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.