OLYMPUS HAS FALLEN
At the time of writing this blog, we are about 2 weeks away from Election Day in a Presidential election year. We are also about a week or so away from Halloween. So, in my mind, this could go either way; I could either watch a semi-patriotic franchise or a scary movie franchise. Generally, I hate horror, so since the presidential elections just wrapped up last night, I’ll go with the patriotic angle. That is, if you consider these films to be patriotic.
Let’s be real… this is a film about an American President with a Scottish-sounding Secret Service agent. To say it is reminiscent of “Die Hard” is a pretty fair assessment. I’ve seen the first film a few years ago, and I remember it being a fairly enjoyable flick. I’ve never sat down and watch the last 2 entries in the series, but that is my plan this weekend. So, I am going to catch myself up on Olympus Has Fallen, then ill be able to jump into the other 2. Here we go for #1.
So, “Olympus has Fallen”… This movie is pretty fun. I’d be remiss if I didnt highlight the fact that it is pretty dumb fun, but it is still enjoyable. It’s cast pretty well, they don’t get TOO bogged down in plot, and they reference just enough real Washington DC stuff to tie it too the setting but not so much that it gets bogged down in politics, which is a shocking thing to say while watching it in 2020. If this movie gets made today, guaranteed they swap out the generic Korean terrorists with white neo-nazis or something like that.
But let’s jump into the plot… The main character is named Mike Banning, who if I had to describe, I would say he is a Gerard Butler-type. Now, you might say that this is a cop-out, since Gerard Butler is literally the actor playing him, but I seriously think that this part was written for the guy. Ill talk more about the acting later. Essentially, Mike Banning is a US Secret Service agent, who also happens to be the most Scottish-sounding former US Army Ranger in US History (honestly, both he and Liam Neeson must’ve been part of the UK branch of the US Military). In the first 10 minutes, you find out that in an impossible situation, he chose to save the life of the US President as opposed to the first lady; six months later he is off the President’s detail in a desk job at the US Treasury.
At this point, Washington DC is attacked while the president is speaking to the South Korean delegation. The President (played by the most underrated actor ever in Aaron Eckhart) is taken to the presidential bunker along with the delegation, only to find out that one of the security staff for the South Koreans is actually a sleeper agent for a Korean terrorist who somehow has no ties to either South or North Korea (someone didn’t want to piss off Kim Jong Un). So, the terrorist ends up taking the entire group hostage, along with the president and several members of his cabinet.
Eventually, the terrorists start trying to get several of the cabinet members to give up something called “Cerberus codes”, which essentially is a self-destruct code for any US nuclear weapon, designed to stop a nuclear attack after it is launched but before it actually reaches the target. The terrorists start to threaten the cabinet members, and the president (like an idiot) tells them to give up the codes to protect their lives because he would never give up his own. I am jumping a bit out of chronology here, but this is about the dumbest thing. For one, these cabinet members knew what they were getting into. Yes, it would be horrible for these people to have died on his hands, but the one of them literally dies anyway, and the other was about 1 second away from dying also. THEN, they end up hacking the presidents code ANYWAY! The Pentagon ends up saying “this would’ve taken days for all 3 codes, but only a few hours for the final one”. So, basically these 2 people giving up their codes almost resulted in these terrorists winning, and the president should’ve known better. But, I digress…
So, Gerard Butler, in all the confusion, has run into the White House to help. So now he is essentially John McClane in Die Hard, picking off bad guys from the shadows. First he goes and finds the President’s kid and gets him out, then he goes to start working on freeing the President. I am glossing over this segment, but while there isn’t a lot of plot here, it really is the best part of the movie. This is all action; hand-to-hand combat, close range gunplay, some one-liners… its all pretty fun. At one point he takes out a dirty former Secret Service agent, which really did not have the impact I feel they wanted but hey, it was there.
So, when it all comes down to it, we find out “the scheme” by the terrorists. The plan is activate the self-destructs on all US nuclear missiles in their silos, which would effectively wipe out the US because we have nukes everywhere. I see several plotholes in this, but let’s just say that a “deactivate nuke” button is essentially a detonator and move on with our lives. The terrorists, instead of hanging out in a NUCLEAR BUNKER where they will be safe, decide to just run out the back door of the White House prior to the bombs detonating. So, while they are headed out, Gerard Butler ends up intercepting them, killing all the remaining baddies and stopping the detonation about 3 seconds before the US enters nuclear winter. AND that’s it… thats your recap.
Lets talk real quick about the cast… Gerard Butler is the main guy, so we will start with him. Before we get to it, lets all admit that he is not a good actor. He is a B-list action hero at best, but knowing that, he is pretty good here. He has the physicality to make this role work, and he definitely has a bit of screen presence to make it a fun watch. Also, he seems to have a bit of “everyman” going his way in his roles; he isn’t someone you can really relate to in his background, but he comes off as a chill dude.
Next, Aaron Eckhart… I love the guy. Honestly, he is probably the most presidential actor I know. I have no clue why the guy isn’t in more movies, because I love seeing him in things. He is in probably one of my top 5 favorite movies with “Thank You for Smoking”. In this one, he doesn’t do much beyond get tied up and react to things happening around him. I guess he takes a bullet at the end too, but he still didn’t do much here.
Finally, let’s talk about Morgan Freeman. (God, I wish I could talk about Morgan Freeman more in my everyday life.) The guy has some of the best screen presence I have ever seen. He plays the acting president while Eckhart is out of commission, because i guess the VP was assassinated in the initial attack.
So, let’s wrap this up because I have 2 more movies to get through… This movie isn’t bad. It rightfully didn’t win any awards, but I didn’t hate it. If you like the Die Hard films, give this one a go, because it is basically the same brand of action. It is pretty well cast, and better than it really deserves.
LONDON HAS FALLEN
I am going into this one blind. My guess is that it takes place in London (given the name), and i can see from the cover it has pretty much the same cast, which means it takes place within 4 years of the last film. God, this President has some bad luck. Here is the trailer, I’ll be back after this.
This movie is fine. It got somewhat skewered by critics for its lack of plot, and I think that criticism is fair; however, this sort of film isn’t really a going for intense political intrigue. Its a movie about a Scottish-sounding Secret Service agent protecting a pretty boy president in a bullet-laden romp through London. But hey, lets talk through it in more detail.
First, the plot… First our hero Mike Banning (a Gerard Butler-type) is now an expecting father, so at the beginning of the film, he is trying to decide whether or not he should retire. Before he can turn in his badge, however, news of the British Prime Minister passing prompts an immediate trip to London for the President, and therefore also Mike Banning. Upon arrival, an attack ensues, essentially blowing up all of the recognizable landmarks in London. (I am 100% not being sarcastic; an in-movie newscast literally says “nearly all recognizable London-based landmarks have been destroyed”.)
Then we find out who is rampaging through London. Essentially, the US launched drone strikes against a terrorist financier about 2 years ago that killed the financier’s family. Now, in an effort to serve out some public justice, he sends his cronies to the UK to capture and live-stream the murder of the US President. This is probably my major gripe on this movie; the cronies really don’t care about the well-being of the president until the latter half of the movie. If you want the president alive to kill him very publicly on Youtube, maybe you shouldn’t open fire on his car or his helicopter with an RPG. Seriously, they end up shooting right at the president’s car, blowing up the president’s helicopter, beating the president mercilessly… Honestly, it seems like the makers of this movie didn’t actually decide the end-game until the movie was halfway done.
Anyway, there is a subplot of a British agent betraying the agency for cash (it isn’t important), a subplot where Morgan Freeman has detailed conversations with the evil financier (could be removed and barely change the movie), and a whole subplot about Butler having a kid (also not important to the story). I think that may be the biggest detriment to this movie; all people are watching this film for is a bunch of noticeable landmarks as action set pieces, where they want things to go “BOOM”.
Anyway, they eventually capture the President. Gerard Butler finds out the location, and with British agents backing him up, decides to try and retake the facility when there are about 100 guys waiting. Laughably, after one of the British agent points out they are outmanned 20-fold, Butler says “they should’ve brought more men”. There are a lot of impressive action shots here though; one notable scene was a single shot, no cut for about 2 minutes of gunplay. I was pretty impressed, it was a pretty good action scene.
Anyway, the end of this movie plays out as you’d expect. Gerard Butler rescues President Aaron Eckart, but then is immediately overtaken by terrorists. Butler and Eckart both take up arms and fight off the attackers, only the be eventually overtaken, prompting Butler to blow up the facility with them inside. AND then they survive to fight another day. The terrorist financier was also killed (by a drone). Sorry if my recap of the plot was a bit confusing… The plot was confusing as well.
I can’t really speak to the casting here, as the first movie kind of locked them in. The bad guy was fine, but he was pretty replaceable. He only existed as an excuse to get Gerard Butler into action set pieces. The rest of the characters were pretty well locked in from their presence in the last film, so while I gave a lot of credit on Round 1 for the cast, I struggle to give them double credit for just calling their “top billed” list from a few years prior.
Really, the only ridiculous thing i can say about this movie is how both the President of the US and a Secret Service agent run around London without anyone else being out-and-about; isn’t this supposed to be one of the busiest cities in the world? Like, literally NOBODY is going to be on the streets because they set off the air raid alarm? Bare minimum, there would be people trying to live-stream whatever was happening. Even still, i have to think the homeless would still need to be out there. Maybe I am nit-picking this a bit too much. If I suspend disbelief, this turns into just an enjoyable action flick.
So, lets wrap this up; this movie is fine. If you like the first film, check this one out. It definitely doesn’t measure up to the first, but it isn’t horrible. Either you love it or hate it, and by this point no critical recap is going to change your movie preferences.
Angel Has Fallen (2019)
Alright, #3. I know almost nothing about this movie beyond the fact that A) it is a film that exists and B) Aaron Eckhart is not in it. Alright, that is my intro to this one. Here is the trailer.
Ok, so I’ve just finished this movie. First impressions, it falls pretty well in-line with the rest of what this franchise has to offer. So, if you enjoyed the characters in the past movies (sans Aaron Eckhart), you enjoyed the action, and you enjoyed the surface level references to the US Executive Branch, then you will probably enjoy this one pretty well.
I’ll start with the cast, since that is going to be pretty brief. Gerard Butler is back as the Scottish-iest Scottsman to ever be in the US Secret Service. He gives the same level of acting he gives in the rest of these films, which is to say that I don’t really see him as the character but just the personification of what Gerard Butler would do in that situation. That’s fine; this isn’t an acting powerhouse film. I am fine with action-star Gerard Butler, and I think his acting deserves to be rated on that scale.
Next, lets go with Morgan Freeman. The man is fine in the first 30 minutes and the last 20. The rest of the movie he is basically in a coma (spoilers, I guess?). Morgan Freeman is kind of like the classier version of what Gerard Butler is to me; I don’t know if he is a particularly good actor or if his only on-screen persona is just super fun to watch. Think about it; Batman, he plays the intelligent but kindly older gentleman with some sass. He does the same in all these movies. In “Seven”, it was the same thing. “Along Came a Spider”, check. “Wanted”, check. I do not mean to knock the man; I am absolutely sure the man can act, I would just really love to see it more often. Anyway, he is still great in this movie as he always is.
I think Jada Pinkett Smith plays an FBI agent; she is great, but gets killed at the beginning of Act 3. The bad guy is played by Danny Huston, whom I had to look up on IMDB. Nick Nolte is in here too… THAT is a man who can’t act to save his life, but he isn’t overly distracting in this. Tim Blake Nelson (again, thank you IMDB because I have no clue who this guy is) plays the VP, and I really don’t buy him in that role, but OK. To summarize, the acting overall was perfectly adequate.
The plot was a bit nonsense, I guess. Mike Banning has been seeing several medical professionals for the horrible shape in which the events in the last 2 films have just wrecked him. He hasn’t told his wife or his co-workers, and despite the story going to painstaking detail to show he spends all his time at either place, nobody has noticed. As a result, he is low-key angling to take over as the Director of the Secret Service.
Flash to a fishing trip by President Trumball, with whom he clearly has a good relationship. Trumball offers him the job, but them immediately gets attacked by a fleet of drones, killing all the Secret Service except Mike Banning, whom it clearly avoids. Mike saves the president, but both end up in a coma. Eventually, Mike wakes up, only to find that the murder attempt and the death of the entire group of Secret Service agents has been tied to him, while the president is still in a coma.
On his way to a federal lockup, a mysterious crew attempts to rescue Mike by killing everyone who is escorting him. Mike discovers that this crew is actually managed by his good buddy Wade, who currently runs a mercenary outfit. After Mike dispatches the entire mercenary battalion, he escapes and runs to his father’s off-grid cabin. Once there, he gets attacked AGAIN, which means Mike now realizes that the bad guys have a hookup in the government because how else would they have that information. After killing round 2 of bad guys, he sends his father to go protect his wife and child, while Mike heads to find the president.
So, Mike infiltrates the hospital to talk to the president, who is now out of a coma. Immediately, they find that an attack is imminent on the hospital, so they get the president out. And that is pretty much it… Now, you may be asking what the motivation behind killing the president happened to be. Well, apparently the president was against mercenaries working for US interests, while the VP was for them. So, the VP hired the bad mercs to kill the president, which then enabled the VP to call a war on Russia. The President woke up before anything happened but it was enough to technically qualify for the surface level political intrigue these films require.
Honestly, this film kind of proves that these films are formulaic. In the first one, Mike Banning is isolated from the rest of the Secret Service after an attack on the president. Mike needs to take down the baddies solo, fighting his way to the president, all the while an off-screen team uncovers the underlying plot while Mike throws info their way to help. The second was the same thing, just in London. The third was again the same, just in the general states surrounding DC as opposed to the White House. If i hadn’t watched each of these back-to-back-to-back, it might not be so obvious, but if the last 16 hours tells me anything, it is that i just watched the same movie 3 times with a different setting.
So lets wrap this franchise up for now, until the decide they REALLY need to have a 4th outing. These movies are fine. I personally enjoy them, but I can also see why they have are rated poorly on Rotten Tomatoes. They are a brand of action movies that really aren’t overly popular with critics these days, but in the 1980’s this probably would’ve been going toe-to-toe with the mid-tier movies of the decade; generally a fun view, but unable to truly bring anything exceptional to the table. I would watch these films again; they aren’t the worst thing. If you enjoy a good action franchise, I think this would work well… Just know it doesn’t really shoot for greatness, and you will like it for what it is; a multi-episodic bombastic action romp centered around the US Executive Branch.
P.S. – Harrison Ford’s “Air Force One” does this same type of concept, just at a much higher level.
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