Directed by:
Antoine FuquaCinematography:
Conrad W. HallComposer:
Trevor MorrisCast:
Gerard Butler, Aaron Eckhart, Finley Jacobsen, Dylan McDermott, Rick Yune, Morgan Freeman, Angela Bassett, Melissa Leo, Radha Mitchell, Cole Hauser (more)VOD (3)
Plots(1)
When the White House (Secret Service Code: "Olympus") is captured by a terrorist mastermind and the President is kidnapped, disgraced former Presidential guard Mike Banning finds himself trapped within the building. As our national security team scrambles to respond, they are forced to rely on Banning's inside knowledge to help retake the White House, save the President and avert an even bigger disaster. (official distributor synopsis)
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Reviews (11)
The trailer looked absolutely disastrous and overly pathetic, and also left me with the the impression that the effects would be unusually bad. In the end, though, everything is quite okay. I liked the fairly intense action with plenty of blood, several decent fights, and an excellent showcase of all possible weapons and various gadgets. The raid scene is about 10 minutes of very well-directed non-stop action. The details are slightly lifted from the new Rambo, but it doesn't matter, it works. Unfortunately, once we enter the “Raid 3”, where one hero with a mysterious past is in an hostile environment eliminates enemy units one by one, it’s full of clichés and occasionally stupid from a screenplay perspective, with shots of torn flags that are insane, but it is still a pure and crystal-clear genre film, and those flaws can be forgiven if you are fans of confident action and quality actors.
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Hollywood is once again jerking off in a moronic routine rip-off of a moronic line with a moronic attack on the White House from the moronic seventh season of 24. However, as much as it is stupid (and it is stupid), it is also unintentionally funny (and it is funny).
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Pleasant, funny, fully of great lines and a lot of innocent passers-by die. Kim has nothing to be ashamed about on his American PR campaign. Just cut the ending. ;) Butler’s show is a soothing band aid for McClane’s recent failure. He swears like a trooper and super smooth bitch-slapping insubordination. The initial attack has outrageous drive, even taking out the Washington Dick, not to mention demolishing half of the house (including Lincoln’s bedroom) and acre upon acre of fine lawns. The tricks are maybe a little too obviously digital, but for relatively little investment we get a good show, the actors do their work and, even though the screenplay is thoroughbred B-movie, it soothes the soul. The music is also pleasantly patriotic. Simply a Seagal-like movie, crossed with 24, featuring Leonidas. Tough luck if you want anything more.
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For all patriotic Americans who revel in melodrama, this film is a must-watch. Personally, it was a bit of a struggle for me because I couldn't stand all those speeches and looks full of national pride. The screenplay felt like a chaotic mess, with logic barely getting a look-in. If it weren't for the captivating CGI destruction of American icons and some well-executed action sequences, I would have been much less generous but I gritted my teeth and settled on two stars. / Lesson learned: Trash collectors are not what they seem.
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Within the genre, it's quite good and inoffensive, but Roland Emmerich played with practically the same theme in White House Down in a much more ingenious way and... And above all, in a funnier way. Indeed, exaggeration or any lightening of Olympus Has Fallen is what is most lacking. It is very action-packed, the occupation of the White House is briskly filmed and it all happens so fast that you almost don't notice the classic "All those pros got shot like a herd of sheep" crap. But everything else is meant to be so deadly serious, the characters swearing allegiance to the stars and stripes with death on their tongues, that weaker people with an allergy to kitsch, clichés and patriotism simply can't enjoy it.
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