London Has Fallen - directed by Babak Najafi
Starring: Gerard Butler, Aaron Eckhart, Morgan Freeman, Radha Mitchell, Angela Bassett, Jackie Earle Haley, Melissa Leo, Robert Forster, Charlotte Riley, Waleed Zuaiter, Michael Wildman, Alon Aboutboul, Clarkson Guy Williams, Patrick Kennedy, Colin Salmon, Nigel Whitmey, Julian Montgomery Brown, Sean O'Bryan, Bryan Larkin
Screenplay: Creighton Rothenberger, Katrin Benedict, Christian Gudegast & Chad St John
Music Score by: Trevor Morris
Cinematography: Ed Wild
Edited by: Michael J. Duthie & Paul Martin Smith
Running Time: 98 minutes
Rated: R16 - Violence and Language
Good action movies almost all have one thing in common.
They find ways to get over their often ridiculous plots so that we don't think too much about how silly everything is.
I'm going to be boring now and bring up "Die Hard" - surely the Citizen Kane moment in action flick history.
"Die Hard" was so well plotted and executed that it doesn't even seem silly that Bruce Willis can jump off a skyscraper using a fire hose as a bungy cord.
John McTiernan directed the hell out of that flick and the skill with which he brought Steven de Souza's excellent script to life has never been equalled in the genre.
2013's "Olympus Has Fallen" certainly didn't come close but damn if it wasn't a whole bunch of fun.
Gerard Butler zipping around the White House plunging a combat knife into the heads of terrorists - hell yes!
Now even though it isn't in the same league as "Die Hard" it did learn from its example.
The pacing was spot on and it built to a tense, satisfying climax.
Yes, the plot was silly, a couple of twists were dumb and Gerard Butler is no Bruce Willis but it got away with it.
It's a good action movie.
And now it has a sequel.
Which seems to have forgotten everything that it's predecessor learned.
This time President Benjamin Asher (Eckhart) must attend the British Prime Minister's State Funeral in London.
As does most of the Western world's leaders - Canadian, Japanese, French, Italian.... and so on.
The now former British PM died suddenly so there isn't a lot of warning and Asher and his ever faithful, favourite Secret Service Agent Mike Banning (Butler) have to hoof it over the pond quick smart.
So smartly in fact that Banning doesn't even have time to send his resignation letter.
He is about to become an over-protective Father so fair enough.
Besides, I think we can all agree that he has more than fulfilled the requirements of the job at this stage!
En Route he gets a commitment from the head of the Secret Service (Angela Bassett) to become the child's Godmother so we know that she is going to die.
This is the second most effective way of killing oneself in an action flick - the first is to announce your retirement.
Seemingly minutes after arriving the doody hits the spinning fan of destiny and with a bunch of Heads of State dead and most of London's famous landmarks blown up The Pres and Banning are on their own.
Surely not on their own you say?
They are in a city with a population of eight and a half million people - there must be a lot of people to help out?
And the Police of course.
Well, no.
The terrorists have infiltrated the Police Force so the Commissioner pulls them out so that they will be able to spot the terrorists as they will be the only ones left.
Clever.
And by clever I mean idiotic.
They also sound the sirens across the city so that the entire population of greater London knows to stay indoors and well out of the way of the gaping plot holes.
End result?....
The President of the United States and a single desperate to retire Secret Service Agent are all on their own against an unquantified number of vaguely Middle Eastern looking chaps on motorcycles, in ambulances and with a massive arsenal at their disposal.
You see the man behind it all is a huge arms dealer who is mad as hell because his daughter was killed by a drone before he could sell enough weapons all over the glove to destabilise the planet.
Yes, really- that is what we are told he is up to.
Oh, and if all of this isn't belief-defying enough..... they have also taken over the entire CCTV network, the Internet, the phones and most shockingly of all- the Buckingham Palace Guard who mow down German Chancellor Bruckner- a thinly disguised Angela Merkle stand-in.
Why the hell the head terrorist was trying to sell weapons to screw up the geo-political balance I have no idea.
Apparently he can do it in far better ways very, very easily by laying waste to entire cities!
So, a few problems then with far too many completely unbelievable elements all in the service of getting the two heroes alone in the city.
This is how the meeting went to discuss a sequel after "Olympus Has Fallen" made $161,000,000 on a $70,000,000 budget.....
Executive One: "We have to go bigger for this one - the kids like bigger"
Executive Two: "What's bigger than a White House?"
Executive One: "The Grand Canyon"
Executive Three: "Damned Indians won't let us film there - great idea though"
Executive Two: "Oh, boy- round up a bunch of re-writers boys- I've nailed it. A whole city"
But how do you maintain tension in such a huge environment with so many people and so much technology around?
Yeah- as above - just cobble together a whole, heaping helping of stupid plot devices.
A huge communications tower is suddenly blown up with no disclosure as to how this was pulled off.
World Leaders are killed so easily and in such rapid succession that it is hard to keep track.
No amount of directing or acting skill could possible cover up this host of hard to swallow horrors.
On that point - the director of the first film isn't back for this and neither is the budget.
This film is directed by Iranian Babak Najafi who has previously done some tv, some shorts and a couple of features that were not very highly rated.
He does a serviceable enough job but he's no John McTiernan or even an Antoine Fuqua.
Shockingly the budget on this film is $10,000,000 less than it's predecessor.
Perhaps that explains the often appalling special effects.
Every landmark demolition or assassination by explosion looks less convincing than many videogame counterparts.
What's even worse is that this movie does have an arsenal that it can call on but it squanders it.
The cast.
Eckhart is always great and Jerry Butler is plenty likeable but we also have Morgan Freeman, Melissa Leo, Jackie Earle Haley, Robert Forster, Angela Bassett and Charlotte Riley.
And all but one of them is shockingly underutilised.
That is some serious talent to waste and boy- does this film waste it!
Only Riley gets anything substantial to do and yet still qualifies as under-used.
Butler is fine but Mike Banning is so superhuman in this movie that he never looks close to getting badly hurt.
In one scene a decent percentage of a squad of SAS men around him is taken out but round after round slips around Mike like water beading off a freshly waxed presidential limo.
By this point he has already been in a bunch of car crashes, a chopper crash and any number of fist and/or gun fights.
It robs the film of most of the tension that the first one generated so well having such an untouchable hero.
Banning also lacks some of the bad-in-a-good-way lines that he had in the first film.
Now shockers like "Go back to Fuck-head-istan" and telling the President that he is made of "Bourbon and poor choices" have to do.
(which they don't)
At least he gets in a couple of his signature move knife in the head kills..... something I guess.
Nothing is a surprise in this one - it is all so pedestrian (no pun intended)
There is a mole within the British surveillance team that you should spot from the first suggestion that there is one and this is yet another plot point that is clumsily wrapped up.
There is enough fun to be extracted out of this flick on a purely popcorn throwaway level but this, like many part two's before it is a franchise ender.
Think "Speed 2: Cruise Control", "Highlander 2: The Quickening", "The Hidden 2", "Ted 2", "Species 2" and most notably - "Taken 2".
Sure- many of those were followed by another sequel or two but they turned a promising franchise into mostly direct-to-video fare.
This one isn't really all that bad as a piece of entertainment but it should have been so much better.
Going bigger isn't always the answer and this movie proves it in spades.
And one more thing....
There are four screenwriters for this movie and they are named Creighton, Katrin, Christian and Chad which means that it is time to re-examine my theory that the quality of a movie is inversely proportionate to how interesting the names of the cast and crew are.
The theory holds true here.
RATING: 64 / 100
CONCLUSION: I'm not saying this isn't fun but Debbie Sue's bobby socks is it dumb! Really, really stupid. Poorly plotted and paced with awful effects this will end whatever franchise potential these movies had.
Screenplay: Creighton Rothenberger, Katrin Benedict, Christian Gudegast & Chad St John
Music Score by: Trevor Morris
Cinematography: Ed Wild
Edited by: Michael J. Duthie & Paul Martin Smith
Running Time: 98 minutes
Rated: R16 - Violence and Language
Good action movies almost all have one thing in common.
They find ways to get over their often ridiculous plots so that we don't think too much about how silly everything is.
I'm going to be boring now and bring up "Die Hard" - surely the Citizen Kane moment in action flick history.
"Die Hard" was so well plotted and executed that it doesn't even seem silly that Bruce Willis can jump off a skyscraper using a fire hose as a bungy cord.
John McTiernan directed the hell out of that flick and the skill with which he brought Steven de Souza's excellent script to life has never been equalled in the genre.
2013's "Olympus Has Fallen" certainly didn't come close but damn if it wasn't a whole bunch of fun.
Gerard Butler zipping around the White House plunging a combat knife into the heads of terrorists - hell yes!
Now even though it isn't in the same league as "Die Hard" it did learn from its example.
The pacing was spot on and it built to a tense, satisfying climax.
Yes, the plot was silly, a couple of twists were dumb and Gerard Butler is no Bruce Willis but it got away with it.
It's a good action movie.
And now it has a sequel.
Which seems to have forgotten everything that it's predecessor learned.
 |
| What's happening here was done much better in at least two episodes of tv's "24" |
As does most of the Western world's leaders - Canadian, Japanese, French, Italian.... and so on.
The now former British PM died suddenly so there isn't a lot of warning and Asher and his ever faithful, favourite Secret Service Agent Mike Banning (Butler) have to hoof it over the pond quick smart.
So smartly in fact that Banning doesn't even have time to send his resignation letter.
He is about to become an over-protective Father so fair enough.
Besides, I think we can all agree that he has more than fulfilled the requirements of the job at this stage!
En Route he gets a commitment from the head of the Secret Service (Angela Bassett) to become the child's Godmother so we know that she is going to die.
This is the second most effective way of killing oneself in an action flick - the first is to announce your retirement.
Seemingly minutes after arriving the doody hits the spinning fan of destiny and with a bunch of Heads of State dead and most of London's famous landmarks blown up The Pres and Banning are on their own.
Surely not on their own you say?
They are in a city with a population of eight and a half million people - there must be a lot of people to help out?
And the Police of course.
Well, no.
The terrorists have infiltrated the Police Force so the Commissioner pulls them out so that they will be able to spot the terrorists as they will be the only ones left.
Clever.
And by clever I mean idiotic.
They also sound the sirens across the city so that the entire population of greater London knows to stay indoors and well out of the way of the gaping plot holes.
End result?....
The President of the United States and a single desperate to retire Secret Service Agent are all on their own against an unquantified number of vaguely Middle Eastern looking chaps on motorcycles, in ambulances and with a massive arsenal at their disposal.
You see the man behind it all is a huge arms dealer who is mad as hell because his daughter was killed by a drone before he could sell enough weapons all over the glove to destabilise the planet.
Yes, really- that is what we are told he is up to.
Oh, and if all of this isn't belief-defying enough..... they have also taken over the entire CCTV network, the Internet, the phones and most shockingly of all- the Buckingham Palace Guard who mow down German Chancellor Bruckner- a thinly disguised Angela Merkle stand-in.
Why the hell the head terrorist was trying to sell weapons to screw up the geo-political balance I have no idea.
Apparently he can do it in far better ways very, very easily by laying waste to entire cities!
 |
| Angela Bassett - just one of a host of talented supporting actors who is wasted royally |
This is how the meeting went to discuss a sequel after "Olympus Has Fallen" made $161,000,000 on a $70,000,000 budget.....
Executive One: "We have to go bigger for this one - the kids like bigger"
Executive Two: "What's bigger than a White House?"
Executive One: "The Grand Canyon"
Executive Three: "Damned Indians won't let us film there - great idea though"
Executive Two: "Oh, boy- round up a bunch of re-writers boys- I've nailed it. A whole city"
But how do you maintain tension in such a huge environment with so many people and so much technology around?
Yeah- as above - just cobble together a whole, heaping helping of stupid plot devices.
A huge communications tower is suddenly blown up with no disclosure as to how this was pulled off.
World Leaders are killed so easily and in such rapid succession that it is hard to keep track.
No amount of directing or acting skill could possible cover up this host of hard to swallow horrors.
On that point - the director of the first film isn't back for this and neither is the budget.
This film is directed by Iranian Babak Najafi who has previously done some tv, some shorts and a couple of features that were not very highly rated.
He does a serviceable enough job but he's no John McTiernan or even an Antoine Fuqua.
Shockingly the budget on this film is $10,000,000 less than it's predecessor.
Perhaps that explains the often appalling special effects.
Every landmark demolition or assassination by explosion looks less convincing than many videogame counterparts.
What's even worse is that this movie does have an arsenal that it can call on but it squanders it.
The cast.
Eckhart is always great and Jerry Butler is plenty likeable but we also have Morgan Freeman, Melissa Leo, Jackie Earle Haley, Robert Forster, Angela Bassett and Charlotte Riley.
And all but one of them is shockingly underutilised.
That is some serious talent to waste and boy- does this film waste it!
Only Riley gets anything substantial to do and yet still qualifies as under-used.
 |
| Not much of the $60,000,000 budget went towards the special effects one would assume |
In one scene a decent percentage of a squad of SAS men around him is taken out but round after round slips around Mike like water beading off a freshly waxed presidential limo.
By this point he has already been in a bunch of car crashes, a chopper crash and any number of fist and/or gun fights.
It robs the film of most of the tension that the first one generated so well having such an untouchable hero.
Banning also lacks some of the bad-in-a-good-way lines that he had in the first film.
Now shockers like "Go back to Fuck-head-istan" and telling the President that he is made of "Bourbon and poor choices" have to do.
(which they don't)
At least he gets in a couple of his signature move knife in the head kills..... something I guess.
 |
| Aaron Eckhart and Gerard Butler |
There is a mole within the British surveillance team that you should spot from the first suggestion that there is one and this is yet another plot point that is clumsily wrapped up.
There is enough fun to be extracted out of this flick on a purely popcorn throwaway level but this, like many part two's before it is a franchise ender.
Think "Speed 2: Cruise Control", "Highlander 2: The Quickening", "The Hidden 2", "Ted 2", "Species 2" and most notably - "Taken 2".
Sure- many of those were followed by another sequel or two but they turned a promising franchise into mostly direct-to-video fare.
This one isn't really all that bad as a piece of entertainment but it should have been so much better.
Going bigger isn't always the answer and this movie proves it in spades.
And one more thing....
There are four screenwriters for this movie and they are named Creighton, Katrin, Christian and Chad which means that it is time to re-examine my theory that the quality of a movie is inversely proportionate to how interesting the names of the cast and crew are.
The theory holds true here.
No comments:
Post a Comment