Olympus Has Fallen (2013)
It’s Die Hard…
in the White House
Is the main character an average Joe?
No, Mike Banning is a disgraced Secret Service agent who failed to rescue the First Lady when she and the President got into a car accident. Seeing him reminded the President too much of the accident so now he’s working at the Treasury. Since he’s a Secret Service agent he’s trained in all sorts of military warfare so he has no problem engaging in fire or fist fights.
Sidekick?
Mike Banning is so hard-ass he doesn’t need anyone, not even a sexy lady jumping from a cake.
Any personal problems?
He’s got a boring job at the Treasury and wants to be a Secret Service again. In the beginning of the movie his wife also complains that he never listens, but that’s just a regular guy/girl thing.
Is the lead character there by coincidence?
Since he’s working in Washington he’s close by.
Are there any friends or family in danger?
Though I was expecting his wife to become part of the plot at one point she’s never in danger. He does consider the President and his son to be his friends, even though it was the President that got him fired in the first place.
What’s at stake and why aren’t the authorities doing anything?
The authorities can’t do anything because the President is held hostage as well as some other high officials like the Vice-President. Then there’s the little fact that every attempt the US Army undertakes to battle the terrorists ends in failure.
Any charismatic villains?
Not really. The villain is a North-/South-Korean named Kang who is just threatening everybody all the time, pointing guns to their head and what not. While he does seem to appear in a lot of western Kung Fu movies like Ninja Assassin and The Man with the Iron Fists he doesn’t portray any fight skills on screen aside from the final show down. He’s a villain for the sake of being a villain. He never gets any good juicy lines or memorable actions. Morgan Freeman is also in it and could actually have been a great villain, though it would require a lot of make-up form him to portray an Asian.
Is it any good?
It’s very entertaining, but I am astounded by the fact that this script actually got made by a cast this talented. It’s such a carbon copy of Die Hard, with multiple scenes coming directly out of the movie, that this could have just as well been a low budget action movie featuring Vinnie Jones or Steve Austin. But it has a big budget that shows us a lot of CG-carnage as the Koreans attack Washington and a pretty decent cast. It’s fun, but where Die Hard had a smirky main character in a realistic plot, Olympus Has Fallen has a deadly serious character in a preposterous plot.
They are planning a remake, I would go for Jensen Ackles, Jared Padalecki, Joe Manganiello, Milo Ventimiglia, Tom Welling, Chris Evans, Chris Pine, Chadwick Boseman, Anthony Mackie, Jeremy Runner, Derek Theler, or D.J. Cotrona as Gabe Walker; and Billy Zane, Kevin Spacey, Dominic Pace, Alec Baldwin, Gil Banks, Hugo Weaving, Robert Knepper, Brian Van Holt, Travis Fine, Skeet Ulrich, or Dash Mihok as Qualen.
I think there is a way to improve The Taking of Beverly Hills, like instead an undercover Fed helped crippled a militia group and imprisoned many members including their leader. But the leader’s brother and a few members of the group plant bombs all over Beverly Hills, and threaten to set them off if the leader is not released, and the undercover fed seeks out the bombs while his partners buy him time.
Blast is good, but it would be worthwhile to note that, Agent Lisa Reed (Vivica A. Fox) finds out that Michael Kittridge (Vinnie Jones) is actually a mercenary named Skyler Talbot and had killed the real Kittridge and stole his identity to throw off authorities.
I would like to see Christmas Rush. Anyone know where to find it?
There are some sites that list it as streamable, but I don’t know how legit they are. If you own an XBMC player I would advise you to look on that network.
What is an XBMC Player? I have never heard of one.
In most cases they are mediaplayers running Android. Because they run Android they can download an app named XBMC from Google’s Play Store. XBMC allows you to search and stream movies
Don’t forget the other scenarios like Terminal Rush, Interceptor, Crash Dive, Counter Measures, 12 Rounds: Reloaded, 12 Rounds: Lockdown, Project: Shadow Chaser, Command Performance, Demolition University, Cyberjack/Virtual Assassin, Final Voyage, and Air Rage.
For Speed 2: Cruise Control, it should have been Direct to Video, and not a sequel to Speed. The lead villain should have been a pirate instead of soft ware designer turned mad bomber trying to blow up a ship.
Every time I see “Air Force One” I remember that in the Tom Clancy novels, the character of Jack Ryan becomes president. This film could have been part of the saga starring Harrison Ford, if he had continued it.