Review of OLYMPUS HAS FALLEN

OLYMPUS HAS FALLEN

The film begins with the President of the United States, BENJAMIN ASHER (Aaron Eckhart) in the ring with his sparring partner, a secret service agent named MIKE BANNING. These two have such a good relationship that Mike can and does beat the crap out of the president.  Switch to preparations for a fund raiser where we meet Asher's unrealistically lovely and loving wife, MARGARET.  On the way to the party, tragedy strikes, an accident on an icy bridge. Mike gets the president out of the car before it topples off the bridge, and is almost, but not quite, able to rescue Margaret before she plunges to her frozen doom below. This puts a strain on his friendship with the president.

Fast forward eighteen months.  Asher, still president, confers with the South Korean prime-minister LEE TAE-WOO about the best response to North Korea. Switch to a four engine prop plane with Korean pilots entering restricted air space over Washington DC. American fighter jets threaten to shoot it down, but it destroys those jets with machine guns. Koreans converge on the White House planting bombs, shooting bystanders and in general creating chaos.  The president and prime minister retreat to the fortified bunker, but Korean and American traitors kill the prime minister and take the president hostage. Under the leadership of terrorist KANG YEONSAK, they issue demands such as withdrawing all American forces from the Korean peninsula, and prove their seriousness by shooting various officials trapped in the bunker with the president.

With the president hostage and the vice-president unavailable, the secretary of state, ALLAN TRUMBULL (Morgan Freeman), must assume the awesome responsibilities of the presidency in this time of crisis. Fortunately, secret-service agent Mike is able to sneak into the White House. This is his chance to redeem himself...

I'm not an expert, I suspect fighter jets have too much shielding to be shot down by machine gun bullets.  And a prop plane? Come on.  What kind of bargain-basement terrorists are these?  In the beginning, terrorists kill a lot of people, but when Mike swings into action, they seem to develop the "Where Eagles Dare" syndrome and lose their ability to aim. The scene where Trumbull realizes this mess is on his shoulders is pivotal, but Freeman, usually a superb actor, is here as convincing as a college drama student.

In general, the characters are flat.  Terrorist Kang is a focused sociopath, President Asher is perpetually frustrated and weak, Trumbull is befuddled, and Mike is murderously determined.  But you can't blame the actors. The plot is monochromatic, a continual struggle against horror with minimal breaks. The actors don't have a chance to portray three-dimensional human beings.

Why do Eckart and Freeman take such crappy roles? For that matter, why did so many Koreans participate in a movie that portrays Korean people the way so many movies portray Arabs or Muslims.

As a cinematic production, this movie stinks.  But as a workout movie, it's great. It hooks you in from the beginning and, as one thing after another goes wrong, keeps you hooked. The unvarying plot won't let you look away.  I give this +++++ - it will get your pulse up to a sprint.

Review of THE CODE (Thick as Thieves).

THE CODE (THICK AS THIEVES)

The movie opens with KEITH RIPLEY (Morgan Freeman) walking into a health spa and shooting a man in the pool. No explanation. Then GABRIEL (Gaby) MARTIN (Anthony Banderas) robs diamonds from two curriers on a subway train. Ripley is in the train and watches with a bemused smile. After the robbery, Ripley follows Martin and tries to entice him to help Ripley steal two Faberge eggs worth twenty million dollars each from ROMANOV JEWELERS.  Gaby is reluctant. At this point, Gaby meets Ripley's goddaughter, ALEXANDRA KAROLIN.  The two flirt for a while, and soon fall into bed. Enter LIEUTENANT WEBER, who has been obsessed with putting Ripley in jail for the past twenty years. Weber knows Ripley plans to rob Romanov's, and determines to trap him, even though the FBI tells him to lay off because they want to catch a Russian criminal, who, by the way, Ripley owes a lot of money to which is why he's eager to steal the eggs.

And then the plot gets complicated. 

The first two thirds are easy to follow, but towards the end the story becomes so convoluted I never did understand just how the characters arrived at the finale. SPOILER ALERT--almost everyone is happy with how it turns out.

The way Gaby woos Alexandra is obnoxious. He stalks her, breaks into her apartment (granted, to prepare a dinner, but still), and dangles her keys in front of her.  He should get a hard slap in the face, but instead, he gets a roll in the hay.  Not a good message.

The film has a lot of honest tension, in particular when Ripley is on the move. Some scenes feel been contrived as if to increase the drama; these scenes are integral to the plot, but their presentation is clumsy.

The strongest part of the movie is, no surprise, Morgan Freeman's portrayal of Ripley.  This character is so cool, he gives you the shivers. You can't help watching and wondering what he'll do next. The thief is the ultimate in smoothness, and Freeman carries it out to perfection without ever crossing the line that would make it a parody.

I never did figure out what code the title is referring to.

THE CODE received a lot of bad reviews, which is fair; it's a lightweight film. Still, it does have several thrilling scenes that can get your pulse up to a run.  I give it ++++.