![]() One scene has Mike taking out guys in a forest as Clay blasts explosives all over the place with reckless, perhaps gleeful abandon and disregard for where his son is in the chaos. Mixing in the action is also a surprising amount of humor, like when Butler is paired with master curmudgeon Nick Nolte (playing his father, Clay). Waugh’s action scenes certainly have more edge to them than the mind-numbing, overly-CGI-ed messes of the previous outing, with some of the best moments taking place at night and favoring old-school stunt work than visual effects. He gets out of Butler the actor’s best work in the series so far, putting him through increasingly tough scenarios that begin to weigh on him all through the end. Waugh did much of the same with his under-looked 2017 movie, SHOT CALLER, showcasing some brutal violence with the compromised characters shining through. Yeah, not exactly breaking any action-thriller rules with this one, but director Ric Roman Waugh tries to recall the grounded, taut action of Antoine Fuqua’s first outing, with more gritty action scenes, plenty of shaky-cam and making it more about Banning than anything else. ![]() Once on the run, Banning must fight to prove his innocence, all while a malicious group of baddies – led by one major baddie ( Danny Huston) – hunts him down to close up loose ends, and as the government – represented by FBI agent Helen Thompson (Jada Pinkett Smith) – also tracks him down. As anyone who sees the movie will come to learn, it’s not by bullet, knife, or beatdown that most of the bad guys die, but seemingly through numerous, massive explosions hitting anywhere where people happen to be standing. Soon, Banning is framed for the attempted assassination of President Alan Trumbull ( Morgan Freeman, who should just play the president in everything), which happens when a parade of drones crashes around a lake where the sun never shines, causing a massive array of explosions, killing everyone except Banning and Trumbull. What is going on?!īut this is a Gerard Butler action movie, so some shit has got to blow up and it must happen spectacularly. Butler’s character in this movie is, for the most part, and three-dimensional character. He’s exhausted, tired, but still trying to decide if it’s time to settle for a desk job. ![]() He’s not hanging on the side of rushing cars to shoot at terrorists, nor is he winning fights all too easily. His back is going out and he’s plagued by headaches, resorting to taking heavy doses of painkillers to ease the pain. Rather, the trend is somewhat bucked by the attention being placed squarely on Butler’s Mike Banning, who after three movies finally starts to feel like a real person.Īfter saving the President of the United States (played by Aaron Eckhart in the past movies) and the world, twice, Banning is starting to feel the pressure. But what becomes clear by the early parts of the threequel’s first act is that the filmmakers had no intention of repeating what came before, wherein a foreign agency quickly swoops in to disrupt the Western ideology with fire and blood. Now, don’t get me wrong: ANGEL HAS FALLEN is by no means a smart movie, and it’s even a few checkmarks away from being a good one. ![]() But never in my days did I expect to leave this movie and be surprised that, given all the spraying of bullets and absurdly-large explosions, the one thing that I enjoyed most about a Gerard Butler action movie was the attention to the lead character at its core. You wouldn’t be remiss in entering this third entry, ANGEL HAS FALLEN, expecting to see the exact same thing from what has become the most shrug-worthy action franchise ever. Review: The first two entries in the “Has Fallen” series - “Olympus Has Fallen” and “London Has Fallen” - have found places in the hearts of action junkies by once again proving that all any American should ever need to defend their homeland is a 5-o’clock shadow, a laissez-faire attitude towards property damage and an intense sense of patriotism. On the run, he has to fight foes who wish to silence him for good, all while trying to prove his innocence and stop an impending war that could shake the world Synopsis: After saving the world twice, Secret Service agent Mike Banning is framed for the attempted assassination of the President of the United States.
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