Olympus Has Fallen
MPAA Rating: RIn Theaters: March 22nd, 2013
Runtime: 2 hours (120 minutes)
Rated R for strong violence and language throughout.
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Olympus Has Fallen Review
- What's Good:
- Action, Gerard Butler's performance, Tense scenes.
- What's Bad:
- Seems to be a botched up attempt of Die Hard, Independence Day and Air Force One (strongly)... A typical hollywood action film.
- Verdict:
- There's no reason to overthink this. Just leave your brain at the lobby and enjoy 2013's most entertaining thriller yet.
- Watch or Not:
- Watch it if you like political thrillers and are a action junkie.
Audience Ratings for Olympus Has Fallen
Plot Summary
When the White House (Secret Service Code: "Olympus") is captured by a terrorist mastermind and the President is kidnapped, disgraced former Presidential guard Mike Banning finds himself trapped within the building. As our national security team scrambles to respond, they are forced to rely on Banning's inside knowledge to help retake the White House, save the President, and avert an even bigger disaster.
Critics Reviews for Olympus Has Fallen
45 Critics like this movie.
Reviews Counted: 29 | Positive Review: 13 | Negative Review: 16 | Average Rating: 2.7/5The carnage is cruel and crude.
A typical slab of Hollywood action in which the White House crumbles under attack, the American flag is tattered and tossed aside by baddies, and cliches rise like gods.
Critic Score: 2/5
'Olympus Has Fallen is just too much of a pale 'Die Hard' ripoff.
Critic Score: 1.5/5
... the action is often not unengaging, and Butler's better at swinging for faux Bruce Willis ...
Critic Score: 2/5
Given the premise's essential absurdity, it's almost embarrassingly entertaining.
Critic Score: 3/4
"Olympus Has Fallen" goes through plenty of familiar motions, but does them well enough that it gets away with it. There's a reason movies like this die hard.
Critic Score: B
The film is a second-rate "Air Force One" mashed up with a third-rate "Die Hard," with Gerard Butler striving mightily to be charismatic as the One Man Who Can Save the Day.
Critic Score: 2/4
"Olympus Has Fallen" at least possesses the frisson of timeliness amid otherwise hoary action-movie cliches.
Critic Score: 2/4
It's a solid, simple, more-bang-for-our-buck entertainment that doesn't ask us to think.
Critic Score: 3/4
A nitwit extravaganza that makes you long for the intellectual depth of Independence Day.
It has to be a joke, right?
Critic Score: 3/10
"Olympus Has Fallen" is everything an audience nostalgic for the Steven Seagal killfests of the '90s expects and deserves.
Critic Score: 1.5/4
Sadly, Mr. Butler lacks the wit and the range to convey anything other than grouchy belligerence, and the script, by Creighton Rothenberger and Katrin Benedikt, seems intent on squandering opportunities to be clever or interesting.
Critic Score: 1/5
This is for those who like their political thrillers far-fetched, far-reaching and filled with pretty people.
Critic Score: 2/4
While Gerard Butler is no Bruce Willis, his Mike Banning is a better facsimile of John McClane than the guy Willis is pretending to play these days.
Critic Score: 3/4
"Olympus" has a strictly director-for-hire vibe; anyone with access to a Roland Emmerich movie or two (namely "Independence Day") and a mad-libbed action script could have churned out something similar.
Critic Score: 2/5
Any semblance of seriousness and verisimilitude suggested by the marketing campaign is quickly forgotten once director Antoine Fuqua's enjoyably tacky Die Hard-on-the-Potomac gets under way.
Critic Score: 2.5/4
It all goes down shockingly well, even if Butler lacks the sarcastic wit of a Bruce Willis or Arnold Schwarzenegger and even as the film keeps upping the eye-rolling quotient with cartoon characters.
Critic Score: 2.5/4
Olympus Has Fallen is about as satisfying an action thriller as can be hoped for, with an irresistible premise and nothing but follow-through all the way to the finish.
Critic Score: 3/4
Fuqua knows exactly how to pump up a straightforward script from first-time scribes Creighton Rothenberger and Katrin Benedikt.
Critic Score: 3/5
Pop jingoism isn't easy to stir once you've established a vibe that's so deflating.
If you have an uncle who hasn't seen a movie since "Taken," he's gonna' love this one.
Critic Score: B-
The picture is basically a ground-based version of "Air Force One" with a much higher body count.
Critic Score: 2/4
While the storyline and dialogue are frequently predictable, "Olympus Has Fallen" succeeds largely due to Butler's believablity as a Secret Service agent.
Critic Score: 3/4
Cut past the pic's superficial patriotism, and the message is ironically clear: Never outsource your visual effects when a domestic shop will do.
There's no reason to overthink this. Just leave your brain at the lobby and enjoy 2013's most entertaining thriller yet.
Critic Score: 3/4
Directed by Antoine Fuqua with his usual slam-bang, cutthroat aggression but with almost nothing in the way of surprise or genuine, organic suspense.
Critic Score: C
Pretty ridiculously entertaining-or at least entertainingly ridiculous-for long stretches, dulled only by the realization that there are many parts of the country where this will play as less than total farce.
Generates a fair amount of tension and produces the kind of nationalistic outrage that rock-ribbed Americans will feel in their guts.
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Credits
©2013 FilmDistrict
Olympus Has Fallen Photos
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Ashley Judd at The Premiere of 'Olympus Has Fallen' in Hollywood
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Radha Mitchell at The Premiere of 'Olympus Has Fallen' in Hollywood
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Sophie Turner at the Premiere of 'Olympus Has Fallen' in London on April 3, 2013
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Charlotte Jackson at the 'Olympus Has Fallen' Premiere in London on April 3, 2013
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Jessica Jane Clement at 'Olympus Has Fallen' Premiere in London on April 3, 2013