The Doorman (2020)

What makes The Doorman click is how it turns a single luxury high-rise into a pressure-cooker playground for clean, tightly staged action—less globe-trotting spectacle, more gritty, close-quarters survival where every hallway and stairwell feels like part of the fight. Director Ryuhei Kitamura brings a punchy sense of movement and visual flair, giving the movie a slick, hard-edged vibe that keeps the tension humming even when the setup feels comfortingly familiar. Ruby Rose sells the bruised competence of a protector who’d rather be anywhere else, while Jean Reno adds a cool, old-school menace that raises the stakes whenever he’s on screen. If you’re looking for a smart reinvention of the genre, this may not be it—but if you want a lean, watchable thriller with inventive set pieces and enough momentum to carry you straight through, it’s an easy pick for a Friday night.

The Doorman is clearly aiming for a lean, Die Hard-in-a-building thriller with Ruby Rose as a no-nonsense protector and a simple “bad guys take over, hero fights back” setup. The problem is it plays like a bargain-bin version of that fantasy: the writing is clunky, the characters are thin, and the whole thing feels painfully predictable long before the final showdown. Even the action, which should be the saving grace, often comes off flat and under-choreographed, so the tension you want from a single-location siege just doesn’t consistently land. If you’re happy with a straightforward, low-rent action time-killer and can forgive clichés for a bit of Jean Reno gravitas, you might get by; if you need sharp dialogue, inventive set pieces, or memorable villains, this isn’t worth your time.