Watch Out For Falling Debris!

When “Olympus Has Fallen” had ended, my lone question after seeing the film was, “Did Morgan Freeman ever get his coffee?” That is pretty much the most profound question one will likely have after viewing this film, a special effects bonanza, without a whole lot of interest in giving the audience anything too much to have to think about. It’s a “things go exploded” movie. What saves “Olympus Has Fallen” from a bad case of Battleship-ism, a term for the ailment of a film which has absolutely nothing going for it and is so bad that an appearance by Tommy Wiseau from "The Room" or from Matt Hannon of "Samurai Cop" would be appreciated, is the fact that most of the performances in the film are good. The film stars Morgan Freeman, Aaron Eckhart, Angela Bassett, and Gerard Butler, all of whom provide nice performances in a film in which the script does not really deserve high-caliber acting talent. Luckily for anyone seeing this film, these four actors make the endeavor bearable.

At the beginning of Antoine Fuqua's film, the president of the United States, Benjamin Asher (Eckhart), is riding in a motorcade with his wife Leah (Radha Mitchell) in a snowstorm outside of Camp David. Another vehicle runs into the car in which the president and his wife are riding. The First Lady dies in the accident. Mike Banning (Gerard Butler), a secret service agent, is among those unable to save the life of the First Lady. Banning has demons haunting him as a result. Banning is demoted to a desk job, unfairly, I believe, but for the sake of the script, it happens.

Where’s Morgan Freeman’s coffee?

North Korea decides to attack Washington D.C. so the president, his Secretary of Defense, Ruth McMillan (Melissa Leo) are moved to a bunker underneath the White House. What do you know? One of the secret service agents is a traitor and has teamed up with Kang (Rick Yune) to hold the president and the Secretary of Defense hostage as the North Koreans bomb hell out of D.C. The vice president is killed by Kang’s gang so the nation needs a leader. Who else would you want to lead the country in a time like this but the Easy Reader himself, Morgan Freeman? Freeman plays Speaker of the House Trumbell, a quick thinking and cerebral man whose job it now is to guide the government through this crisis. Freeman’s performance is actually very good. Unfairly, perhaps, I expected him to give a fill in the blank action film performance, however, his character has a nice amount of depth. I have a bit of Morgan Freeman tiredhead, as many of his recent performances seem to be in similar kinds of films. I expected as much in “Olympus Has Fallen,” however, I was pleasantly surprised.

So we have Morgan Freeman guiding the country through everything getting all ‘sploded and the president and Secretary of Defense stuck in a bunker with an angry North Korean and an American traitor. I do not remember why the North Korean and his gang were of a mind to bomb hell out of D.C, but in this film, it doesn’t really matter does it? Eckhart plays the president as a man of solid character. He is fine in this performance. Butler was good as Banning, the lone man who eventually finds himself as a one man army against the enemy. Yep, pretty much “Die Hard” stuff here. He even has an army general (Robert Forster) who does not trust him, but Easy Reader does trust Banning, so all is well. If there is a sequel to this film that focuses on Gerard’s character, it should be called, “Banning!” The exclamation point is very important to include. Banning!

Where’s Morgan Freeman’s damn coffee? Come on!

So, yes, it’s pretty much a United States versus the bad guys movie with plenty of things exploding and a misunderstood hero whose job it is to save the day. The script is one that has been recycled many, many times before, but the performances in this film make it better than it may have been otherwise. It’s not great, but it’s not bad either. There’s some high praise. You won’t want to fall all over yourself to see it, but I have seen much worse. Battleship.

Is that coffee on it’s way?