Angel Has Fallen

I love me some Gerard Butler and Morgan Freeman, but Nick Nolte is the best thing to happen to this film.

This is a good film, but they definitely shouldn't make anymore, as much as I like seeing the "president's guardian angel" on screen again it is definitely being milked now. In my opinion these have gotten progressively worse since Olympus Has Fallen and should stop where they are before it turns into a bad film franchise. But except for that it is a good showing of action and lives up to the story of the last 2 films. A solid recommendation from me.

Early in this film we get two things pointed out. First we get to meet an old friend of Angel, who is the head of a large private military contractor. Secondly we understand that the President (who is guarded by Angel) is clamping down on private military contractors. The rest of it writes itself from here, and the plot is fairly by the numbers in terms of what it does. Fortunately it has the money to make it look good and have some good action, even if the story is hokum. It helps of course that nothing about it suggests that it is anything more than a B-movie thriller.

It has plenty of military hardware, masculinity, gruff dialogue, and shots of people running with guns; all of which keeps the film moving along reasonably well. If offers nothing more than this. The viewer will know the plot before the film gets there, so one does find that you need the famous faces and solid set pieces to distract; and luckily both do. Engaging but routine action sequences distract, and inbetween I found myself wondering what made Butler into a star, how Perabo looks so terrific when she is the same age as me, whether or not Pinkett-Smith had surgery (well, she clearly did on the basis of this), and if Danny Huston is really a good actor or just has a genetic disposition to being a good screen presence. And on top of that we have Nick Nolte doing top Nolte.

The result is enjoyable enough, but totally forgettable - indeed I often write these little comments months after the facts now due to other time pressures, but in this case I wrote it within a few hours as I figured the film would be gone within a few days. It's fine as late night TV tosh, but nothing more than that.

This is being judged too harshly. Is it predictable? Yes. Generic? Yeah. But what do you expect? It's a nuts and bolts action film, entertaining enough and worth your time.

Leonidas cannot fail ... I mean fall ... right? Sorry I'm mixing up my movies here. But you can see the action star Butler going for it again - a third time. And if you thought the other movies were crazy and unrealistic ... well you were right and this one adds to that! What did you think I was going to say? In all seriousness - do not take this movie serious.

Predictable story, predictable twists and turns ... and an even relatively mild Nick Nolte. But the story itself is quite out there ... really wild and really "explosive" (pun intended). A lot of action and a lot of nonsense ... and it can be quite some fun, if you allow it to