Olympus Has Fallen - Die Welt in Gefahr

I find it ironic that Gerard Butler, a Scotsman, as disgraced Secret Agent Mike Banning, embodies the spirit of John McClane much more than Bruce Willis did in that last dreadful outing. If anything, Butler has done nothing more than to cement his reputation as a bankable and likable action hero for the new generation in this old-school action movie. He has a commanding presence on-screen, quips wisecracks, bleeds when it's crucial, and dispatches the bad guys in a methodical cross between Jason Bourne and John Rambo. Not even the fine supporting cast (Morgan Freeman, Aaron Eckhart, Angela Bassett, Robert Forster, Melissa Leo, Dylan McDermott) can take away Butler's limelight.

Indeed, Antoine Fuqua's "Olympus Has Fallen" is not only terrific entertainment but a terrific throwback to the pivotal 90's action movie, the Die Hard clone - and this film ("Die Hard" in the White House) is another reminder of why the trusted formula works, even if it has been dormant for nearly two decades (the last good big one being Peter Hyams' "Sudden Death").

From the moment the film's main action start, the film doesn't stop running. The bad guys, hoo boy do they mean business. Rarely, if at all, have I seen this much brutal collateral damage in an American action film. Americans citizens get mowed down by bullets from ground and air forces. The all-American (Scottish) hero represents freedom and justice, and the bad guys represent every American's worst nightmare. I haven't seen this much political incorrectness since "The Delta Force". Having said that, Rick Yune surprisingly makes for an effective and nasty villain, who is relentlessly cold, smug and procedural in his mission, following the formula perfectly. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

It's fast, it's loud, it's preposterous, and yet I enjoyed every minute of it. The film is chock-full of sensational and well-shot action sequences/special effects, but its biggest strength is its cohesion. From start to finish the plot moves smoothly, and you can tell who the good guys and the bad guys are. The characters are established, their motives clear, and that's that. The action sequences do not simply skip to each other, they flow perfectly like a stream, thanks to crisp editing. Simplicity is key here, and convoluted plots do not fit in the formula (hear that, "Die Hard 5"?)

Fuqua is no stranger to action, having helmed the solid "Shooter" six years ago. Here he ratchets up the action up to a 10 (CGI is present but used reasonably), and he remarkably doesn't hold back on the tension. It's no "Training Day", but it more or less hearkens back to an Antoine Fuqua who made "The Replacement Killers". Just thrilling fun.

Of course the plot isn't original. It's a genre picture, and what I pay to see in a genre picture is its skillful craft and cohesive plot. This film has both, and resurrects the Die Hard clone from the grave. Here I thought I was getting bored of action movies. The genre is dying, you say? Here's a solid kicker.

Review: I quite enjoyed this Die Hard in the White House type of movie, but it doesn't have the wit and cockiness of Bruce Willis. That not to say that Gerard Butler didn't do a bad job, and its good to see him taking a break from them annoying Rom-Com's. The storyline is quite good and there is loads of action from beginning to end, which makes it feel shorter than 2 hours. The ending is a bit corny, and I'm sure that the body count is more than Rambo, but that's what makes the movie enjoyable. You can definitely tell we're the $70 million budget went with all of the explosions and plane crashes which looked pretty impressive. Enjoyable!

Round-Up: After watching Morgan Freeman in Oblivion, the make up team obviously went for the old look because he looks like he needs to make another bucket list. Gerard Butler really did buff up for this film and he does pull off the whole action hero thing. I also liked the guy who played the villain because he was quite cool and collected and he never got excited, even tough he was going to blow up America. All of the other actors seemed to be dropping like flies throughout the movie but its a great watch.

Budget: $70million Worldwide Gross: $161million

I recommend this movie to people who like there political action movies with a Die Hard concept!. 7/10

Forget airs and graces here: OLYMPUS HAS FALLEN is a straightforward siege-based action flick, heavily indebted to DIE HARD and its ilk, offering maximum thrills and spills and little else besides. It's hardly a thinking man's movie but it does ably do what it sets out to do, which is to offer plenty of action, high stakes and suspense.

The story is, in essence, DIE HARD in the White House and there's no more or less to it than that. Gerard Butler is good value in the action stakes (as we already know from 300, so it's a shame he's been wasting away in dumb rom-coms ever since) and the intricate plot sees a huge squad of terrorists kidnapping the President (an unlikely Aaron Eckhart), leaving Butler the only man on the ground with the power to stop them.

The action consists of a handful of brutal hand-to-hand fights and shoot-outs augmented with some CGI stuff of plane attacks and missiles; the CGI isn't great but it's better than you'd find in a B-movie at least. Morgan Freeman shows up as one of those guys whose business it is is to offer sage advice and look worried in equal measure, while Rick Yune tackles the role of lead North Korean terrorist with relish.

OLYMPUS HAS FALLEN isn't perfect by any means; it's occasionally cheesy, occasionally silly, and mostly far-fetched. It could also do with some more action, what there is is a little limited considering the running time of two hours. But it IS a perfect piece of action entertainment, the kind of switch-off-the-brain fun that I look out for in a movie.

Olympus Has Fallen is yet an other US president oriented flick. A ton of action and special effects with almost as many logical flaws.

The acting is good, particularly Morgan Freeman (to a lesser extent: Gerard Butler and Aaron Eckhart) and there's no denying the roller coaster ride, but it has many shortcomings. Aside from the usual suspension of disbelief, logic fails at almost every turn. Then there's the poor dialogs, the easy retorts, the one dimensional underdeveloped characters, the incredible body count, and the overly flag-centric pride.

It's action based entertainment for sure, but not much else.

Like Milius' Red Dawn (though not quite as accomplished technically), it's both completely indefensible substantively and yet a very enjoyable action film all the same. It knows what it is - jingoistic, idiotic drivel - but it's well shot and competently acted idiotic drivel if that makes sense.

Fuqua, in the mold of Milius, really has his heart-thumping loud and proud as an All-American, but he injects real red-meat and vigor into his direction of the action, which has its chaos but is never hard to follow or disorientating (or it's more controlled chaos to put it another way). Gerard Butler is... as good as he can be, which means he's alright, as an action hero for the first time in a while, and more believable than a Leonidas or whatever. Aaron Eckhardt was just one second away from accidentally yelling "RACHEL!" ala Dark Knight. And Morgan Freeman looked mostly tired, but could still command the screen better than half the rest of the people in the room save for Robert Forster. Oh, and did I mention this movie has a lot of logical gaps (Dylan McDermott's character, for example), and the CGI, such as when a certain rectangular monument is destroyed for no real reason except for cinematic eye-candy, looks so awful that your Windows 95 screen-saver was more convincing? There is that.

Olympus Has Fallen has an innumerable body count, effectively nasty-cum- stock villains, dialog that is to-the-point and story driven (even if that story, again, can be pretty stupid, and when it comes to those nuclear launch codes really needs a Dr. Strangelove in a wheelchair to come in and explain it to the Pentagon people), and I had a fun time watching the violence ensue. Perhaps when stacked up against actual bulls**** like Taken 2 or a Die Hard 5, its cinematic sins are slightly less egregious- it borrows from other films, liberally one might say (a little *original* Die Hard here, Air Force One there, any given hostage- crisis flick there, oh and how about most 24 episodes crammed into the climax), but somehow it trusts its audience to either be dumb enough to enjoy the ride, or that the smart people know its dumb but can enjoy its own dumb logic on its own terms. In other words, it's patently absurd, and all it's missing is a bald eagle to swoop in at the end to congratulate the heroes.