Olympus Has Fallen: Movie Review

Olympus Has Fallen: Movie Review

Cast: Gerard Butler, Aaron Eckhart, Morgan Freeman, Angela Bassett, Dylan McDermott, Rick Yune
Director: Antoine Fuqua

"When our flag falls our nation will rise"

Well, one man specifically.

Olympus Has Fallen is the first of two similar films being released this year, with essentially the same plot.

White House Down with Channing Tatum follows later in the year, but for now the first cab off the rank stars Gerard Butler as Mike Banning, a secret serviceman assigned to look after the president. As the film begins, it's Christmas and it's clear he's close to POTUS (Eckhart) and the First Lady (Ashley Judd), as well as their moppet son. But when an accident causes Mike to make a terrible choice between saving the First Lady and the President, he leaves the secret service, punishing himself for, in his eyes, allowing the First Lady to die.

Roll on 18 months later, and Mike's working a desk job for the treasury, when all hell breaks loose as terrorists take down the White House. Feeling the strong patriotic call of duty, Mike leaps in to try and rescue the president from the bad guys and save the day....

Olympus Has Fallen is a throwback to the action films of yore, of East vs West, of cold war paranoia before scripts got smarter and sophisticated and in a time before action heroes dispatched the baddies with many a witty quip.

And yet, this latest from Training Day's acclaimed director Antoine Fuqua, strikes a chord and hits the right notes a lot of the time.

High octane, very violent and yet remarkably restrained in places (no temptation to go completely OTT), with shades of contemporary politics and tensions (North Korea and South Korea feature prominently) and a performance from Butler which impresses, Olympus Has Fallen benefits from Fuqua's tight directing and some action sequences which deliver the goods, while copying The Raid: Redemption and TV show 24 in places. (Even down to the hero's questionable use of torture to get what he needs)

That's despite a film which has plot holes a plenty and has jettisoned sense in favour of patriotism and slow mo shots of the American flag shot to pieces and falling from the White House and a secret service man shouting in slow mo when something bad goes down. Logic is all over the place - and clearly the White House is the place to work for security given that Butler's character can leave the job, come back in 18 months later and still find his passwords and security codes working....

But despite some of the cheesiness and predictability, it's actually a watchable piece of blockbuster goodness; with Butler giving an at times, haunted and paunchy turn which shows the everyman can save the day (John McClane, anyone?), as well as taking down quite a few bad guys, while the rest of the elite of the secret service are slaughtered around him. If you're looking for great characterisation, you're plum out of dumb luck with Eckhart's wimpy president given little to do except simper as a hostage, Morgan Freeman being acting president as you'd expect, Rick Yune's villain who is a throwback to the stereotypes of the 80s and and most of the women surplus to requirements, with very little good writing thrown their way.

All in all, though, Olympus Has Fallen rises on its action sequences with Fuqua throwing everything at them, despite the evident silliness and very high body count. It won't win any awards for originality but it may actually provide you with some mindless entertainment and food for thought that Butler has more to offer than you first believed.

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