MOVIE REVIEW - London Has Fallen

This is going to be the poster child for a movie that critics are going to hate, and fans are going to love, love, love.  And the difference will be large.

London Has Fallen is the sequel to Olympus Has Fallen a couple years ago.  That action packed movie was about as insulting as a movie could be.....until this one.  This stars Gerard Butler as Secret Service superstar Mike Banning, as he protects the same president again, played by Aaron Eckart. This time the very realistic terrorists are killing thousands in London, and have killed countless world leaders with a hugely calculated attack.  The bowels of British intelligence has been infiltrated, and no one really seems to know who is who.

This is the second movie in a row in this series, where everyone who works for the Secret Service. and now British MI-5, looks like a complete and incompetent moron, so our star character can look heroic.  I'm fine with a fantasy look at world turmoil.  James Bond movies have done it for years.  But this is insulting.  This is simply 95 minutes of a movie, where 85 is nonstop action.  They really don't have time to be bothered with much else.

Being fair, there is no lack of action, and much of it really good and well done.  But there is so much killing, and so much mind numbing violence the audience resorted to laughing at much of it. And the theater was packed.  Then the script called for wise-cracking one liners from the President, and our hero, and it sort of turned into a laugh fest.  Last time I checked, terrorism isn't funny.  But these two have no problem joking their way through it.

These are not supposed to be serious, and to be honest with you as a movie, it can't really be taken as such.  But this is escapism, and sometimes we need that.  Sometimes we need a hero that makes the USA proud, and as silly as much of this is, they do that aspect quite well.   This will not be confused with Bond, or even Jack Ryan movies.  They are their own, and they own it.

This though has to be said.  Lots of big names for no reason.  Angela Basset is barely in it.  Morgan Freeman too.  Oscar winner  Mellisa Leo is the Secretary Of Defense.  I don't know if she has a single line, and spends the ENTIRE movie looking sacred and terrified in a locked room.  That insults about everyone for every reason.  

London Has Fallen.   The good news is fans will love this movie.   True fantasy escapism.