Olympus Has Fallen: Trailer and Reviews

The premise, courtesy of the film's official website:

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 (Gerard Butler) finds himself trapped in the building. As a 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 a cast featuring Butler, Aaron Eckhart, Morgan Freeman, Angela Bassett, Melissa Leo, Ashley Judd and Rick Yune.

Here's what critics are saying:

Visual references to 9/11 represent a low point in a project built on brazenly calculated nationalism. Each character feels pulled from a screenwriter playbook, and few of the actors push beyond two dimensions. ... Meanwhile, Hollywood is determined to force the bland Butler on us, a play-it-safe move that seems increasingly desperate. Are we so lacking in action heroes that this stolid mass of muscle is the best we get? — Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News

'Olympus Has Fallen' is about as satisfying an action thriller as can be hoped for, with an irresistible premise and nothing but follow-through all the way to the finish. It's too derivative to be a classic — practically an uncredited remake of 'Die Hard' — but such a work of craftsmanship as to command respect, at times even awe. — Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle

For all the bursts of blood, the gunplay and execution-style head shots that punctuate scores of deaths, it's hard to see "Olympus Has Fallen" (that's Secret Service code) as much more than another movie manifestation of a first-person shooter video game. We've become a head-shot nation, and our thrillers are the poorer for it. — Roger Moore, Chicago Tribune

Efficient if simplistic, 'Olympus Has Fallen' shifts the 'Die Hard' formula to the White House, where a lone agent must free the President and his staff from hijackers intent on destroying the country. Produced in part by its star Gerard Butler, the film has enough blood and explosions to tide over its core audience until the next White House disaster film — 'White House Down' — arrives this June. — Daniel Eagan, Film Journal International

If you like your ‘Die Hard’ knock-offs patriotic in the extreme, with lots of great character actors in rumpled suits and ties looking solemnly at computer screens, you could do a lot worse. If you like your action coherent rather than shaky, dark, and bloody, though, you could do a lot better. — Matt Singer, ScreenCrush

"Olympus Has Fallen" is rated R and runs 120 minutes. It's playing at Beechwood Stadium Cinemas 11 and Carmike Cinemas 12.

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