London Has Fallen

Starring: Gerard Butler, Aaron Eckhart, Morgan Freeman, Angela Bassett, Melissa Leo, Radha Mitchell, Jackie Earle Haley, Robert Forster
Directed by: Babak Najafi
Rating: R
Genre: Action, Thriller
2016

Times Seen:
Tim: 1


Summary: After the dead of the British Prime Minister, leaders from around the world descend on London for the funeral. Secret Service member Mike Banning (Gerard Butler) soon finds himself in the midst of a plot to assassinate many of the world leaders, including the U.S. President (Aaron Eckhart).

Review:

Tim: Olympus Has Fallen was a fairly solid movie, so it's not incredibly surprising that three years later, we get the sequel. No one was really clamoring for this film, but we don't get enough straight up action movies anymore, so I admit I went into this film feeling good about it. I have to say that this sequel actually holds up. While it's not as good as the first film, it gets shockingly close. This is a worthwhile sequel and I enjoyed it.

I should say that similar to the first movie, your enjoyment of this is going to somewhat depend on your ability to suspend disbelief at the more ridiculous aspects of the plot. There's no way someone could coordinate such perfect attacks, and the lengths the assassins go to after the initial attack is beyond any realm of logic. That does hurt the overall movie, but it's not a fatal flaw. If you can sit back and go with some of the more outlandish aspects of the plot, you'll find a fairly solid action movie.

Once again, the best part of the film is the interaction between Gerard Butler and Aaron Eckhart. I genuinely enjoy these two together and they seemed even more comfortable this time around. Their friendship has grown some, as they've survived an impossible situation before. Butler is in his comfort zone in this role, but that shouldn't take anything away from him. He's playing to his strengths here, and that is a very good thing. Aaron Eckhart is believable as the President. While some of his scenes are absurd (he's got some sweet driving skills), it was still enjoyable to see him in this role. The interactions between these two are the highlights of the film. The rest of the cast is solid, but they don't have much to do. Morgan Freeman must have filmed his scenes in a day or two. He doesn't have much to do. Radha Mitchell makes a glorified cameo, just as a reminder that she was in the first one. Melissa Leo does nothing. Angela Bassett actually got a few decent scenes, so I appreciated that. Jackie Earle Haley and Robert Forster were both wasted too. It's a good thing Butler and Eckhart are so good together, because of the rest of the cast is shortchanged.

Part of what makes this film enjoyable is we have two likeable characters, the U.S. President and a Secret Service agent, on the run against terrorists out to kill them. At the heart of the story, it's pretty simple- that works in the film's favor. If you like movies like this, you're immediately intrigued. If not, you know you won't have fun with it. I liked the simplicity of the story- it's about a fight for survival. Sure, there's subplots and an explanation for why the terrorists are attacking. None of that is especially interesting. All we need to know is that evil terrorists want to kill the President and we don't want that to happen. Now, none of the action sequences are all that great. None of them was terrible, but none of them made me sit up and take notice. There were significantly fewer headshots in this film. While I really wanted an extremely cool action sequence, the movie delivers its action scenes one after another. None are great, but they're all fairly good. I appreciated that.

London Has Fallen was never going to be a landmark action film. No one will remember it in 10 years. However, if you sit down to watch it, it'll deliver what action fans are looking to see. I probably enjoyed the film more than most. It's not as good as Olympus Has Fallen, but I wouldn't be opposed to seeing them round out the trilogy. Paris anyone?

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 7



If You Enjoyed This Movie, We Recommend: Olympus Has Fallen, Training Day, White House Down, Executive Decision, Air Force One