Olympus Has Fallen

ACTION/ADVENTURE, SUSPENSE/THRILLER

It's Already Done

8.0 out of 10 | Movie or DVD

---

Rated: R Language throughout and strong violence.
Release Date: March 22, 2013
Runtime: 2 hours 0 minutes

---

Director: Antoine Fuqua
Writers: Creighton Rottenberger, Katrin Benedikt
Cast: Gerard Butler, Aaron Eckhart, Finley Jacobsen, Dylan McDermott, Rick Yune, Morgan Freeman, Angela Bassett, Melissa Leo, Cole Hauser, Phil Austin

---

Watch Trailer

SYNOPSIS: Disgraced former Presidential guard Mike Banning finds himself trapped inside the White House in the wake of a terrorist attack; using his inside knowledge, Banning works with national security to rescue the President from his kidnappers.

REVIEW: Shooter and Brooklyn Finest director Antoine Fuqua, known for fine drama and action, raises the stakes with a presidential assault of the senses. Taking the fight to the White House are novice writers Katrin Benedikt and Creighton Rothenberger. Can Gerard Butler regain some of his action roots as a disgraced secret service agent?

Mike Banning (Gerard Butler, Playing for Keeps) is attached to United States President Benjamin Asher's (Aaron Ekhart, Battle: Los Angeles) Secret Service detail. While at Camp David with the First Lady Margaret (Ashley Judd, Dolphin Tale) and their young son Conner (Finley Jacobsen, Marmaduke), the First Family travels to a black tie holiday party. Enroute, an accident and a quick decision by Banning makes it impossible for him to continue on the Presidential detail for Asher. 18 months later Banning suffers at a desk job at the Treasury department with the perk of a commanding view of the White House. During a South Korean delegation visit to the White House, a massive airstrike and infantry incursion forces the President, Vice President Charlie Rodriguez (Phil Austin, The Final Destination), and Secretary of Defense Ruth McMillian (Melissa Leo, Flight) into a bunker under the White House. Now trapped as a hostage, Asher and his staff are forced to give up sensitive codes to an insulated system named Cerberus. When the security of the White House is completely breached only Mike Banning is still standing to try and save the day.

Gerard Butler, playing characters in a string of decent to good romantic comedies, returns to more action-packed role as former Secret Service agent Mike Banning. Not since Gamer has Butler been in a film filled with so much fire power. The change of pace suits him. A cross between Steven Seagal's Under Siege hero Casey Ryback and Bruce Willis' Die Hard cop John McClane - and even one of a number of 1980s Chuck Norris flicks like Invasion USA or Delta Force - Gerard Butler seems to have the right stuff.

Director Antoine Fuqua and his writers set up a beautifully bloody first act. With military precision, the entire White House, called Olympus, falls quickly to the foreign aggressors. The body count and bullet count seems more appropriate in the beach landing at Normandy. The massacre is relentless and the tactics precise. Add in Gerard Butler's smoldering determination and some epic hand-to-hand fight choreography, and you have one heckuva ride.

The story is not perfect. Butler's Banning, and the bad guys, hunt down the President's son throughout the middle of the film. The subplot's outcome seems somewhat unnecessary - and trite. Also, some Presidential sparing in a boxing ring at Camp David never fully materializes. Like in Battle: Los Angeles, some characters are only developed enough to become sympathetic cannon fodder for the audience. And lastly, the threats concerning Banning's wife Leah (Radha Mitchell, Silent Hill: Revelations 3D) by the villain seems to only result in an unfulfilled afterthought.

Gerard steps up in his return to action, shaking off some of the romanticism of his last few roles. Cole Hauser (A Good Day to Die Hard) and Dylan McDermott (The Campaign) round out the higher profile Secret Service agents on Ashers original detail. Angela Bassett's (This Means War) Secret Service Director Lynn Jacobs keeps her stern exterior for the command center after the White House attack. Morgan Freeman (The Dark Knight Rises), as the Speaker of the House Trumbull, is both stunned into silence forced into action as acting President during the hostage crisis. And the villain who masterminds the entire operation brings a more than adequate foil to Gerard's Banning as he and his men and women crush the White House defenses and, possibly, America itself.

Olympus Has Fallen is one of those sleeper action flicks that makes you just want to be a gun toting red-blooded beer-drinking American. And none of that import beer! Lots of action, some snarky remarks, and a little bit of patriotic cheese from this flick may provide the action that you will enjoy.

Olympus Has Fallen is an amalgam of a myriad of patriotic action flicks we've seen in the past. But Gerard Butler, Antoine Fuqua, and the writing team do everything they needed to put an assault on the White House into a great viewable package.

---

This Means War

Spy Against Spy

---

Rated: PG-13  Some sexual content and action.
Release Date: February 17, 2012
Runtime: 1 hr 37 mins

---

Director:  McG

Writers: Timothy Dowling, Simon Kinberg, Marcus Gautesen
Cast:  Reese Witherspoon, Chris Pine, Tom Hardy, Til Schweiger, Chelsea Handler, John Paul Ruttan, Angela Bassett, Rosemary Harris, Abigail Spencer

---

---

SYNOPSIS:  After two top CIA operatives discover that they dating the same woman, they make a pact to let the best man win but look to outdo and undermine each other's romantic efforts at every turn.

REVIEW: Charlie Angels and Terminator: Salvation director McG comes back to the big screen for a action-packed romantic comedy, mixing covert CIA expertise and technology with a quirky love triangle.   Based on a screenplay by Timothy Dowling (Just Go With It, Role Models) and Simon Kinberg (Sherlock Holmes, the upcoming Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter) from a story by Dowling and Marcus Gautesen (Carboy), This Means War combines the kinetic style of McG's music video roots and television and big screen action efforts with Dowling's romantic comedy and Kinberg's action comedy chops.

FDR Foster (Chris Pine, Unstoppable) and Tuck (Tom Hardy, Warrior) are a top-notch CIA team, versed in extractions, surveillance, and all matter of wetwork. As close as brothers, FDR and Tuck are inseparable as teammates and friends. When they are relegated to desk duty after a botched operation in Hong Kong against Heinrich (Til Schweiger, New Year's Eve) and his brother, Tuck decides to take a run at online dating. He meets Lauren Scott (Reese Witherspoon, Water for Elephants) for lunch and finds an instant connection with her. Unfortunately, the same day, FDR runs into Lauren by accident and decides to pursue her as well. When FDR and Tuck discover that they are dating the same woman, they make a gentleman's agreement to not get in each other's way and let Lauren choice for herself who she wants to date. Of course, when jealousy gets the better of them, they both use their CIA resources to sabotage each other's efforts. In the meanwhile, Heinrich uses his own resources to smuggle into the country and take revenge on FDR and Tuck for what happened in Hong Kong.


McG does what he does best. Using the style he perfected with his directing efforts on Charlie's Angels and Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle, McG mixes and balances comedy and action perfectly with This Means War. Reese Witherspoon and Chelsea Handler provide the quick wit with their dialogue and interplay, Handler's married boring Trish verbally pushes Witherspoon's workaholic Lauren outside her comfort zone to pursue both FDR and Tuck in order to live vicariously through Lauren's escapades with the two men. On the other side of the relationship battle field, Pine's FDR and Hardy's Tuck use their capable physical prowess, innate intelligence, and government training to fill in the film's fast and fine action sequences with fun. Bring the two sides together and you get something as tasty as peanut butter and chocolate (as long as you are not allergic!). In fact, the best combination of action and comedy comes at the barrel's end of a paintball gun as Tuck tries win the flag against an army of pint-sized soldiers. 

The comedy is good and the action is good. The only way the film could have been better would have been upping the evil presence of Heinrich. As he plans to eliminate the duo who ruined his Pacific Rim plans Heinrich systematically makes his way closer to FDR and Tuck, but remains too much in the shadows to be much of a threat until almost too late in the film. Til Schweiger does shed the anxious father figure of New Year's Eve with a rough exterior and a steely glare.

Notable actresses make their way onto set for This Means War. Angela Bassett (Jumping the Broom) cameos as CIA superior Collins. Rosemary Harris replaces her Aunt May role from Sam Raimi's Spider-man film trilogy to appear as FDR's matriarch Nana Foster, serving as the example for Tuck and FDR for how to live a fulfilled existence with a life partner. Tuck certainly takes her example to heart, longing for a new meaningful relationship with Lauren after a sad divorce from ex-wife Katie (Abigail Spencer, Cowboys & Aliens).

This Means War is a fun, romantic, light thrill-ride. Part romantic comedy, part action comedy, This Means War is all fun. McG infuses plenty of action gunplay to counter the romantic foreplay, making this film a worthwhile covert operation of heart extraction.

---

WORTH: Matinee or DVD

Green Lantern

A Green Spectacle

Director: Martin Campbell

Writers: Greg Berlanti, Michael Green, Marc Guggebheim, Michael Goldenberg

Stars: Ryan Reynolds, Blake Lively, Peter Sarsgaard, Mark Strong, Angela Bassett, Michael Clarke Duncan, Geoffrey Rush

SYNOPSIS: Earthling test pilot Hal Jordan is selected by a mystical power ring to become a Green Lantern, a member of a intergalactic peacekeeping corp. Faced with a force that may destroy his planet, Jordan must learn to overcome his doubts and fears to wield the power of the ring.

Another member of the Justice league of America has finally come to life before our eyes. Joining Superman and Batman on the big screen, and Wonder Woman and the Flash from their efforts as individual television series, the Green Lantern marks the fifth 'Big Gun' of the DC Comic Universe to get the live action treatment the comic fanboys and fangirls have been waiting for.

Director Martin Campbell, best known for Mel Gibson's Edge of Darkness, Antonio Banderas' The Mask of Zorro and Daniel Craig's Casino Royale, takes a huge leap forward with the CGI-heavy origin of Hal Jordan as the green power ring wearing Emerald Knight. Not the original wearer of the mantle of Earth's Green Lantern (Alan Scott wore the ring and mask in DC's Golden Age) or the only green power ring wearer of the Silver Age or Modern Age (DC boasts John Stewart, Guy Gardner and Kyle Rayner), Hal Jordan still retains the crown as the most popular Lantern. Can Hal Jordan and his origins of wearing the willpower driven power ring as a rookie in the Green Lantern Corps overcome both a former friend and colleague with corrupting mental powers and planet destroying creature of fear called Parallax?

Ryan Reynolds as Hal Jordan / Earth's Green Lantern plays a reckless defense contractor test pilot, wrought with images of his test pilot father who died walking away from a crashed plane. Since then, Hal walks away from anything that looks like commitment as it comes to relationships, afraid to live up to the self-imposed expectations and memory of his father. Reynolds mugs in all the right places with his Hal Jordan and looks great in uniform, but still seems like a man out of place at times. With the Green Lantern Corp power ring, Hal faces a honor and responsibility that he nor the Lantern Sinestro is ill-equipped to fulfill. Mark's Strong's Sinestro is picture perfect, a stoic, tradition filled life-long Green Lantern in charge of his own sector of the universe, blending the mystery and drive of Sherlock Holmes Lord Blackwood into a pointed-eared, red-hued soldier of the Corps.

In Addition, on the CGI world of OA, we are treated to a watered-down version of any planet dreamed up by the Star Wars franchise and Industrial Lights and Magic teams. The Guardians of OA look cool, although their mouths could have lined up better with their individual dialogue. The GL combat training officer Kilowog (voiced by Michael Clarke Duncan) exceeds expectations, primarily shown in a training montage against Jordon. Tomar Rey (voice by Geoffrey Rush) as Jordan's guide for the rookie Jordan, nails the look and demeanor of a well-loved GL character. And we get a taste of the 3,600 Green Lanterns protecting the universe, even if only for such brief glimpses that the diehard Green Lantern comic fans may not be able to come up with the character names quick enough. Blake Lively as Carol Ferris, Jordan's on-again, off-again sweetheart, test pilot wingman, and defense contractor boss lights up her scenes, but isn't developed enough to give us a reason to invest in her with Jordan.

As for the antagonists in Green Lantern, we get a double shot of a earth-bound Hector Hammond (Peter Sarsgaard) and a Oan Guardian turned galactic entity of fear and devourer of worlds (not Galactus, folks!) in the form of Parallax. Sarsgaard's Hammond also has daddy issues, and uses an accident and gain of mental powers in an attempt to win the love of Carol Ferris and the approval of his father. On a cosmic scale, the comics-derived Parallax takes on a new look and origins as the parasitic organic engine of fear looking to get revenge on the Guardians of Oa and the wearer of the power ring who once imprisoned him in the Lost Sectors of space. Parallax ends up looking like the Fantastic Four: RIse of the Silver Surfer's energy-sucking cloud Galactus with a face and a voice.

Biting off a little more then he could chew with a CGI-heavy green screen flick, director Campbell makes the mistake of reaching too far in the scope of creating the the Oan Green Lantern Corp homeworld and the thousands of Green Lantern Corp soldiers and recruits, but falling short on much of the visual details and realism that other sci-fi and fantasy movie franchises like Star Wars and Lord of the Rings dazzled audiences with. Some visual highlights are the concept and design of the power ring and the GL uniforms and some of the willpower created weapons and defenses - always a difficult task, even in the full-color pages of the comics. But the story, even though a team effort by five writers, seems both appropriate and far-fetched. Superman Returns featured better flying, Spider-man 2 brought us better protagonist angst, and Iron Man handled a story with more heart. For future reference, film makers should simply look at any of the Marvel Avenger-related films or the last two Batman films for how to delight audiences with a superior superhero story. For now, Green Lantern will fill the Summer season as a workable DC comics entry to the Justice League canon of films, but will not see the brightest day as soon as Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2, Transformers: Dark of the Moon and Captain America: The First Avenger make their debut.

NOTE: If you do see this film, watch the credit for a bit for an Easter Egg scene!

WORTH: Matinee or BluRay

Jumping The Broom

Family Matters

Director: Salim Akil

Writer: Elizabeth Hunter, Arlene Gibbs

Stars: Paula Patton, Laz Alonso, Angela Bassett, Loretta Devine, Mike Epps, Romeo Miller

SYNOPSIS: Sabrina and Jason fall in love and decide to marry before she needs to relocate for a job in China. Drama ensues as Sabrina's rich uptown Martha's Vineyard family finally get to meet Jason's downtown Brooklyn clan.

What happens when the families of the bride and groom meet for the first time on the eve of their wedding? Salim Akil, director of TV series The Game and Girlfriends, explores that question with a story from Elizabeth Hunter (Beauty Shop, The Fighting Temptations) and Arlene Gibbs. Akil jumps effortlessly into film with this first big screen, wide release effort.

Lorretta Devine is divine as Pam Taylor, the groom's outspoken, hard working and traditional mother. On the other side of the aisle is Angela Bassett as the beautiful, refined and cultured Claudine Watson, the bride's mother. Both are two sides of the same coin. Both are protective and fierce mother's who want the best for their children, even though those efforts may drive wedges into the event that their children are planning. In fact, Paula Patton as Sabrina Watson and Laz Alonso as Jason Taylor take a back seat to their leading lady mothers, which is exactly what the story is about.

The daggers in the eyes of mom Taylor and Watson toward each other, Claudine toward her sister Geneva (Valarie Pettiford), and Pam toward Sabrina throws the mama drama into high gear. But luckily, that drama is tempered by the levity of Willie Earl (Mike Epps), Jason's uncle who vows to help raise him after Pam's husband's death, cousin Malcolm (DeRay Davis) trying to chase ladies above his station and trying to "keep it real", Modern Family's Julie Bowen as Amy the event planner for the wedding trying to fit in and naively pointing out situations she is ill equipped to deal with, and Pam's best friend Shonda (Tasha Smith) trying to ward off the advances of young pup Sebastian (Romeo Miller).

Each side of the tracks think they are better than the other. The Watson family, centered around Claudine, thinks the way that the Taylor clan conduct themselves is "ghetto", although they are way too cultured to say the word. The Taylor clan, revolving around Pam, thinks that the Watson's have forgotten their roots and culture due to money. Of course, the drama of the wedding weekend on Martha's Vineyard brings out the worse, and, ultimately, the best of each family.

Jumping the Broom is both funny and touching. Any mother who has gone through a wedding for their child will find some grain of truth from this tale. Jumping the Broom may be more of a chick flick, or even more geared to a certain demographic, but I think it has an appeal for everyone.

WORTH: Matinee or DVD