Falling Face First

Ever been a victim for doing the right thing? It’s the worst. Ordinarily ‘acting by the book’ will allow you to navigate life’s treacherous moments safely, until somebody dies as a result thereof.  

Yes sir, no amount of procedurally correct actions can bring back somebody once they are dead. Death is simply not contained by the boundaries of protocol. A hard fact to swallow, no matter who you are.

When Secret Service agent Mike Banning (Gerhard Butler) rescues his Commander-In-Chief, President Benjamin Asher (Aaron Eckhart), just in time from a car wreck after their vehicle was involved in an accident, he does the right thing, but he doesn’t save the First Lady (Ashley Judd), too. (Who in their right mind doesn’t save Ashley Judd?)

Being more than just the President’s number one agent, but a friend and confidant as well, having Mike around stirs up too many memories for the President of that fateful night when his wife died and so he gets resigned to a desk job, away from the Whitehouse. Fortunately for Mike, fate is about to serve up yet another unlikely twist to his tale. 

During a visit from South Korea’s Prime Minister, the president and a whole bunch of US officials are taken hostage by a North-Korean terrorist, Tang Yeonsak (Rick Yune), who managed to infiltrate the Minister’s detail. Fuelled by rage over the death of his parents who were killed by an American landmine, Tang starts killing hostages down in the Whitehouse’s bunker and threatens to kill the president next unless America withdraws all their military forces from Korea.

Besides insisting on the withdrawal, he also demands the access codes to all the nuclear weapons distributed all over the country. His aim is to activate them and turn America into a nuclear wasteland. Unfortunately for Tang, his acts of terror is about to be met by Banning, a man with skills more terrifying than any terrorist. Having been forced to sit out from real active duty, Mike is more than motivated to make amends for the past and pretty soon, he will once again be his president’s no1 go-to guy.

Unfortunately, it’s not just Olympus (the Secret Service’s code name for the Whitehouse) that has fallen in this movie, but also the film itself. Although it went on to earn $160 million and was made for just $70 million, it’s a typical story of ‘one man against all the odds’ who then goes on to save the day.

Gerhard Butler’s character lacks some serious depth throughout his entire performance, while the whole movie is entrenched with every visual trick and stunt fathomable. The plot falls flat even further when the new acting president ( Morgan Freeman) along with his advisors do what always gets done in these films – they never follow the advice coming from the man on the ground and proceed to act on their ideas. No surprise at all that someone always dies as a result.

It’s nice to see a fairly young man 

such as Aaron Eckhart in the role of president. A man who keeps fit by boxing and doesn’t mind taking a punch himself. 

However, it’s not enough.If you feel like some mindless entertainment about the first successful terrorist attack on the Whitehouse ever, then watch ‘Olympus Has Fallen’. Just be aware that it’s the only significant claim to this film.