Film ReVue: Olympus Has Fallen

Decided to watch the latest action film at the Vue Cinema earlier this afternoon. Olympus Has Fallen.

Who is in it?
Gerard Butler, Aaron Eckhart, Morgan Freeman and Rick Yule.

How long is it?
Two hours

What is the BBFC rating?
15. So you need to be at least 15 years old to watch it.

What is the film about?
Bunch of Korean terrorists defy all the strong US security systems by hijacking the White House and captures the US President as well as his staff. A Secret Service agent who is best friends with the President but manages to lose the life of the President's wife eighteen months earlier comes to save the day and kicks ass.

How was it?
I was quite surprised to see how good this film was. There has been little media attention with Olympus compared to the likes of Iron Man 3, A Good Day to Die Hard and Fast and Flipping Furious 6. Surely that film must be coming out soon as I've seen that trailer three times in the cinema in the last two months. (EDIT: Just checked, it's not out until 26th May!). I saw the trailer for Olympus whilst waiting to watch A Good Day to Die Hard and thought it might be worth a shot. The film as a whole is a good ol' typical action film from he 1990s but set in the moden day. I would say the film is a mixture of Die Hard (terrorists invading a building), Air Force One (US President's life is in danger from terrorists) and Under Siege (hero is someone who is a demoted special forces guy). It also mixes the style of the US real time show, 24. The whole film takes place from the afternoon of 5th July to the early hours of the next morning. 12 hours, give or take. We get on-screen reminders throughout the film to say what the current time is. As well as on-screen messages to tell the viewer who the characters are (Vice President, Chief of Staff etc...).

Olympus Has Fallen is a perfect film for Gerard Butler for being the bad-ass hero type. His character can certainly fight with fists, knives and guns against the terrorists.  Butler's character (Mike Banning) also has the odd excellent one-liner. With the best one liner being in conversation with Korean terrorist Kang (not the alien from The Simpsons). Played by Die Another Day's Rick Yune.

"Why don't you and I play a game of fuck off. You go first."

Rick Yune played an excellent villain who wouldn't stop at anything to get what he wants. Definitely better than the villain in Butler's Gamer which was played by Michael C Hall who was basically a psychopathic version of serial killer Dexter Morgan. The captured US President is played by Aaron Eckhart, who I reckon has aged quite a bit from playing Harvey Dent in The Dark Knight some years ago. In fairness he played the part of the US President similar to Bill Pullman in Independence Day. Morgan Freeman was basically Morgan Freeman playing as Speaker for the House of Representatives, Allan Trumbull^[

I did find it quite funny that when the terrorist attack first happened Banning was working in an office wearing shirt and tie with paperwork and PC in hand. Where hours later he was in The White House with hand gun and wearing a flak jacket..Wondering how the terrorists invaded The White House? Think how Gary Oldman and his Russians invaded Air Force One. I had two some niggles about the action film. I felt the scenes with Banning's partner. Who worked in the Emergency Room at the near by hospital seemed pointless and was used to full screen time. Also most of the scenes in The White House were quite dark due to being no lighting with the loss of power. You would've thought the terrorists would leave the emergency lights on. I approved the final battle at the end where Banning keeps his promise. Where A Good Day to Die Hard was good. Olympus Has Fallen was better in terms of story plot and the fights being more brutal since Die Hard 5 was a 12A film, Olympus being a 15. Given the story plot, it's could've been 24 The Movie with Jack Bauer instead of Mike Banning but 24 always has done a plot where the bloke from the Candyman films invaded The White House.

Would you go to see it?
Definitely if you're into action films. Especially the ones where terrorists take over somewhere a loner fights for evening.

I rate Olympus Has Fallen 4 out of 5.