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Topic: Olympus Has Fallen (2013)

Mike Blakesley
Film God

Posts: 12767
From: Forsyth, Montana
Registered: Jun 99

posted 04-13-2013 09:39 PM

This is the first of two dueling White House-takeover movies this year (the other one being "White House Down," coming this summer) and I liked it quite a bit. It's completely over the top and mindless, of course, but it's tautly constructed, moves right along and doesn't pour on too much of the "good guy is a superhero and impervious to any injury" routine that's so common in movies like this.

It's pretty much "Die Hard in the White House," with quite a few bits being lifted wholesale from that classic movie. A former White House security chief played by Gerard Butler taking the Bruce Willis role, and instead of his wife, we have the son of the president in danger, along with many senior government officials.

I think this kind of movie is at its best when it depicts something that appears to be actually plausible. To me the scariest scene in the movie is near the beginning, when the enemy plane cruises over the city and just starts strafing people on the ground, before going on to start firing at the White House. Something like this could easily happen in real life and would strike terror wherever it happened. Can you imagine the chaos if some random bad guys just decided to fly over a mid-sized, middle-America city and start machine-gunning at the ground? The town would be defenseless.

Anyway, this movie has a VERY high body count, and Gerard Butler makes a good hero even if he's a bit of a smart-ass on the inevitable two-way radio. The President (Aaron Eckhart) is a suitable badass despite being tied up for most of the movie, and Morgan Freeman does his usual calm take-charge job, even though he's playing the same character he's played in most every movie he's been in for the last 10 years or more. The terrorists are pretty convincingly evil and with Korea in the news lately making idiotic threats, the movie feels timely.

So yeah, I was entertained. The fact that this is one of my favorite types of movies helped. (Die Hard is one of my all time faves.) I give this a 7 out of 10. The sound mix was excellent too. Loud when it needed to be but not overly so.

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Tony Gallimore
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 108
From: Willis, Virginia, USA
Registered: Jul 2009

posted 04-26-2013 11:02 PM

Knowing the overkill of security around DC, (twenty-seven armed drones per square mile) I couldn't force myself into a mindset that this was remotely plausible, unless there were lots... lots of traitorous insiders. A lot of great action and special effects, but the storyline detracted from the possibilities. With the "every one is expendable" thinking now-a-days the whole east coast would be gone in reality. I can hear them falling apart, "Push the button!, Push the button!. Push a bunch of buttons!!" The dust wouldn't have settled for decades. Now that's drama! Needless to say, I didn't get real entertained with this one. I think I'll take in the Joe Biden Gaff Show next time.

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