Olympus Has Fallen (2013)
TOMATOMETER
Critics Consensus: It's far from original, but Olympus Has Fallen benefits from Antoine Fuqua's tense direction and a strong performance from Gerard Butler -- which might just be enough for action junkies.
Critics Consensus: It's far from original, but Olympus Has Fallen benefits from Antoine Fuqua's tense direction and a strong performance from Gerard Butler -- which might just be enough for action junkies.
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Movie Info
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 crisis. Antoine Fuqua (Training Day) directs an all-star cast featuring Gerard Butler, Aaron Eckhart, … More- Rating:
- R (for strong violence and language throughout)
- Genre:
- Drama , Action & Adventure
- Directed By:
- Antoine Fuqua
- Written By:
- Creighton Rothenberger , Katrin Benedikt
- In Theaters:
- Mar 22, 2013 Wide
- On DVD:
- Aug 13, 2013
- US Box Office:
- $98.9M
Cast
-
Gerard Butler
as Mike Banning -
Rick Yune
as Kang -
Aaron Eckhart
as President Benjamin A... -
Morgan Freeman
as Speaker Allan Trumbu... -
Angela Bassett
as Secret Service Direc... -
Melissa Leo
as Secretary of Defense...
Related News & Features
-
Weekly Ketchup: Olympus Has Fallen Gets a Sequel
– Rotten Tomatoes
-
RT on DVD & Blu-Ray: Olympus Has Fallen and A Band Called Death
– Rotten Tomatoes
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Critic Reviews for Olympus Has Fallen
All Critics (179) | Top Critics (35) | Fresh (86) | Rotten (93)
Olympus Has Fallen is made from action-movie mix. Just add sweat.
The thrills and the effects are cheap, but this is in hard-driving, good-humoured command of its own silliness.
This ludicrous actioner strives to be as loud, violent, and patriotic as possible.
Fuqua doesn't deliver on what he has set up.
The 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 clichés rise like gods.
To those who enjoy the Action Movie Fantasy, Olympus Has Fallen is one of the best examples in years.
Let's be upfront. Olympus Has Fallen is dumb, violent, overlong, jingoistic, racist, predictable, derivative, and whatever other adjectives those with no sense of B-grade fun wish to throw at it.
While never scaling John McClane-level excitement, Fuqua's film is good popcorn fun
A vile propagandistic action flick that shamelessly indulges fears of terrorism while also failing on a basic narrative level.
Olympus Has Fallen has excellent action sequences, and Fuqua does a terrific job making Washington, D.C., look like a battleground. For indulgent viewers, this will be enough.
Olympus Has Fallen is a serious take on a silly premise that strains believability and ultimately can't help being just another forgettable action flick.
All that prevents this from being a four-star action blockbuster are some larded subplots and a superfluous degree of buzz-killing violence.
It's a seemingly foolproof premise that is, to a slight yet palpable degree, squandered by Fuqua...
Butler's presence makes perfect sense. He's an empty, mindless vessel. Just like his movie.
A fiery pile of turdy dialogue, turgid action, and xenophobic boosterism for the frequently 'God bless!'-ed US of A. This movie's so stupid, the only suspense it offers is if your brain can avoid falling into a coma before the screen finally goes to black
Provided you can handle such deliberate over-kill in the chaotic swirl that goes on here, Olympus Has Fallen offers a super-sized serving of grit-tinged fantasy action guaranteed to satisfy those who don't mind splatter over style.
In reinventing an old tale in a smart and engaging way, it's a thoroughly entertaining and often riveting way to spend two hours.
With guns blazing and spouting one-liners, Gerard Butler revels in being the tough guy and leads a decent cast, with all-American Aaron Eckhart a worthy addition to the hallowed list of movie presidents.
Olympus Has Fallen is the stupid, dark fantasy of backward white trash America that needs another domestic threat to trigger war.
Gruesome, cliché-ridden terrorist attack on the White House actioner has a lot of energy to go along with its relentless and well-choreographed carnage.
t's a terrible action film but a brilliant piece of North Korean propaganda. The American characters act so stupidly that you're pretty much rooting for Kim Jong-un. THAT'S HOW BAD IT IS.
There's a single line of dialogue that interrogates America's sanctions against some of the poorest people in the world. And who said this kind of thing couldn't be thought provoking?
The movie is preposterous, paranoid, solemn and - though not I think intentionally - something of a laughing matter.
What the studio's calling 'an action movie' - the Secret Service will call 'a comedy'.
Audience Reviews for Olympus Has Fallen
Mike Banning: Classified? Really? Well right now, I think I have the proverbial need to fuckin' know.
"When our flag falls our nation will rise."
Olympus Has Fallen was better than I expected, but also as bad as I expected. It's not a good movie. It's full of patriotic propaganda that filmmakers for some reason love to use. As a simple popcorn flick, it's pretty fun though and as much as I dislike saying it, I enjoyed the movie for the most part. It has great pace and great action, and in the end that's all movies like this need.
A secret service agent isn't able to save the presidents wife after a car crash and he is relieved of his duties and sent to a desk job. 18 months later, while the President meets with the prime minister of South Korea, North Korean terrorists overtake the White House and take the President and some other high ranking officials hostage in the White House bunker. Mike Banning, the aforementioned secret service agent makes his way to the White House and ends up being the only man left in there that is on the side of the United States. Now he has to fight his way through a shit load of terrorists in order to save the president and the country.
Gerrard Butler definitely makes this movie go down easier. He's a lot of fun to watch, as always. If only he could pick better films. Butler plays a John McClain like character in a movie that can pretty much be thrown into the sub genre of Die Hard ripoffs. Morgan Freeman plays the Speaker of the House, who has to take over as acting president while the real president and vice president are unable to. Aaron Eckart plays the president and does a reasonably good job.
As far as a recommendation goes, fans of violent, bloody actioneers will have quite a bit of fun. If you need something of more substance in the films you watch, you should probably look elsewhere. Overall though, this is a reasonably decent film that's a lot more fun that it probably should be.
Super Reviewer
Good action movie. Perhaps it was not very realistic, and yes the main "hero" was a bit unbelievable in his ability to shoot, kill, be stabbed, fall great heights and have skills beyond belief. So, no it was not a deeply intellectual movie. But, nonetheless a thrill ride from beginning to end.
MoreSuper Reviewer
Olympus may have fallen in Antoine Fuqua's Olympus Has Fallen, but the body count rises.Pretty straightforward story going on here without much in the way of surprise; however, while the first 30 minutes proves to be some average buildup, the following 80 minutes harness some solid entertainment value.When compared to other elements of this picture, the usage of CG is a letdown. The aerial sequences involving helicopters and planes, while destructive in nature, are underwhelming. Fortunately, the rest of the bloody violence and shootings make up for this weakness.Gerard Butler isn't someone we haven't seen before, but watching him go to work here is the highlight of the film. Morgan Freeman is second on the stepladder and everyone else tends to fall back into the rubble.In the action department Olympus Has Fallen delivers. That's all there is to it.
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Super Reviewer
Mindless piece of sludge full of ridiculous situations and moronic dialogue. A total waste of a group of talented actors, that Angela Bassett, Aaron Eckhart and Morgan Freeman have to make this kind of tripe to keep working is a crying shame.
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Super Reviewer
Olympus Has Fallen Quotes
- Secret Service Director Lynn Jacobs:
- Is he alive?
- Mike Banning:
- Ask me a serious question.
- General Edward Clegg:
- I am ordering you to stand down!
- Speaker Allan Trumbull:
- News flash, asshole, I don't work for you.
- Secret Service Director Lynn Jacobs:
- Sparkplug received!
- Mike Banning:
- 40 commandos breached the gate, 28 are left.
- Secret Service Director Lynn Jacobs:
- How do we know we can trust the information?
- Mike Banning:
- I just asked nicely.
- Mike Banning:
- You speak English? They teach you that where you come from? 'Cause you know what they teach me? Is how to extract information from people like you.
- Mike Banning:
- Classified? Really? Well right now, I think I have the proverbial need to fuckin' know.
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