Olympus Has Fallen (***)
Directed
by: Antoine Fuqua
Starring:
Gerard Butler, Aaron Eckhart, Morgan Freeman, Angela Basset, Robert Forster,
Ashley Judd, Melissa Leo, Dylan McDermott, Radha Mithcell, Rick Yune
Seen:
April 12th 2013
***
Out of ****
Feeling
like a Die Hard movie sans Bruce Willis, Olympus Has Fallen is the first of two
2013 movies that reminds of Vince Flynn’s first book featuring Mitch Rapp,
Transfer of Power (even though it is definitely not based on the book). Many
have said that this movie is what the 5th Die Hard movie earlier
this year should have been, and even though I did to a degree enjoy A Good Day
to Die Hard, I agree with this sentiment. The action is more brutal, the
tension more palpable, and the main character more humanly vulnerable (even
though he still delivers vicious justice).
Mike
Banning (Butler) used to be the lead Secret Service agent on the Presidential
Protective detail, and a friend to the President (Eckhardt), his wife (Judd),
and their son. This all changed when the President’s motorcade was in a tragic
accident with Banning’s (correct) operational choice to save the president
instead of the first lady leading to her death and to him being shut out of the
Protective Detail for it. Banning is desperate to re-join the service, but the
sight of him is too much for the President. He works within sight of the White
House, and on a visit to the White House, it is brutally taken by North-Korean guerrilla
forces and the President and several high ranking staff are held hostage under
Kang Yeonsak (Yune), with most of the on-site Secret Service agents taken out
of the equation due to the brutal efficiency of the attack. Banning remains,
and on his own he starts the fight to save not only the President’s life, but
those with him and eventually the entire USA.
Olympus
Has Fallen is a very effective action movie, building tension in all the right
places with the stakes continuously escalating as Banning faces increasingly
difficult situations. The movie is extremely and remorselessly violent and both
good guys and bad die in large numbers with nothing to distract from the
merciless and ruthless manners of death. The action is good however, and
Olympus Has Fallen definitely deserves to be called a Die Hard in the White
House – because even though it doesn’t reach the heights of Bruce Willis’
Nakatomi Tower adventure, it definitely kicks the dust in the eyes of the last
two Die Hard movies, and then it stabs those movies in the head in a brutally
efficient way too. Olympus Has Fallen is a fast-paced and relentless action
movie, and definitely worth seeing.
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