London Has Fallen

This simple action flick full of tough guy talk wouldn't entertain me, even if my favorite actor starred in the lead role, a league that Gerard Butler is damn far from. I don't quite understand Morgan Freeman's involvement in such a trashy film, as surely he can choose from far better offerings. (35%) (08/06/2021)

Similar to the first one, except that Olympus Has Fallen was shot by a proven action director and the second one by no-name Babak Najafi, though it should be noted that he certainly didn't disgrace himself. Admittedly, the visuals are weaker, which clearly indicates that the budget wasn't the biggest and the director probably wasn't that trusted, but the ensemble cast handles it well and it doesn't take itself nearly as seriously as the first installment or even Air Force One. Harrison Ford was a more believable president than Aaron Eckhart, of course, but the banter between the main tandem is OK, and as long as you doesn't look for anything there, don't worry about realism, and don't get carried away by the decent action (the last big, approximately five-minute steadicam shootout with no cuts is great), it's impossible not to enjoy it in a fairly decent way. Plus, the subject of international terrorism is again more topical than ever. (05/06/2016)

Cannon Films presents The President's Man... I mean, Delta Force... no, not that either... London Has Fallen! A film in which Gerard Butler interrogates a hostage by stabbing him with a quarter-yard knife until he learns what he needs. In which the terrorists anticipate the Italian Prime Minister treating himself to a thirty-years-younger model atop Westminster, so they blow up the entire tower of the building just in case. A film where twenty super-equipped SAS soldiers tell a battered Butler running around in his shirt "Lead the way!". A work where most of the budget went on the quantity of special effects, not their quality. Where the protagonist kills 800 people with a gun and a knife and returns to his wife in dutiful labor. A film where Merkel breaks strict security measures to accept a flower from a snotty little girl, whereupon she is shot to pieces. In short, cathartic cinematic idiocy in the vein of the best of the 90s, after which I'll look back fondly on Avengers 35 from my old age. (28/07/2016)

It was an improvement over Olympus in terms of quality. Most importantly, I got into the right vibe and managed to tune out most of the melodramatic, patriotic and determined speeches and acts, and enjoyed loads of frantic action during which the Americans totally devastated digital London and turned it into smithereens. I even enjoyed all the "amazing" escapes from tsunamis of fire which made me remember action movies from the eighties and early nineties. It was incredibly silly, but also a kind of guilty pleasure. (03/01/2020)

A film that satisfies the viewer by making the main character give the terrorists not one, but at least four fierce stab wounds. Mentally, London Has Fallen is at the level of Fast & Furious, but without its sense of fun. The CGI, which is important for the film’s target audience, is only average. The movie is barely kept afloat by Gerard Butler’s charisma and a spectacular one-shot shootout just before the climax. (11/04/2016)