Olympus Has Fallen

Rating : 6/10
Release Date : 22nd March, 2013
Time : 120 minutes
Director : Antoine Fuqua; Writer : Creighton Rothenberger; Music : Trevor Morris
Starring : Gerard Butler, Aaron Eckhart, Morgan Freeman, Richard Yun, Finley Jacobsen, Angela Bassett, Melissa Leo, Dylan McDermott, Radha Mitchell



This is basically Die Hard but located in the White House and with the jingoism of Independence Day / Armageddon, complete with the ‘God Bless America’ and USA being the centre of Earth kind of stuff…



Gerard Butler, top secret service agent, is banished from the White House because the President (a very spunky Aaron Eckhart) doesn’t want to be reminded of a tragedy that happened during his watch. He is special buddies with the President’s son, Finley and on very good terms with the Secret Service Director, Angela Bassett. Which makes it very convenient that he is there when terrorists invade and take control of the White House.





There can be a lot of probably valid questions raised on how easily the White House was taken over, the tepid response of the US military which meekly stands down when ordered to do so by the terrorists. The nature of the demands as well can be called into question, being eminently reversible.



It’s a feel good film at the end of the day, enlivened by some cameos like Melissa Leo, who doesn’t want her tombstone to read ‘She died without a fight’, and Morgan Freeman as the Speaker who becomes Acting President and does an admirable job of it despite the ‘let me handle it’ kind of pressure from Chief of Staff, Robert Forster.



The humour is decent but not outstanding, the action is slick, the movie bristling with tension, Richard Yun makes for a chilling villain and the film is a classic feel good action flick which is enjoyable to watch (keeping logic aside) but nothing, either action wise or character wise, really stays with you for too long after the end credits roll on the screen