Picture "Die Hard" in the White House, with a great cast, non-stop action and some terrific special effects and you have the surprisingly good OLYMPUS HAS FALLEN.
Gerard Butler stars as Secret Service agent Mike Banning, fallen from grace after performing his duty in a terrific Christmas time opening sequence that kicks the film off with some shocking surprises.
Soon, North Korea/South Korea tensions explode in Washington DC as a well planned, perfectly executed terrorist attack finds the White House taken over by North Korea.
The entire White House attack sequence is really well executed and seems ALL too real, with serious visual echoes of both the Boston bombings and 9/11.
Aaron Eckhart is President Asher, the toughest head of state since Harrison Ford in "Air Force One" and Morgan Freeman is terrific as Speaker of the House Trumbull, who soon finds himself as acting President in the face of the worst terrorist attack in history.
Dylan McDermott, Angela Bassett, Melissa Leo and Rick Yune head up a solid supporting cast. There are no slackers in the bunch!
Director Antoine Fuqua (Training Day) keeps things fast, suspenseful, exciting as hell and so well executed that the cliches are easy to ignore.
Butler is the perfect American movie hero, hiding his Scot accent behind the perfect John McLane role as he single handedly takes on the occupying force as the only man inside the White House on the right side.
What a nice surprise this tidy action flick is! Outperforming the much higher profile, bigger budget "White House Down" at the summer box office, Olympus delivers plenty of firepower and excitement.
Fasten your seatbelt and check it out!
First class action & suspense that gets an A.
Followed in 2016 by LONDON HAS FALLEN.
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