Olympus Has Fallen

For all patriotic Americans who revel in melodrama, this film is a must-watch. Personally, it was a bit of a struggle for me because I couldn't stand all those speeches and looks full of national pride. The screenplay felt like a chaotic mess, with logic barely getting a look-in. If it weren't for the captivating CGI destruction of American icons and some well-executed action sequences, I would have been much less generous but I gritted my teeth and settled on two stars. / Lesson learned: Trash collectors are not what they seem. (07/04/2022)

Pleasant, funny, fully of great lines and a lot of innocent passers-by die. Kim has nothing to be ashamed about on his American PR campaign. Just cut the ending. ;) Butler’s show is a soothing band aid for McClane’s recent failure. He swears like a trooper and super smooth bitch-slapping insubordination. The initial attack has outrageous drive, even taking out the Washington Dick, not to mention demolishing half of the house (including Lincoln’s bedroom) and acre upon acre of fine lawns. The tricks are maybe a little too obviously digital, but for relatively little investment we get a good show, the actors do their work and, even though the screenplay is thoroughbred B-movie, it soothes the soul. The music is also pleasantly patriotic. Simply a Seagal-like movie, crossed with 24, featuring Leonidas. Tough luck if you want anything more. (04/17/2013)

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)

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)

The trailer looked absolutely disastrous and overly pathetic, and also left me with the the impression that the effects would be unusually bad. In the end, though, everything is quite okay. I liked the fairly intense action with plenty of blood, several decent fights, and an excellent showcase of all possible weapons and various gadgets. The raid scene is about 10 minutes of very well-directed non-stop action. The details are slightly lifted from the new Rambo, but it doesn't matter, it works. Unfortunately, once we enter the “Raid 3”, where one hero with a mysterious past is in an hostile environment eliminates enemy units one by one, it’s full of clichés and occasionally stupid from a screenplay perspective, with shots of torn flags that are insane, but it is still a pure and crystal-clear genre film, and those flaws can be forgiven if you are fans of confident action and quality actors. (04/16/2013)