Olympus Has Fallen

Welcome to another episode of Lights....Camera....Popcorn!

Today's review is Olympus Has Fallen.

Directed by Antoine Fuqua.

Written by Creighton Rothenberger & Katrin Benedikt.

Review #206

MPAA Rating: Rated R for strong violence and language throughout.

Run Time: 120 min

Cast

Gerard Butler...Mike Banning

Aaron Eckhart...President Benjamin Asher

Finley Jacobsen...Connor

Dylan McDermott...Forbes

Rick Yune...Kang

Morgan Freeman...Speaker Trumbull

Angela Bassett...Secret Service Director Lynn Jacobs

Melissa Leo...Secretary of Defense Ruth McMillan

Radha Mitchell...Leah

Cole Hauser...Roma

Phil Austin...Vice President Charlie Rodriguez

Robert Forster...General Edward Clegg

Ashley Judd...Margaret Asher

It's funny how a single film made back in 1988 had the ability to redefine the action genre only to then make a mockery of it.

The film I speak of is of course the iconic Die Hard.

Now I'm not suggesting in any way that Die Hard is a mockery to the action genre. The copycat films are. Due to the incredible success of the original and subsequent sequels save for the last 2, Tinseltown has done it's best to recreate the magic that John McClane had with his original blockbuster. In fact there was a term coined to summarize the plot of a film that had similarities to it's predecessor.

Die Hard On....

Here are some examples.

Air Force One = Die Hard On A Plane

Under Siege = Die Hard On a Ship

Sudden Death = Die Hard In An Arena

The premise was the same. A hostage situation is foiled by a single hero. Sometimes that hero is a super soldier, sometimes they're a fireman or sometimes they're the President of The United States. No matter who the hero is or what kind of training they possess. They are an army of one against many. Some of these films were pretty good. In fact I would go so far to say that Under Siege was by leaps and bounds the best Die Hard clone and worthy of being put in it's class.

Olympus Has Fallen falls into the mockery class.

Plot

Disgraced former Presidential guard Mike Banning finds himself trapped inside the White House in the wake of a terrorist attack; using his inside knowledge, Banning works with national security to rescue the President from his kidnappers.

The biggest problem with this film is that it's as tired and retread as a movie with this plot can be. Now in it's defense, it's very very very hard to come up with a fresh perspective for a film that's been recycled countless times.

In my opinion there are one of two ways to solve this dilemma.

1) You take what made Die Hard so great and just remake that in the form of your film.

2) You go the opposite direction and go balls to the wall action and forget the plot entirely a la The Expendables.

Olympus Has Fallen does both and does them badly.

The only thing that I enjoyed from this film was the siege on the White House. It was surgically chaotic. You can tell there was intricate planning and execution used to take it. I realize that last statement falls into the "DUH" category. However going into this film you have to suspend disbelief entirely because of the target. It's the FREAKING White House! I couldn't wait for this scene just to see how they were going to pull it off. Despite the ridiculous premise of a small North Korean army taking control of the most secure piece of real estate on the planet. It was a fun scene to watch. 

The film just gets pardon the pun DUMB after that.

What I mean by dumb is the fact that the writers took every possible cliche and plot point used in other films and placed it here with no shame or regard for the audience. I'll break them down into examples. They may be considered spoilers. Minor ones so if you;re not interested in reading then move on to the non highlighted portion afterwards. But let's be honest here, you all should know what this film is about and what I bring up will not reveal any plot twists cause there aren't any.

Maybe I shouldn't have said that. Oh well. Here we go with the what I'm calling the Die Hard Force One playbook.

1) The hero of the story is a former Marine, Navy Seal, Army Ranger, Special Forces, Black Ops Agent who has killed 100,000 with his bare hands and a toothpick. And the film has to have a scene that explains that even though we ALREADY KNOW THIS! That happens here. Banning was the head man with the President's secret service detail. Before the guy throws a single punch it's feasible to surmise that this guy had to have some kind of training in either the military or law enforcement.

It's not like the secret service recruits movie bloggers like me.

Instead of letting this detail die like it should. They go the extra mile and give us the classic scene that we all know. The government heads are all huddled in a crisis room and when they're made aware of the hero's rogue involvement you have that one dumb ass who questions his loyalty. This is followed by another dumb character spitting back our hero's dossier. Explaining in totality that this man has had the highest training in weapons, tactics, explosives and omelette making. This guy's already killed dozens of enemy troops before this scene even takes place.

Totally unnecessary.

2) There's a wise ass, cocky character in either law enforcement or the military that believes his team can retake the captured "whatever" out of sheer American arrogance. There's a scene where the good guys see a window of opportunity to retake the White House so they send in choppers. Banning tells them to wait but the General with big brass balls says no and orders the strike. In fact I remember the dialogue between the two characters.

Banning - "These guys are pretty fu@#ing tough."

General Clegg - "My guys are tougher."

Of course what happens? The bad guys expecting the attack take out the good guys in one fell swoop and poof. There goes the rescue attempt. Keep this in mind too. This scene takes place AFTER the hostages showed their force and resolve by executing a hostage as a reminder to not try anything silly.

And finally the last of the big 3.

3) There's always an inside man or traitor that gives the bad guys the access they need to breach or capture the location.

I don't have to explain any further do I?

There are other instances but to be honest I'm done going through them. The point is that Olympus Has Fallen had a chance to be good and instead decided to be lazy. There were some fun moments but not nearly enough to get past the absurdity of the plot from the beginning.

On the 5 star scale. Olympus Has Fallen gets 1.5 stars with a "Netflix It!" recommendation.

That's a wrap for today. Up next is G.I. Joe: Retaliation.

Until Next Episode. I'll Save You A Seat!

"D"