Loaded with non-stop action and an old fashioned action hero for the ages in Gerard Butler, LONDON HAS FALLEN is a fast-paced sequel to "Olympus Has Fallen".
Improbable, absurd and ridiculously entertaining, the sequel finds Secret Service Agent Mike Banning (Butler) with a baby on the way and ready to retire as the lead agent next to President Asher (Aaron Eckhart).
When the UK Prime Minister mysteriously dies, most of the leaders of the free world descend on London for the funeral service, providing the perfect opportunity for middle eastern terrorist Aamir Barkawi (Alon Aboutboui) with revenge on his mind and a massive terrorist network seemingly in every alley of the UK.
Almost immediately, nearly every world leader is assassinated simultaneously in spectacularly evil fashion. Banning and the President barely escape and spend the rest of the film trying to get to safety.
With most of MI-6 and the police force infiltrated, the film builds solid suspense and a terrific cast (Morgan Freeman, Angela Bassett, Jackie Earle Haley, Robert Forster) goes at it full tilt.
There's a sequence near the climax in which Butler must infiltrate the terrorist's headquarters while a special forces team serves up a distraction.
Nearly the entire sequence takes place with a camera hovering right behind Banning's shoulder, giving you the feel you are the one in the middle of the action.
Bullets and explosions rage all around you and its an impressive, almost first person video game perspective and one of several strong action styles from Director Babek Najafi, who's new to me, but demonstrates a lot of interesting choices.
Butler is fantastic. He's like a full-on Dirty Harry inflicting extra hurt on the terrorists. At one point, the President asks him after a lethal and long kill of one of the bad guys, "Was that necessary?"
Butler simply responds, "Nope" and its perfect. In these overly PC, sensitive times, its excellent to watch a hero in the Schwarzenegger, Stallone 80's bad ass mode. No mercy, no PC urge to show radical terrorists in a positive light.
Fasten your seat belt. The bad guys are goin' DOWN!!!
Bloody, merciless and hellaciously entertaining, LONDON HAS FALLEN rides Butler's bad-ass style all the way to a B.
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