INFERNO: SKYSCRAPER ESCAPE is a cheap disaster flick with more than a passing nod to the likes of THE TOWERING INFERNO and the more recent SKYSCRAPER. It's a cheaply-shot affair with the kind of exaggerated over-acting you tend to find in movies made by inexperienced directors, and of course it was inevitably shot in Bulgaria. However, despite the myriad problems, I found myself enjoying this cheesy adventure at times. Claire Forlani isn't bad as the feminist heroine and it's nice to see her tackling some of the stunts; she certainly convinces as the mother who'll risk anything to save her trapped kids from a burning building. Jamie Bamber is more wooden and the bad guys go way over the top, but there's a lot worse out there.

Faulty wiring causes an explosion in a skyscraper that leads to a raging fire. Estranged couple Brianna (a strong and feisty portrayal by Claire Forlani) and Tom (a solid and likeable performance by Jamie Barber) must work together to save themselves and their two children from the towering inferno.

Director Eric Summer relates the enjoyable and engrossing story at a snappy pace, generates a good deal of tension, and stages the exciting action with aplomb. The sound acting by the capable cast keeps this movie humming: Riley Jackson as perky daughter Anne, Isaac Rouse as wimpy son Ben, Nigel Barber as unscrupulous cross-cutting jerk Lucas Beaumont, Atanas Screbrev as smarmy sleazeball Eric Steele, Nathan Cooper as nice guy Paul, and Lorina Kamburorova as foxy secretary Adria. The CGI effects are pretty decent considering the modest budget. A cool little flick.

Well I must admit to not being familiar with "Crystal Inferno" (or "Inferno: Skyscraper Escape") prior to stumbling upon it by blind luck. And I am a sucker for disaster movies, so of course I took the time and effort to sit down and watch this 2017 movie.

I will say that it was actually better than I had hoped for, because the vast majority of disaster movies available are just downright horrible and mauled by having grotesquely awful CGI. Luckily the was only so much CGI in "Crystal Inferno" that it didn't really matter that it looked fake sometimes. You could look past that, because the movie was not relying heavily on having a spectacular special effect to blow the audience away. I doubt they would have had the funds for that, but that is another issue.

"Crystal Inferno" is based more on being a story-driven movie that focuses on the characters and not having blazing special effects to make the audience go "oooh" and "aaah". As for the story, well it was entertaining enough actually, albeit very, very predictable and generic.

It should be said that "Crystal Inferno" has TV movie written all over it.

This is not among the worst of disaster movies that I have seen, and it is actually worth the time if you have an hour and a half to spare and got nothing preceding on the menu.