Olympus Has Fallen (2013) FilmDistrict/Action-Thriller RT: 120 minutes Rated R (strong violence and language throughout, destruction of national monuments) Director: Antoine Fuqua Screenplay: Creighton Rothenberger and Katrin Benedikt Music: Trevor Morris Cinematography: Conrad W. Hall Release date: March 22, 2013 (US) Cast: Gerard Butler, Aaron Eckhart, Morgan Freeman, Angela Bassett, Robert Forster, Cole Hauser, Finley Jacobsen, Ashley Judd, Melissa Leo, Dylan McDermott, Radha Mitchell, Rick Yune. Box Office: $98.9M (US)/$170.2M (World)
Rating: ***
To dispense with the obvious, the new actioner Olympus Has Fallen could just as easily be called Die Hard in the White House with its adherence to the successful formula first established by the movie that made Bruce Willis a bankable action star. In the 25 years since, we’ve seen hundreds of variations of Die Hard …. on a plane, on a train, on a boat, but strangely never with a goat. It took awhile, but now the all-too familiar story has been set in a certain house on Pennsylvania Ave. Damned if it doesn’t work!
I really like Olympus Has Fallen even though it’s as predictable as a game of tic-tac-toe. For example, if you know your action movies, you’ll know the identity of the traitor the minute he first appears on screen. It also contains many scenes of worried government officials and military types yelling at each other in front of a giant monitor. There’s even a scene featuring a red digital clock counting down the seconds to a cataclysmic event while somebody works feverishly to stop it. Basically, we’re talking about a highly polished B-movie with an A-list cast. That’s perfectly fine with me because I live for this kind of violent action flick and, believe me, this one is pretty bloodthirsty! Its characters also seem to love the f-word.
Here’s another interesting observation I made about Olympus Has Fallen. At one point, the hero (ex-Special Forces) tortures a couple of the terrorists to elicit valuable information about their leader. In another movie (like last year’s Zero Dark Thirty), it could be argued that the director might be trying to make some sort of statement about certain activities in the Middle East this past decade. In a movie as simplistic as Olympus Has Fallen, nobody will likely accuse director Antoine Fuqua (Training Day) of trying to relight that powder keg. Yet I still think that certain moviegoers will latch onto the jingoistic spirit of the movie and see the North Koreans as audiences saw the Russians during the Reagan era. In other words, it’s an updated throwback.
In true action movie fashion, Olympus Has Fallen opens with a sequence showing the hero experiencing something that will (A) cause a setback in his career in law enforcement and (B) leave him with strong feelings of guilt and inadequacy. Secret Service agent Mike Banning (Butler, 300) fails to save the First Lady (Judd, Heat) after a horrible car accident on an icy road. Even though he’s been protecting President Benjamin Asher (Eckhart, The Dark Knight) for several years, he still finds himself banished to a desk at the Treasury Department. He wants to return to Presidential detail and gets his chance when North Korean terrorists take over the White House.
What starts out as a meeting between Asher and the Korean Prime Minister becomes a terrorist situation as a stolen AC-130 gunship initiates an attack on Washington D.C. (destroying the Washington monument in the process) that leads to a hostage situation in the White House emergency bunker. It turns out that a ruthless terrorist named Kang (Yune, The Man with the Iron Fists) has been hiding in plain sight as an attaché with the South Korean government (and part of the PM’s entourage). Kang thinks that he has the USA by the “Big Apples” and plans to obtain the secret codes to its nuclear arsenal. He didn’t count on Banning coming to the party.
The fallen Secret Service agent slips into the White House amidst all the shooting and mayhem. His initial objective is to find the First Son (Jacobsen, Marmaduke) and sneak him out before Kang’s men can find him and use him as leverage. Of course we all know that Banning will stick around and become a real pain in Kang’s ass. He’s also the only man who can relay information to the acting President, Speaker of the House Allan Trumbull (Freeman, Million Dollar Baby) and the rest of the gang at the Pentagon.
Butler is no Bruce Willis, the closest catchphrase to “Yippee-ki-yay, mother f***er!” we get is when he asks Kang if he wants to play a game of “f*** off” then proceeds to tell him that he can go first. It doesn’t have the same ring to it, but at least the writers managed to get the f-word in there. Butler makes a few wise cracks, but he also does a lot of talking with fists and guns. His whole gruff, macho persona makes for a fairly decent action hero.
The key element of Olympus Has Fallen is the action, of which there is a generous amount. It doesn’t once get boring over the course of its two-hour running time. As for body count, it looks like it easily reaches the triple digits. Eckhart is no wimp either. He may be tied up and facing the barrel of a gun, but that doesn’t stop him for glowering angrily at his captors and refusing to negotiate with them. He may be the most bad ass Commander-in-Chief since Harrison Ford ordered a bunch of terrorists off his plane in Air Force One.
Freeman does a commendable job as the acting President who does little else than listen to Banning’s updates and arguing with a stone-faced general (Forster, Jackie Brown) over the handling of the situation. Oh yeah, the head of the Secret Service (Bassett, What’s Love Got to Do with It) is also in the loop, but she has less to do than Freeman. Too bad she’s so underused here, the lady has a lot of talent. Yune may not project a lot of menace as the terrorist mastermind, but he sure knows how to get everybody’s attention. He is one cold SOB!
Between last year’s terrible Red Dawn remake and Olympus Has Fallen, it looks like the new go-to bad guys are the North Koreans. Besides, have you watched the news lately? This movie is eerily relevant to our recent political climate concerning this country. I guess Hollywood (and the public) finally got tired of Arabs. Whatever, Olympus Has Fallen is great action movie junk that will please even the most die-hard action junkies. Take it from somebody who knows.
