Posted in: Movies | Tagged: aaron eckhart, entertainment, film, gerard butler, london has fallen, Morgan Freeman

London Has Fallen Is Exactly What It's Supposed To Be

I'm not a fan of critics. Many of them have a bar they set and expect everything to reach it. Sometimes the bar has to be set based on what the thing is trying to be, not what you think it should attain. Expectations of a steak dinner should be higher than that of a Philly cheese-steak. Movies are the same way. I really liked John Wick but I didn't expect it to be comparable to The Martian. So when I sit down to watch a film, like I did today, I first think of what the film is trying to be.

London Has Fallen, the Gerard Butler, Aaron Eckhart and Morgan Freeman sequel to Olympus Has Fallen is exactly what it's supposed to be. If you think of it as being in the "Die Hard" genre, a film about a trained individual being put in an extreme situation and having to work, mostly alone, to stop the overwhelming number of bad guys. Then that's exactly what you get here. Butler is once again Mike Banning, a secret service agent assigned to his friend and president, Benjamin Asher. Where in the first film Mike is still reeling from having not saved the First Lady, here he has accepted his role back with the POTUS and has actually built a life for himself with a wife and a baby on the way. He is about to turn in his resignation when the British Prime Minister dies unexpectedly and Asher must go pay his respects.

Of course, the whole death and funeral are part of an incredibly detailed plan by a group of terrorists to get revenge on Asher for ordering a drone strike that killed the head terrorists daughter. How the terrorists are able to take out the majority of world leaders in an almost Rube Goldberg machine of traps that included blowing up part of Westminster Abbey, taking out a traffic filled bridge and having guys randomly stationed on roof tops with rocket launchers just in case helicopters flew by.

The fact that all but one of the planned assassinations goes off without a hitch is totally unbelievable… if you think about it that is. If you just put the logical side of your brain on snooze and watch the action as Banning is able to single-handedly take on the terrorists while making every other armed officer look inept. Oh, and surviving a helicopter crash after it's been hit by a rocket… that one almost woke my logic back up.

London Has Fallen is not a art movie or a social satire. It's an action movie where you expect the hero to be like Jack Bauer and John McClain rolled into one. Its the type of movie you turn on when its just too damn hot outside and there is no sports on. Pop open a beer and watch the bodies hit the floor. Hell, for really hot days, grab Olympus Has Fallen too so you get the full adventures of Mike Banning.

The only questions left is, will they go for the trilogy? Asher only has 2 years left on his second term so they'll have to hurry. And what could fall next? The Kremlin?

London Has Fallen is available now on Blu-ray, DVD and Digital download.

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