Olympus Has Fallen... so-so

[Chris D]

This gives away light spoilers, but as these things are generally known about the movie, and even if not, they're presented in the first 10 minutes, it doesn't give away much.

This was a mediocre movie with some redeeming qualities. Basically, this was "Die Hard" (the original) redone with a different setting. If you've seen Die Hard, you've seen a version of this film. Straight equalities between the two:

Nakimura office building takeover = White House takeover
John McClane (Bruce Willis, a NYPD cop) = Gerard Butler (Secret Service agent, ex-special forces) complete with witty sayings
Klaus (main bad guy) = North Korean special forces dude
Bad guy team with lots of German ex-soldiers = bad guy team with mostly North Korean soldiers
Bumbling police that mess up the hostage negotiations = Bumbling National Security team in the Pentagon (SECDEF, Army Chief of staff, etc)


Just like Die Hard, there is one lone semi-rogue agent inside the taken-over building that hunts down the bad guys and, of course, eventually spoils their whole plan by himself. Heck, I even expected Butler to spit out the line "Yippee Ki-Yay, Mutherf@#$%". If you know anything about gunfighting, (and even if you don't) the way the White House agents acted during the seizure of the White House was pretty unbelievable, making the assault not that hard to do. Many other aspects were unbelievable too, such as White House air defenses unable to shoot down a C-130 in the initial attack, with the best defense the country has put into place for years at our government headquarters, (including mediocre surface-to-air missiles, and no Aegis-type gatling gun) yet the terrorists bring along with them a highly advanced air defense system that is able to wipe out Seal Team Six and 7 attack helicopters in the matter of minutes during the re-attack. Very unbelievable actions by the National Command Authority chain, both as hostages inside the White House, and outside in the crisis center at the Pentagon, that leads to a rather straightforward compromise of our national security.

There was some good action sequences, and Gerard Butler is a bad-ass, of course. That was able to save the movie for me from being a complete roll of the eyes and groaner. But still not great. Rent if you want a real mindless action movie where you can overlook plot holes, or just wait until it's on TV. :25: out of :5:

[George Bellefontaine]

I rented over the weekend and concur with your take, Chris.

[impala454]

I saw it in the theater (bored evening with a buddy) and thought it was mildly entertaining. I did have a lot of the same thoughts (such as the silliness of any of it really happening). But I suppose if every movie had to be realistic, we'd rarely have any movies at all.

[P-Dub]

Pretty much agree as well. I enjoyed the mindless nature of the flick. Decent action scenes. The plausibility still bothers me, even knowing it is 'just a movie'

[Ovation]

Precisely the kind of film that requires one to set aside any knowledge about or logical analysis of the story elements--as such it resembles about 90% of all films ever made (possibly more like 95%).

For something like this, I ask myself one question--was I entertained? And I was. Won't be a classic I'll revisit on a regular basis, but it fit the bill--an entertaining action movie where my brain didn't need to work very hard to enjoy it on a Sunday night when everyone else was in bed.