+ 3rd Worst Movie of the Year
+ Most Tasteless Movie of the Year
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| One of the more upsetting posters for Babak Najafi's London Has Fallen |
London Has Fallen is the sequel to the action movie Olympus Has Fallen (2013), in which terrorists attack Washington, D.C.
The American president's head of security is about to tender his resignation, when the British prime minister suddenly dies, and the president and other world leaders fly to London to attend the funeral. - But something is wrong ... - Very wrong!
Gerard Butler (Machine Gun Preacher (2011)) is back as the trustworthy, capable Mike Banning, and he is physically convincing and fills out the part with the appropriate macho bravado if not with any groundbreaking charisma. Aaron Eckhart (The Dark Knight (2008)) is also back as the kind of inane and boring president, who has to be saved once again.
The film has been used as a boxing ball by disgruntled critics and audiences alike, and many of the attacks launched against it are not fair. - It isn't xenophobic, its effects aren't poorly done, and the film isn't incoherent in any way.
It has been devised before the 2015 Paris attacks and the recent Brussels attack, and its plot doesn't feel very realistic given these recent, horrifying events. The film doesn't catch the opportunity to be relevant in our present context, maybe because it doesn't dare to. I think it might have been a great film, if the scenario had been believable, because wouldn't we all have liked to have seen a Mike Banning create order out of chaos in the attacks we have witnessed recently. SPOILER As it stands and in this current, toxic climate in Europe, the pleasure of seeing Westminster Abbey and other London landmarks explode in a gigantic terrorist attack are very limited.
London Has Fallen is jingoistic, as could be expected: The British system fails spectacularly in it, and only the Americans seem competent to handle the crooks of the world. The terrorists are hundreds, it seems, and they have infiltrated just about every London authority. They are also racially diverse and without a foundation in Islamic fanaticism. Their employer is an unpolitical arms dealer out for revenge, but it is unclear why they attack. None of this seems very likely, and this is the main reason the film misses its target.
SPOILER The main villain, who is forgotten by the film's end, wants revenge for a US drone attack of a huge wedding he attended but incredibly enough survived. It is ironic and not very commendable that the solution to his London revenge is another drone attack at the film's end. It isn't a very exciting end either.
Some great actors are wasted in very minor parts in London Has Fallen: Robert Forster (Jackie Brown (1997)), Melissa Leo (Flight (2012)), Jackie Earle Haley (Little Children (2006)) and Morgan Freeman (Se7en (1995)) are far away from the action and fairly irrelevant. SPOILER Angela Bassett (The Score (2001)) injects some warmth into the film, but is regrettably killed off.
London Has Fallen is co-written by Christian Gudegast (A Man Apart (2003)), Chad St. John (The Punisher: Dirty Laundry (2012), short), Creighton Rothenberger (Olympus Has Fallen) and Katrin Benedikt (The Expendables 3 (2014)), perhaps supporting the notion that many chefs don't make for a great meal. It is directed by Iranian Babak Najafi (Sebbe (2011)).
London Has Fallen is low-calories entertainment, and everyone involved, us audiences not least, deserved better.
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Watch the trailer for the film here
Cost: 60 mil. $
Box office: 127.3 mil. $ and counting
= Too early to say (but currently a flop)
[London Has Fallen premiered March 1 (Hollywood) and runs 99 minutes. The director of the original film, which was not even strictly speaking a hit, Pennsylvanian master filmmaker Antoine Fuqua (Training Day (2001)), was unavailable for the sequel due to his work on the great The Equalizer (2014). Filming began in October 2014, without Butler, who, it seems, only joined the production from March - April 2015. It was shot in London, India and Bulgaria. The release was moved from October 2015 to March 2016. It opened #2 to 21.6 mil. $ behind Zootopia in North America, where it has grossed 59.7 mil. $ (46.9 % if the total gross so far). Its 2nd and 3rd biggest markets have been the UK with 14.5 mil. $ (11.4 %) and South Korea with 5.1 mil. $ (4 %). London Has Fallen is rotten at 24 % with a 3.8 critical average on Rotten Tomatoes.]
What do you think of London Has Fallen?
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