Olympus Has Fallen

[Bowie]

I wanted to see two hours of brutal action and **** being blown up, and bad guys being stabbed and shot and ****ed up. And I got it. That's a bingo.

 

[The Shape]

Holy Mary, this was hilariously awful. So bad that it was somewhat entertaining. Literally filled with laughs. You'd think they set out to spoof Die Hard, because that's what this was. Die Hard in the White House, but 10x funnier.

Endlessly quotable, so it was worth seeing for the great memories of Spark Plug, epic thumbs ups, horrendous special effects, and funny moments. As a sidenote, was this made like 4 years ago and shelved? Looked that way.

 

[danoyse]

Saw this today. Painfully hokey script, but I was surprised how brutal the action sequences were. It reminded me a little of the opening attack sequences in the original Red Dawn. But I enjoyed it, and I agree with everyone saying Butler needs to do more action films. It was definitely better than the latest Die Hard, which was awful.

 

[warhorse78]

Saw this today. Not bad, reminds me of the old fashion chuck norris flicks. But I'll say this, Gerard Butler was ******ing hot in this. I just wished he used his native tongue. The theater was absolutely packed, and only real tiff I had was I thought the overall film was a bit on the dark side.

 

[Thundarr]

I rather enjoyed this movie. It wasn't really anything new or innovative, as we've all seen the plot before (Die Hard, Under Siege, Air Force One, etc). But the action was over the top and a lot of fun. I gave it a solid 7/10, not bad for such a tired and overused story.

 

[rayc1971]

Huntsman and Mirror Mirror were nothing alike.

they both were competing snow white films that's what I was getting at.

 

[Gianakin_]

Looks like I was wrong. I'll gladly eat crow when the times comes to see it.

 

[MagnarTheGreat]

Awful. Don't waste your money, folks.

It has a young child's understanding of how the world works among many other problems. A young male child's fantasy scenario come to life. Lots of scenes take place in the very dark (I'm sure the cinema I saw it in didn't help with how it was projected). Dumb characters, gratuitous reveling in the violence, dumb opening scene, awful cliches, you name it--chances are it's in here.

2.5 out of 10

 

[Hunter Rider]

I saw it last week, me and my Dad enjoyed it as fans of action films of a bygone era. The premise is simple, to call it "Die Hard in the White House" is about as accurate as you can get.

Antoine Fuqua marshals his story pretty well, never letting the pace lag and keeping the action coming as Butler's Agent Banning makes his way around the White House muderlizing terrorists and generally messing up their plans, his method of interrogation got a laugh at my showing.

Butler makes for a solid lead, he doesn't have the charisma of a Cruise, Willis, Eastwood or Ford in this type of role, but he does well enough. Aaron Eckhart, Morgan Freeman and Angela Bassett all bring their A-game in support, which helps the quieter moments work.

The bad guys are ruthless but one dimensional with only the leader Kang given some mystique while traitor Forbes (Dylan McDermott) doesn't get to flesh his motives out.

The level of violence at times is uncomfortable, in particular when Kang beats the female Secretary of Defense (Mellisa Leo) bloody and bruised, and I am sure many will find the actual attack on the White House quite unnerving, it's one of the most visceral action sequences I've seen since SPR and the film's standout set-piece.

The rest of the action is solid if unremarkable, there isn't a tonne of imagination in the set pieces and it's too dark to see what's going on at times, but the kills are pretty well pulled off, even the CGI on the aerial action seemed somewhat improved from the trailers.

The script is the film's biggest weakness, a movie of this type requires some good dialogue exchanges between the hero and the antagonists, but most of it falls flat here with the F bomb sprinkled liberally to try and paper over the cracks.

All in all it may fall short of the classics in this action sub-genre but it's still a lot of fun, especially if like me you miss the oldschool action movies of the late late 80's-late 90's.

7.5/10

 

[Whiskey Tango]

All in all it may fall short of the classics in this action sub-genre but it's still a lot of fun, especially if like me you miss the oldschool action movies of the late late 80's-late 90's.

7.5/10

Good review Much better than being compared to a dumb child for liking the film.

 

[rayc1971]

this movie might get to 100mill domestic didn't think that before the release so the Jaime foxx channing tatum one might be the box office bomb

 

[newfoundlander]

I loved the hell out of this. Like whats been said, Die Hard in The White House sums it up, but I dont really think thats a bad thing. Its nice to see the "Die Hard on a..." subgenre of the 90's return. I wanted a loud popcorn action movie with an R rating and thats what I got.

 

[MadVillainy]

Just saw this. It was awesome. I liked just about every second of it. Butler really needs to get back to roles like this. Really good action, but I didnt like some of the CG. Either way can't wait to see this again

7.5/10

 

[StarLord]

I enjoyed it too, after a viewing earlier on this evening.

The main villain could have been utilized more but it was good.

7/10

 

[SpilledInnards]

Solid action flick, Butler needs to make more of these.

 

[terry78]

Just saw its doppelganger White House Down. Much more fun flick to be honest and probably a little more tongue in cheek, like it knows how wacky the situation is, as opposed to this one.

 

[dude stannis]

I will say this about OHF, no other action film this year gave any weight to the violence. Actions have consequences, people died and it weighed down on the characters (Save for Iron Man Three I think). Star Trek and G.I. Joe had entire cities being obliterated to no real effect.

 

[Ultimatehero]

Just saw its doppelganger White House Down. Much more fun flick to be honest and probably a little more tongue in cheek, like it knows how wacky the situation is, as opposed to this one.

I just couldn't get into White House Down, probably because of this movie. After seeing how dark, twisted, and scary something like this could be and how many would die - it was really hard seeing a version that it didn't have that but laughs instead. Just came off as odd to me.

 

[Octoberist]

Just watched it. Fun stuff...but my lord, this movie has one of the worst CGI effects I've seen in a tentpole.

 

[Whiskey Tango]

Yeah saw it last night & I thought it was pretty good overall but the graphics needed some work. The worst was the car accident at the beginning. I know they do it to save money and whatnot but at least put some effort into it.

 

[Destructus86]

LOVED it. Very old school action flick.

 

[MrMaooz]

I will say this about OHF, no other action film this year gave any weight to the violence. Actions have consequences, people died and it weighed down on the characters (Save for Iron Man Three I think). Star Trek and G.I. Joe had entire cities being obliterated to no real effect.

Well at least Star Trek had a memorial, but damn, that's at least like 50,000 people killed, isn't it?

 

[MadVillainy]

I felt that memorial in Star Trek wasnt enough. At least to me, but it was whatever

 

[Octoberist]

The worst part about the CGI are the lingering shots. Remember the plane attacking DC? They had this lingering shot of the plane unclose. It looked so fake! I was like "Cut away, cut away!"

Then there was an awful lingering aerial shot of the Washington Monument after it's destruction. Nasty. The grass is all bright looking and ehh.

 

[Ultimatehero]

The CGI didn't bother me at all. And for those who say it's the "worst effects ever" in a movie like this - seriously - go watch 'Lockout.' Effects have never really bothered me unless it looked like a Playstation 1 video game. Out of the millions of movies I've seen - in terms of effects, I'd say it was moderate. They weren't bad at all, they weren't great, they were serviceable or in the middle range of all of the movies out there.