Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 52% (Critics) / 80% (Audience)
Directed By: Antoine Fuqua
Written By: Creighton Rothenberger and Katrin Benedikt
Starring: Gerard Butler, Aaron Eckhart, Morgan Freeman, Angela Bassett, Rick Yune
Studio: FilmDistrict

Synopsis: When the White House (Secret Service Code: “Olympus”) is captured by a terrorist mastermind and the President is kidnapped, disgraced former Presidential guard Mike Banning finds himself trapped within the building. As our national security team scrambles to respond, they are forced to rely on Banning’s inside knowledge to help retake the White House, save the President and avert an even bigger crisis. Antoine Fuqua (Training Day) directs an all-star cast featuring Gerard Butler, Aaron Eckhart, Morgan Freeman, Angela Bassett, Melissa Leo, Ashley Judd and Rick Yune. (Source)

The Good:
It was like this movie was filmed in 1984 and kept on ice for nearly 30 years before being released to the public…everything about it screams “1980s Action Blockbuster!” and that is a very good thing. This movie relished in its unabashed graphic violence while presenting an old school action hero in Gerard Butler’s Banning who grunted out a few lines every once in a while but mostly let his actions do his talking.
And the action pieces were great from the moment that renegade plane entered restricted air space to the last knife being jammed into a bad guy’s head. Antoine Fuqua knew what type of film he was making and didn’t hold back at all.

The Bad:
If character development and a whip smart script are what you are looking for then this aint the movie for you because the characters are cardboard cutouts and the script could have been written by a roomful of jingoistic chimps.

The Ugly
I really do hope that the real White House has better security than the movie one because if not I fear for the Obama family.

Final Verdict: A rollicking, loud, in your face action movie throwback to the heyday of Stallone, Willis and Schwarzenegger, OLYMPUS HAS FALLEN may not be a classic of modern cinema but for a movie that is basically “DIE HARD in the White House” it delivers all the fun you can ask for.

Grade: B