Olympus Has Fallen - A Spring Blockbuster

The big name movie studios like to put their big blockbusters out in the summer.  People seem to have more time in the summer with school being out, and the weather being nice to go to the movies.  Spring is iffy since some places like NY still have snow and cold weather in the spring and may not want to venture out to see a movie, or they are at a beach somewhere enjoying spring break.  Millennium Studios gambled with March to release Olympus Has Fallen, and I think they made a wise decision on this spring blockbuster.

Olympus Has Fallen has a lot of strong faces that star in this movie:  Gerard Butler, Aaron Eckhart, Cole Hauser, Morgan Freeman, Rick Yune, Angela Basset, and Dylan McCermott (ok he's more of pretty boy, but he does his strong-faced thing here).  There was hardly ever any smiling in this movie, but why should there be when the White House is being attacked by North Korean terrorist.    This movie plays on American fears of war with North Korea.  Terrorist take over The White House with the help of a secret service trader in the hopes of getting American forces to withdraw from the South Korean borders.  The plot is plausible and so is the action with the exception of the fact that while hundreds of people are shot in DC, one lone man makes out with barely a scrape for the first 90 minutes.

There is a lot of action and heart-stopping suspense.  At one point everyone is on an Easter Egg Hunt looking for the president's son, bad guys and good.  That had you holding your breath for a few moments.  And, I can't forget the blood.  If you are squeamish at the site of blood, this isn't the movie for you.   It's not Quentin Tarentino bloody, but there is quite a lot of bullets and knives to the brain followed by blood splattered walls.  Gerard Butler is one bad-arse ex-special forces/secret service agent.  My other favorite character is the Secretary of Defense played by Melissa Leo.  She was one tough cookie.  I would love to have someone like her behind our defenses.

Olympus doesn't disappoint.   I love a good action movie with a decent storyline.  Those are hard to come by these days.  I hear the next GI Joe movie has a similar plot.  It better bring it because Olympus surely did, and it came out a week earlier to boot.  Next week I'll try to get all 3 movies in, The Host, GI Joe, and TP's The Marriage Counselor.  I might have to take a break from the theatre after that.