Olympus Has Fallen

Republican agitprop for pure American values, and the willingness to confront the problem head-on and tackle everything with a straight face. It’s a mistake to see it in the opposite vein of the movie theater premieres, as Emmerich's strumming of the "democratic" string created more thematic self-irony, bringing expectations down to zero. Fuqua irritates the audience's receptors only with his impressive body count, his willingness to shoot anyone in the head (even a woman), and he only improves the Butler machine’s skill in terms of the number of headshots. The rest of the time, it sort of wanders the darkened corridors of the White House, preferring to keep the protagonists silent because the script doesn't throw anything too miraculous at them. I can't think of which twenty minutes of the plot I would sacrifice in favor of better compactness, but, on the other hand, I place the quarter of an hour with the cast of Olympus Has Fallen on the action pedestal of the best there is to see at the moment. 2 and a ½. (10/31/2014)

Hollywood is once again jerking off in a moronic routine rip-off of a moronic line with a moronic attack on the White House from the moronic seventh season of 24. However, as much as it is stupid (and it is stupid), it is also unintentionally funny (and it is funny). (04/11/2013)

How do you combine the ultra-pathos of shot-up flags in the glow of evening twilight and a "down to earth" thriller about a highly trained bulldozer that someone hibernated during Reagan's time? You can’t. That's what it's all about. I enjoyed the references to similar 90s films (a tumultuous steady cam, president family guy and a soundtrack on the edge of long strings and pompous walls of breaths). What I really don't like is the total lack of overview - not only in the ode to US sovereignty and the flawlessness of its watch dogs (Butlers), but especially in the image of the North Korean enemy, who is so boringly truncated to a hateful and brutal core that the fight with them lacks anything emotional, and the enemy is completely uninteresting. Alternating solid action with theatrical (and de facto completely dehumanized) speeches soon ceases to entertain. A comparison with Die Hard is out of the question - this film looks much more outdated at its core - and where it tries to look more modern, it clashes with its simplicity. It's a pity, I was really rooting for it and had a great time for the first half hour. [50%] (04/08/2013)

Within the genre, it's quite good and inoffensive, but Roland Emmerich played with practically the same theme in White House Down in a much more ingenious way and... And above all, in a funnier way. Indeed, exaggeration or any lightening of Olympus Has Fallen is what is most lacking. It is very action-packed, the occupation of the White House is briskly filmed and it all happens so fast that you almost don't notice the classic "All those pros got shot like a herd of sheep" crap. But everything else is meant to be so deadly serious, the characters swearing allegiance to the stars and stripes with death on their tongues, that weaker people with an allergy to kitsch, clichés and patriotism simply can't enjoy it. (08/15/2013)

Pathos to drown in. The part of the attack on the White House is stupid and with underfunded special effects, but it’s quite fun. The rest of the film, however, it’s not fun at all. It could have been a decent take on Die Hard, but the total lack of detachment and the piece of wood in the main role (there are few people in Hollywood I find more annoying than Gerard Butler) sinks it. In the second half I was just bored. PS: Naturally, the American flag flutters as a blessing. What Emmerich will show us? (06/27/2013)