Olympus Has Fallen (2013) - Fuqua's rough and unrefined actioner

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Not a still from the actual, real-life, presidentially commanded storm on the Washington D.C. Capitol Building of January 6 2022, this is instead an explosive poster for Antoine Fuqua's Olympus Has Fallen

Mike Banning was a Secret Service agent who was close with the US President, until he was involved in the accident that cost the first lady her life. Now the White House comes under attack by North-Korean terrorists, and Banning decides to return!

Olympus Has Fallen is written by Creighton Rothenberger and Katrin Benedikt (The Expendables 3 (2014), both) and co-produced and directed by Pennsylvanian master filmmaker Antoine Fuqua (Bait (2000)), whose 7th feature it is.

The film attempts to marry In the Line of Fire (1993) with 24 (2001-10) but doesn't get anywhere near the quality of either of these thrillers. It is a shame, because Olympus Has Fallen has so many of the right ingredients. But although Fuqua is good, he is no John McTiernan here, and Olympus Has Fallen fails first and foremost because it is lacking suspenseful scenes.

Instead there is sketchy CGI by the barrel load, and scores of scenes of co-producer/co-star Gerard Butler's (Dracula 2000 (2000)) Banning torturing and punishing bad-guys. (You'll also get Melissa Leo (Bottled Up (2013)) as Secretary of Defense getting beaten up at length and forced to walk on shattered glass.) Without the necessary suspense one mostly just thinks 'yikes' at this and other unpleasantness - and the preposterous plot, which involves a bomb program in the basement of the White House that no-one at the Pentagon has contact to ... Olympus Has Fallen is also souped up in more than enough jingoistic prattle and possibly more presidentially sounding drums than in any film ever before. 

 

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Has Fallen franchise: London Has Fallen (2016) - Jingoistic and irrelevant actioner that passes the time

Antoine Fuqua: The Magnificent Seven (2016) - Fuqua makes a noisy party trick out of the western

2014 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess 

The Equalizer (2014) or, Mr. Swift Justice

 

 

Watch a 2-minute clip from the film here

 

Cost: 70 mil. $

Box office: 170.2 mil. $

=  Minor flop (returned 2.43 times its cost)

[Olympus Has Fallen premiered 18 March (Los Angeles) and runs 119 minutes. Shooting took place from July - September 2012 in Louisiana, including in New Orleans, and in New York. Production scrambled through to be the first of 2013's two big White House attack action movies, beating White House Down to the punch by around 3 months. The film opened #2, behind fellow new release The Croods, to a 30.3 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent another 3 weekends in the top 5 (#4-#4-#5), grossing 98.9 mil. $ (58.1 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were the UK with 9.5 mil. $ (5.6 %) and China with 5.8 mil. $ (3.4 %). Rothenberger was sued by a John S. Green over authorship of the script with Rothenberger winning 175k $. Butler sued Nu Image/Millennium Films for 10 mil. $ over perceived unreported profits and failure to pay him according to a 10 % net profit participation deal. The conclusion of that suit has been kept under wraps. The film spun two sequels with Butler but not Fuqua returning; London Has Fallen (2016) and Angel Has Fallen (2019), with a third sequel entitled Night Has Fallen currently in production. The film additionally earned more than 38.2 mil. $ on the domestic home video market. Fuqua returned with The Equalizer (2014). Butler returned with a voice performance in How to Train Your Dragon 2 (2014) and physically in Gods of Egypt (2016); Aaron Eckhart (Thursday (1998)) in I, Frankenstein (2014); and Morgan Freeman (Edison (2005)) in Oblivion (2013). Olympus Has Fallen is rotten at 50 % with a 5.40/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Olympus Has Fallen?

London Has Fallen (2016) - Jingoistic and irrelevant actioner that passes the time

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+ Most Tasteless Movie of the Year

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.

Related posts:

2016 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2016 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]

2016 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]

2016 in films - according to Film Excess

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?