I just saw the new Antoine Fuqua (Shooter) action flick, Olympus Has Fallen. The movie is about a brutal terrorist takeover of the White House and one man's attempt to save the day. I don't have any intention of really reviewing it here (click here for some adequate drubbings), but I would like to list a few complaints that the more thoughtful movie fan may agree with.
1. Insane contrivances. The prologue has a cataclysmic car accident; no cause is ever given. None of the president's secret service agents ever seem to wear kevlar...ever. Breaches of security protocols at just the wrong time lead to the easiest White House takeover I've ever seen.
2. For crying out loud, if you're going to have this many A-listers in your film, tell me that in the dang advertising. Performers that you can't believe are in this movie, in this movie: Ashley Judd, Dylan McDermott, Radha Mitchell, Angela Bassett.
3. The violence is too much and done in poor taste. The terrorists shoot everything that moves in D.C. with pinpoint accuracy. A few shots of innocent civilians running in terror would suffice; instead we get tons of close-ups of head-shot executions.
4. The Asian-looking terrorists, fighting for North Korea, are presumably Korean. With names like Sam Medina, Malana Lea, and Kevin Moon, the people portraying them are not. Hollywood gets it wrong again...because Americans are too stupid to know the difference, right?
In short, don't pay money to see this unless mindless, overly-violent action appeals to you.
...Holy crap, do you realize that Roland Emmerich has the exact same movie coming out in June?
ValkyrieSDF1
It's not terrible but I feel as if Emmerich's movie will be a tad bit better. Good non-review.
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