Olympus Has Fallen (2013)

Olympus Has Fallen is, for all practical purposes, a modern remake of Die Hard that replaces Bruce Willis with Gerard Butler and Nakatomi Tower with the White House. Butler puts in a respectable performance as Mike Banning. Director Antoine Fuqua did as well as could be done with the story, and some gripping action makes it almost watchable. But the downfall of the film was its lazy writing. Almost no part of Olympus Has Fallen is remotely believable. A single airplane penetrates into protected airspace around Washington D.C. and riddles the White House with bullets. It takes 15 minutes for…

Gimly

5.0

Jun 21, 2017

Out of the wealth of "_Die Hard in an (X)_" movies that are on offer, "_Die Hard in the White House_" is an.... okay one. The story is old hat and the CGI is awful, but the sequence of the initial attack on the White House isn't just good, it's great. _Final rating:★★½ - Had a lot that appealed to me, didn’t quite work as a whole._

The Movie Diorama

4.0

Jan 16, 2020

Olympus Has Fallen ironically insults America’s national security through lunacy and patriotism. “Die Hard in the White House” claims British lads’ magazine Zoo, divulging into the testosterone-fuelled minds of its laddish readers. To be fair to them, Fuqua’s patriotic perspective of a national terrorist attack is exactly that. A ‘Die Hard’ rip-off that relies on the same narrative rhythms beat-for-beat. One man, and only one man, can save the day by gradually depleting the numbers of the antagonistic gang that harness either monetary or diplomatic motives. But where the aforementioned feature…