Olympus Has Fallen

Good movie

Works good

Great movie

Excellent

Antoine Fuqua's Olympus Has Fallen is probably the wildest ride you'll take since the last time you rode Space Mountain, the Cyclone or even Kingda Ka*. Watching this action adventure is the equivalent of a turn on one of the world's scariest roller coasters with a release of adrenaline and dopamine that makes us feel frightened, shocked, giddy and intensely alive. Whenever I get off a rollercoaster, I want to get right back on. I felt the same way after I saw this movie.We've all heard the term "edge-of-your-seat" thriller. If you've never actually been on the edge of your seat while watching a movie and thought that was just so much hyperbole, that is exactly the place from which you will watch most of this movie.If you've seen a trailer or clip, you know that the relative calm with which the movie opens, a picture of a happy family that just happens to include the President of the United States (Aaron Eckhart), won't last. It's like the clickety-clacking of that rollercoaster slowly making its way up to the first peak and then BAM! We get a brief respite while we and the characters on screen recover. When the action starts again, it really starts and seldom lets up for the next hour and a half.Director Antoine Fuqua's pacing and the talented cast keep us from looking too closely for the zippers up the backs of the monsters. The plot moves so fast and the actors sell it so well, that we don't have time to look for holes. (And I'm not saying I didn't see any, but when you're biting your nails and dodging bullets you don't have a moment to think about whether or not "that would really happen".)If you think the sight of the Washington Monument moments after a plane hits it looks familiar, it's supposed to. It evokes one of the defining moments of our country's recent history for a reason. It's designed to deliberately stir our patriotism precisely so that when the shooting stops, you understand the journey that the people who inhabit the United States on screen under President Asher (Aaron Eckhart, looking extremely Presidential I may add), have just taken. It neatly sidesteps jingoism by giving the bad guy (Rick Yune as Kang) a cause, but does not delve too deeply into his back story except to let us know that however just that cause may or may not be and how cool, calculated and brilliant he may appear, he took the train to Crazy Town long ago.It avoids predictability by resolving one subplot in particular quickly, without dragging it out into cliché and also by not treating the hostages as "damsels-in-distress" waiting to be saved, but as tough patriots determined to go down swinging if that is their fate. Again, I have to stress the brilliant casting.Without an actress of Oscar winner Melissa Leo's caliber, we might not buy a female Secretary of Defense or what she undergoes in that bunker. The same could be said of Angela Bassett's Director of the Secret Service. Her part was originally written for a man, since there had never been a female director. She is completely plausible and despite the fact that we never learn a single thing about her background, with Bassett's performance we can understand how tough Lynn Jacobs would have to be, to even be considered for the job.Gerard Butler is more than credible as both Agent Mike Banning, the head of the President's protection detail, mentor and guardian of the President's son, as well as Agent-in-Exile Mike Banning, with visible, barely contained anxiety stemming from his role in the death of the First Lady and the desire to get back "in". Butler does "damaged hero" very well and this movie lets him play to those strengths. We absolutely buy him as an ex-special forces commando able to thin the enemy's numbers single-handedly. We especially buy his banter. The many one-liners he gets off are hilarious and speak volumes about the man and how he handles himself under pressure. Credit the writers, Creighton Rothenberger and Katrin Benedikt, as well as Butler himself, from whom many of those lines originated.Do I even have to tell you that Morgan Freeman was completely believable as the Speaker of the House who becomes the Acting President? We've seen him in charge before and we always believe him. In fact, there are factions in this country who think he's so good at acting like the president that they think he should run for the real job. (Mr. Freeman, I've read, takes that as a compliment to his abilities, but has no plans to run.) Freeman's very casting is almost a spoiler. How could everything not turn out okay on his watch?I don't want to spoil anything, for instance there are more than a few of those one liners of Banning's that I'd love to quote, but I will refrain. (In some ways I think there have been too many clips of the film released. I will say this, it's all about context.) I can tell you that the fight scenes you may have seen, as well as the battles and carnage, are but the tip of the iceberg. I am serious when I tell you this movie doesn't let up until the last two minutes of screen time. I can also tell you that the audience I saw the movie with (all 3x so far) laughed, whooped and gasped at appropriate times and then erupted into cheers and applause when the bad guy finally bought it.There will be people for whom this movie will be too much. Too much noise, too much blood, too much suspended disbelief, just too much. (For me there was a little too much kettle drum in the score.) This is a hard-R action movie. Lots of s*** gets blowed up and the F-word is carpet bombed. It won't please everyone, nor should it. Those that like this sort of thing will love it. My first response to a friend after I saw the movie? "However good you THINK Olympus Has Fallen will be-multiply that by 10". The only nit I'll pick was that I think there was probably originally more to Mike Banning's relationship with his wife that didn't make the final cut. Radha Mitchell is very good in her limited screen time and both she and Butler do convey a sense of the state of their relationship with very little, but I do believe we were denied a love scene. Just puttin' that out there.

Best

One of my All-time favorites! Can't wait for the one one to be released!

Worth the purchase