Film: Olympus Has Fallen

GENRE: Action/Thriller
RATING: 14A for strong violence and language
RUNTIME: 2 hours
STARRING: Gerard Butler (300, Law Abiding Citizen, Ugly Truth)
Aaron Eckhart (Dark Knight); Morgan Freeman (Deep Impact)
DIRECTOR: Antoine Fuqua (Training Day, King Arthur)
WRITERS: Creighton Rothenberger & Katrin Benedikt (newcomers)
PLOT: A single Secret Service agent is the only hope to save the president and prevent a nuclear holocaust when terrorists take over the White House.

FIVE OBSERVATIONS:
1 So basically this film was Die Hard in the White House. Let’s compare shall we? Butler = John McClane; Eckhart = Holly; Angela Bassett=Al Powell; Kang=Hans Gruber; Dylan McDermott=Ellis; Freeman & Robert Forster = Agent Johnsons; both plots involve single man taking down an army of terrorists, air vents, army tactical errors, helicopter attacks, “blow the roof”, necessary codes, pretend to die so you can escape, stupid people in charge giving dumb orders, etc. Put Butler in a dirty wife-beater and say ‘Yippee Ki-Yay’ and they’d be sued for copyright infringement.
2 Movie lesson: bad guys smoke cigarettes, worse guys shoot dogs
3 Why was Butler’s character married? What difference did that make? 
4 If a code is that important, you should be willing to die for it. Even if the wimpy president gives you a direct order to reveal it.  
5 Who thinks Dylan McDermott (The Practice) had a remote chance of beating up Gerard Butler? Ya, me neither.

RECOMMENDATION: Wait for TBS, if that
UPCOMING REVIEWS: GI Joe: Retaliation