before heading for a store-room where they   
   find another piece of electronic hardware.  Unfortunately an alarm has been   
   triggered and Gordy and his partner answer the call.  At the same time his   
   wife is transporting Fairfax and his companion across the city.  The two   
   policemen investigate the source of the alarm and discover the dead guards.   
   Gordy draws his pistol and enters the building, ordering his colleague to go   
   to the rear of the property and call for back up.  Gordy manages to   
   overpower one of the gang posing as a security guard but the others manage   
   to escape out of a side entrance.  His partner is pinned down by gunfire and   
   then killed instantly by a rocket launcher hitting his car.  In another part   
   of LA Carrie lets off her two passengers who have a rendezvous with another   
   piece of electronic hardware that they wish to acquire.  Back at police HQ   
   the interrogation of the captured gang member reveals nothing.  Information   
   from Interpol suggests that the gang is made up of mercenaries who possibly   
   have government connections.  According to the records of the Zitox   
   corporation which made the components stolen by the gang, it appears that   
   they form part of a satellite navigation system for which they two further   
   components are needed for it to be any use.  Fairfax is currently in the   
   process of securing the third item.   
      
   REVIEW   
      
   Like her inspiration and role model Marilyn Monroe, and contemporaries like   
   Shannon Tweed, Erika Eleniak and Pamela Anderson, Texan-born Playboy   
   Playmate of 1993 Anna Nicole Smith had hopes of establishing a career for   
   herself as a Hollywood actress.  To this end she managed to secure work as a   
   supporting performer in Ethan and Joel Cohen's The Hudsucker Proxy and Peter   
   Segal's Naked Gun 33 1/3:  The Final Insult (both 1994) before landing the   
   leading role in Raymond Martino's techno-thriller To the Limit (1995).   
      
   That picture was made for Direct-to-Video (DTV) action-adventure specialists   
   PM Entertainment, although the finished did get a fairly generous theatrical   
   release based on Smith's then marquee value.  PM was operated by prolific   
   independent filmmakers Richard Pepin and Joseph Merhi whose combined credits   
   total more than 100 productions in various capacities from the mid-1980s   
   onwards.  To the Limit was successful enough to almost immediately spawn a   
   follow-up venture in a similar vein, with Pepin and Merhi reuniting with   
   Smith (now given an associate producer credit) and Martino together with   
   much of the long-serving behind the scenes talent associated with the   
   company.   
      
   One of the most successful and influential action blockbusters to come out   
   of the Hollywood studio system of the 1980s was undoubtedly John McTiernan's   
   Bruce Willis vehicle Die Hard (1988).  The influence of this work can be   
   felt in such diverse movies as Sidney J. Furie's The Taking of Beverly Hills   
   (1991), Andrew Davis's Under Siege (1992) and John Murlowski's Automatic   
   (1994).  McTiernan's legacy is especially acute in Raymond Martino's   
   Skyscraper.   
      
   Among the various elements lifted almost wholesale from the 1988 production   
   is most obviously the basic premise of having a highly organised gang take   
   over a tower block only to have their plans thrown into disarray by the   
   presence of a loose cannon, here in the form of Anna Nicole Smith's   
   helicopter pilot.  Like those presented in the earlier work the gang is made   
   of foreigners, led by black Briton Fairfax (Charles Huber) with his   
   entourage seemingly made of mainly of Franco-German personnel along with   
   some East Europeans.  At one point to confuse the police Fairfax claims to   
   represent a previously unknown terrorist group for whom he issues a series   
      
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