Director: Ryuhei Kitamura
92 minutes (15) 2020
Lions Gate DVD
Rating: 6/10
Review by Ian Shutter
Traumatised ex-US military sergeant Alex ‘Ali’ Gorski (Ruby Rose, Batwoman) gets a new job as porter at New York residential hotel The Carrington, just closing for renovations by contractors. She’s estranged from in-laws the Stanton family, but struggles to re-connect over Easter dinner. Jean Reno plays Victor Dubois, the gang-leader of thieves, holding an elderly couple hostage to expose the man’s dark past in Europe, and find their loot buried in the walls.
The Doorman is a standard US action-thriller with a rather predictable B-movie plot (as, essentially, it’s Die Hard set in an old block of flats), but with its home-invasion menace, and enough well-shot kung fu sequences and stylish gun-fights, it often rivals John Woo’s filmic signature. Secret doorways and hidden passages add extra appeal to this building’s maze of empty corridors where henchmen stalk feisty heroine Ali. You won’t have to be a fan of Rose and/or Reno to enjoy this, but it certainly helps.
Since his feature debut with zombie mystery-thriller Versus (2000), Japanese film-maker Ryuhei Kitamura has managed to dazzle and impress genre fans, with samurai adventure Azumi and superhero fantasy Sky High (both 2003). He has proved adept at suspense in grisly American-horror debut The Midnight Meat Train (2008), and glossy comedy in slick heist movie Lupin The 3rd (aka: Lupin III, 2014). Although Kitamura’s credits include fun sci-fi epic Godzilla: Final Wars (2004), tense sniper-movie Downrange (2017), and a segment (titled ‘Mashit’) for horror anthology Nightmare Cinema (2018), his film back-list cannot match the vast range of contemporaries like prolific Takashi Miike.
However, a high level of instinctive ability in Kitamura’s proficiency means that his varied films always maintain a consistency of quality that’s commendable, instead of being only variably-good like Miike’s relentless churn-out of screen products. The Doorman is a welcome addition to 21st century cinema’s polished brand of internationalism. This is a worthwhile actioner with its cast and crew collected from all around the world, blending its variety of global skills and multi-cultural talents, with entertaining results for a fast-moving thriller that offers a lot more than just the sum of its parts.
