Film Of The Week: OLYMPUS HAS FALLEN (2013)

SYNOPSIS:

When the White Property (Secret Service Code: "Olympus") is captured by a terrorist mastermind and the President is kidnapped, disgraced former Presidential guard Mike Banning finds himself trapped inside the developing. As our national security team scrambles to respond, they are forced to rely on Banning's inside information to help retake the White Property, save the President and avert an even bigger disaster.

Assessment:

Actor Gerard Butler stars as Mike Banning, a former secret service agent who saves the President's life from a freak car accident that kills the initial lady, top up to his removal and demotion to a desk job. Over a year later given that then, the South Korean prime minister visits the President, when all of a sudden, Washington is taken in a hail airborne gunfire, with ground forces turning the White Property front lawn into a war zone.

Unbeknownst to the prime minister however, North Korean paramilitary troops are invading the White Residence, and have successfully infiltrated his clearance, aided by traitors within the President's Secret Service, led by a madman who requires America's personal Commander-In-Chief hostage along with his cabinet, and intends to bring America to its proverbial knees. And with no option but to adhere to the get in touch with of duty, Banning jumps back into action as he requires to the White House to infiltrate the terrorists under the guise of darkness and the use of his own skill set, taking out each terrorist a single by one in violent style in order to get as close to the President as possible whilst discovering out just what the North Koreans are up to, and in the end save the nation from the brink of destruction.

As you can see, the story is quite simple, with a story that pits an underdog hero against incredible odds that put an entire country at risk if all fails. Bullets fly, helicopters crash, men and women get shot and things go boom. And amidst it all, Butler remains almost bulletproof, as he hasn't lost his touch at all as an action star because functioning on 300 and Gamer.

Aaron Eckhart does a nice job as the function of President Asher, who is much better served when undertaking action part himself as effectively.  And thinking about this, I appear forward to seeing much more of him when I, Frankenstein comes out subsequent year. And I also have to give credit to the film's youngest actor, Finley Jacobsen, who shines on the screen as the President's son. It wasn't a enormous role, but he is really talented and handles himself very nicely for his age.

Seeing actress Angela Bassett was a treat for me although I have not noticed her on screen for a lengthy time, playing a Secret Service director alongside actor Morgan Freeman who plays the House Speaker and the subsequent-in-line as Commander-In-Chief when the President is taken hostage. I also enjoyed actor Rick Yune who plays the film's nefarious villain-it's not the very first time he's been the antagonist in any film as he also starred in Die Another Day as the pale-faced, diamond scarred henchman, and also appeared opposite Vin Diesel and Paul Walker in The Fast And The Furious. Yune proves he is extremely multifaceted, really skilled and physically capable to perform on screen, something I also witnessed in RZA's 2012 kung fu thriller, The Man With The Iron Fists as 1 of the heroes. For me, his ideal big screen function is nevertheless waiting for him, and I hope the correct director comes along to make that happen.

Dylan McDermott is an additional particular person I have higher appreciation for as an entertaining character actor. He employed to star in the tv lawyer drama, The Practice, a show I loved in the course of its run, in addition to his recent function as a hilariously shadowy campaign manager in the 2012 comedy, The Campaign. His part in Olympus Has Fallen was small, but he impresses everytime, and I look forward to seeing him on screen once again. And I also have to lend a lot of credit to actress Shanna Forestall, whose performance really stood out in her scenes. She's a difficult actress who will also be appearing in Simon West's next Jason Statham actioner, Heat, so I will be seeking toward seeing her in that a single as properly.

When it comes to the action, I was fairly pleased. There was a tiny bit of dodgy CGI here and there, and shaky cam tends to be an concern. But all in all, the action scenes have been enjoyable, and J.J. Perry and the rest of the action directors on set did a pretty excellent job illustrating all the mayhem that we see on the film. Perry also created the fights we are going to see in the upcoming film, Oldboy, so if anything, if you have not observed any of Perry's previous functions, like Django Unchained, Warrior, Undisputed two: Final Man Standing or Haywire, definitely verify these out as a good little prerequisite to the film's release in November.

I have to admit, Olympus Has Fallen was a surprise for me when I watched it not too long ago on VoD. Even more so, I generally wait for films like these to come out on home release in case I fall asleep. And in this case, I felt compelled to sit it out thinking about White Property Down came out three months later and I didn't want to place all my eggs in a single basket. So to be sincere, I did have my doubts about it at first just before its theatrical release, even even though I know Anton Fuqua is a fairly excellent director, the identical director who brought us The Replacement Killers and will also provide actor Denzel Washington as The Equalizer in the year to come.

In sum, in spite of some of the minimal flaws that happen all through, I would say Olympus Has Fallen film tends to make for a quite darn great buy, if not a rental. The film is certainly a throwback to the type of huge scale blockbusters we knew and love in the 80's and 90's like Die Challenging, Broken Arrow, Murder At 1600 and Executive Choice to name a handful of.

Conclusvely, Olympus Has Fallen is neither perfect nor hugely memorable. But it does offer its share of pure popcorn entertaining to maintain any action fan stimulated, and I definitely advise buying it by means of DVD or digital, as it is undoubtedly worth a appear.

The film stars Gerard Butler, Aaron Eckhart, Radha Mitchell, Morgan Freeman, Angela Bassett, Rick Yune, Ashley Judd, Dylan McDermott and Robert Forster.

Film Of The Week: OLYMPUS HAS FALLEN (2013)
9out of 10 based on 10 ratings. 9 user reviews.