Movie Review: Olympus Has Fallen

After the death of the First Lady (Ashley Judd) on his watch, secret service agent Mike Banning (Gerard Butler) retired in disgrace. Thankfully, however, he doesn't go far and when North Korean terrorist Kang (Rick Yune) attacks the White House and kidnaps the president (Aaron Eckhart), Banning stands as our last hope for the president's survival. But as he begins systematically dispatching all of Kang's cronies, it becomes clear that there is far more at risk than meets the eye.

Olympus Has Fallen is very confusing for me in that the things I thought I would enjoy about this movie (special effects, Die Hard-like feel, general foolishness) were lacking and the parts I expected to be miserable (namely, Gerard Butler) were pretty solid. This is definitely the best performance Butler has put on the screen in a long time and almost makes me want to forgive him for such "films" as The Bounty Hunter and The Ugly Truth. Almost. He channels his inner Bruce Willis quite effectively. The movie in which he operates, however, is pretty low rent. I'm not sure I've ever seen worse special effects in a big budget movie like this and the script is incredibly inconsistent. While there is an element of stupid fun to the movie, it's not as enjoyable as it thinks it is, which is probably why Olympus Has Fallen was released in March instead of July. Grade: C+ (Rated R for fairly extensive language and a truckload of violence)