Olympus Has Fallen

Year: 2013
Genre: Action
Directed: Antoine Fuqua
Stars: Gerard Butler, Aaron Eckhart, Finley Jacobsen, Dylan McDermott, Rick Yune, Morgan Freeman, Angela Bassett, Melissa Leo, Radha Mitchell, Cole Hauser, Phil Austin
Production:

Out of all other edible things on this earth, the only one that is said to last forever and ever is honey. And why not honey? It’s sweet, it can have some nutritional value in small doses and it’s created by buzzing pricks willing to sacrifice themselves for the good of their insect hive. Like honey, the enjoyment you get out of weak-minded action films will always last forever. I must admit that while being one of the pickiest movie watchers I know, I’d rather sit down and watch Armageddon (1998) on FX one hundred times than watch La Strada (1954) twice in one day.



Who's ready for more belabored metaphors?

 But stupid is as stupid does and Olympus Has Fallen is a hive abuzz with stupidity. The story begins with the tragic death of the first lady (Ashley Judd) after a car crash at Camp David. A few months later, Secret Service Agent Mike Banning (Gerard Butler) was the last to have a chance to save her and thus works a desk job at the Treasury instead of by the President’s side. But Mike’s fate is about to change when a South Korean envoy comes to town for talks with the President (Aaron Eckhart).

North Korean terrorists then make their play by shooting people from a bomber, destroying the Washington Monument and making a full frontal assault on the White House. Within minutes the entire Secret Service and White House staff, sans the President and a few red shirts are dead. With no hope of saving the President the acting President, Speaker Trumbull (Morgan Freeman) has no choice but to bomb the crap out of the bastards.

Oh, wait that never comes to mind, not once. For while our country is more important than one man especially in the face of possible nuclear annihilation, the whole focus of the film is on saving Aaron Eckhart from the clutches of the terrorist known as Kang (Rick Yune) not on the good of the nation. Banning becomes the one unstoppable force who picks the bad guys off one at a time where the Secret Service, the military, the D.C. Police, the Joint Chiefs of Staff and Cole Hauser have all failed. When the deciders in comfy chairs opt to do something without Banning, it’s an unmitigated disaster. Why can’t military brass simply listen to the laws of action movie logic and let the lone guy put in an extraordinary situation do his thang?

This. Is. Amrica!

While the logical fallacies in this film are a-plenty one can’t but help admiring this throwback. There is no sense of irony or self-effacement like in the similarly themed White House Down (2013). No wisecracks or filler, just non-stop action. It’s a retread of the highest order. If it were made twenty years ago and made a little more sense it might have made the shortlist of decent Die Hard (1988) rip-offs like Speed (1994) or The Rock (1996).

Unfortunately between Morgan Freeman’s disinterested gaze and Melissa Leo’s hammy performance as the Secretary of Defense, Olympus Has Fallen feels like a recitation of clichés by gifted amateurs. Dylan McDermott’s performance as the resident traitor is especially daffy. Watching the scene where he justifies his betrayal to the President is just moronic and helps explain why he has been relegated to disposable romantic leading man status.

See what I did there?

I was willing to meet this movie half way. I really was. I swallowed the notion of the White House being taken over by terrorists in record time even though I’m sure there are Secret Service agents out there who sat down to watch either in theaters or on DVD and Blu-Ray and laughed their red, white and blue asses off. But the lack of common sense on a basic level in addition to the questionable amount of damage Butler’s body can endure, As it stands, this movie has a shelf-life of a bee than one of honey.

Final Grade: F