Olympus Has Fallen (2013)

It takes the bad guys in Olympus Has Fallen less time to capture the White House than it takes most people to clear airport security, and that’s the absurdity the whole movie is built on. A gunship strafes Washington, the Washington Monument crumbles, a team storms the lawn, and the most guarded building in America is gone before your popcorn is warm. After that it’s Die Hard with a flag pin. Gerard Butler’s Mike Banning creeps through the halls, growls into a phone, and takes down the attackers with grim, loud force. The action is brutal instead of fun, and the CGI smoke over the city looks unfinished. Aaron Eckhart plays the President as a decent man stuck in a bunker, and Morgan Freeman spends most of the movie in a war room making serious faces, which he could do in his sleep. It made $170.3 million worldwide on a reported $70M budget. A 4.4 because Butler fully commits and the rest is noise. $965.82 says you put on the sequel right after and tell everyone it’s for Morgan Freeman.

What works: Gerard Butler fully commits to the gruff one-man-army thing, and the opening assault on the White House is genuinely shocking.

What doesn’t: The violence is grim instead of exciting, the CGI over Washington looks cheap, and the villains are a cardboard cutout of a threat.

Who it’s for: Action fans who want an old-school one-man-army movie and don’t mind a lot of shouting into earpieces.