Olympus Has Fallen

When was the last time we saw a film about a terrorist threat and/or attack either domestic or foreign? Uh-h, let's see, how about "A Good Day to Die Hard", and that was only about a couple of months ago? Fact is, we've seen a plethora of these films in past years, especially since 9/11, and "Olympus Has Fallen" is no different.

When the White House (Secret Service Code: "Olympus") is captured by a terrorist mastermind from North Korea, Kang (Rick Yune) and the President, Benjamin Asher (Aaron Eckhart) is kidnapped by Kang and his army, disgraced former Presidential guard Mike Banning (Gerard Butler) finds himself trapped within the building. As our national security headed up by Speaker Trumbull (Morgan Freeman), Secretary of Defense Ruth McMillan (Melissa Leo), Secret Service Director Lynn Jacobs (Angela Bassett), and Admiral Nathan Hoenig (James Ingersoll) scrambles to respond, they are forced to rely on Banning's expertise inside knowledge to help retake the White House, save the President, and avert an even larger disaster.

Others to round out the cast are Dyan McDermott as Forbes, Radha Mitchell as Leah, Banning's wife, Cole Hauser as Roma, a Secret Service agent, Finley Jacobsen as Connor, the President's son, Ashley Judd as the First Lady, Margaret Asher, and Phil Austin as Vice President Charlie Rodriguez.

This was amazingly well directed by Antoine Fuqua ("The Replacement Killers" '98, "Bait" 2000, "Training Day" '01, "Tears of the Sun" '03, "Lightning in a Bottle" (Documentary) '04, "King Arthur" '04, "Murder Book" (TV Movie) '05, "Shooter" '07, "Brooklyn's Finest" '09, "Exit Strategy" (TV Movie) '12). His use of intensity and grit given certain scenes exuded realism and just kept you right on that proverbial edge of the seat. This was adequately written by Creighton Rothenberger and Katrin Benedikt. Com'on, this was an incredibly a propaganda film, so you really know how this is going to end. It's the 'ride' in which these writers are using to keep us glued to the screen. There are flaws to this plot i.e. putting the President and Vice President in the same place in a time of crisis. This doesn't happened for the reason of what happened here. But then Freeman couldn't have taken over. Another flaw? Since 9/11, our security has practically quadrupled, if for no other reason than of pure fear, so the fact that this terrorist could have taken over the White House is incredibly implausible. But then we wouldn't have a story.

The plot here, as stated, has a certain amount of implausibilities, but you have to know this before you walk through the theater door. This was basically a "what if..." type of film. And this is amazingly timely, considering the animosities between this nation and North Korea. Even though the 'representative' of North Korea was a crazed terrorist, and not part of the political machine, still it plants the seed for many American's patriotism to start bleeding blood red, white and blue. The reaction by some of the audience when I went to view this was indicative of this. It really gets the juices going. If you're into action, intensity, explosions, and over-the-top patriotism, this will feed that desire ten fold.

Out of 4 Stars: 2.5                        Rated: R                           120min.