Olympus Has Fallen (2013)

Olympus Has Fallen (2013) - A group of militant Koreans attempting to get the US out of the middle of their decades-long civil war attack the White House and take hostages in the building's underground bunker.  America's only hope lies with former Secret Service agent Mike Banning (Gerard Butler, 300, Timeline).

I served in the US Military.  I am a die-hard patriot, but sometimes... sometimes Hollywood's use of patriotic themes, symbolism and fanfare piss me right the fuck off.  They're like children waving around the flag... they know it can make
people emotional, but they don't know why or don't care if they manipulate you.  The only patriotic button they didn't press with impunity was the child/civilian salute to show camaraderie, and that's probably because it would have been difficult to fit into the script as written.

That being said, this was a good action flick, if a little heavy-handed.  We enter the film with grand, patriotic-style music.  We see the death of the first lady (Ashley Judd, Divergent) in a tragic accident that leaves Agent Mike Banning unable to continue on the Presidential detail.  Eighteen months later he's working down the street at the US Treasury when the Korean attack happens.  The fence is breached, so he makes his way inside in an attempt to save the president (Aaron Eckhart, I Frankenstein, Battle Los Angeles) and his son.

The fight scenes are brutal and honest.  They are not shy about shooting or stabbing people in the head.  It started to feel like The Walking Dead after a while, but it certainly is effective.  The only portion that felt rushed or un-true was the fight between Banning and Forbes.  His miraculous return to good-guy status happened in the blink of an eye when he knew he was as good as dead.  Why fight at all then?  Too rushed, too easy.  That was one eyeroll moment.

Two laugh out loud moments near the beginning at witty lines.  Four eyeroll moments in total, mostly at the heavy-handed patriotic symbolism.  You're being dragged to the front lawn by terrorists and you're going to recite the pledge?  Really?  Why not when they're beating you for information and you're actually refusing to talk out of patriotism?  The one eyeroll moment that wasn't related to patriotic bludgeoning was when Kang removed his glasses after the terrorist attack... it was such an obvious anti-hero transformation move I almost laughed.

I did add a "Holy Crap" count for this movie... one of those... during the accident at the beginning.  Icy roads you don't want to screw around.  Did not craft during this movie as I knew the gunplay and explosions meant I wouldn't get much done.  I would estimate the needle-drop count to be on the low side though, as I took an insane amount of notes during the film... I had to start writing in the margins, and it was mostly snarky comments about things like troop response time sucking and people remembering and STILL HAVING valid access codes after eighteen months.

This is available on Netflix and Amazon Instant video, but the DVD is under $10 bucks.  If you need a blow-em-up movie to round out your collection, it's not a great choice, but it's not terrible either.  I'd give it a three-and-a-half out of five.