“Olympus Has Fallen,” directed by Antoine Fuqua (“Training Day,” “King Arthur,” “Shooter,” “Brooklyn’s Finest”) from a screenplay by Creighton Rothenberger and Katrin Benedikt, opens a week from Friday.
It stars Gerard Butler as disgraced former presidential guard Mike Banning, who finds himself trapped inside the White House trying to rescue the kidnapped U.S. president during a terrorist attack.
Aaron Eckhart plays President Benjamin Asher. The cast also features Morgan Freeman, Rick Yune, Radha Mitchell, Angela Bassett, Melissa Leo, Dylan McDermott and Cole Hauser.
“Coled” saw it last night:
Harry,I saw a screening of Olympus Has Fallen in Tucson last night. I'm an action movie junkie and this movie blew me away! Original Die Hard on steroids!!
The movie opened with a 10 second blip of Gerard Butler saying I hope you enjoy this movie and we hope it will win lots of awards.
Then the screen went black and opened at Camp David in the winter...
The first half of Olympus Has Fallen alone is worth the price of admission.
The dramatic acting by all the leads and supporting cast was amazing and dead on.
It is very 24ish in tone up until the second half of the movie. Then in the second half, just like in the original Die Hard, you have Butler on the inside trying to save the day as did McClane.
But on top of that you have all the mayhem continually happening outside the walls that brings this movie to a whole other level.
Many complained about how McClane made it through the latest Die Hard with hardly a scratch. Banning bleeds in this movie and he deals out justice and revenge with no remorse whatsoever!!
In the first half of the movie, I along with everyone in the theater was left speechless watching the bad guys rain terror upon the White House.
It was like nothing I've ever seen on film.
After the massive assault is finally over and the Koreans think they have the place under control, then Banning tries his best to save the day.
The first half almost felt too real and very possible given the political climate we currently have with Pyongyang.
It is not until Banning makes a wise crack or two to the main bad guy that I could manage to laugh a little. Even then I felt guilty for letting out a chuckle after all the mayhem I had just witnessed on screen.
The action is definitely R rated. There are knife fights, gun fights and several UFC style fights as well. Adding to the realistic factor, ***spoiler alert*** more good guys die than bad guys in this film. ***end spoiler***
The action never really lets up except to showcase dramatic acting from one of the many great actors assembled for this film. And many of those actors are women.
Adding everything up this movie is a very well rounded action thriller that makes me wonder how the next White House movie could possibly bring anything better to the table.
