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Topic: OLYMPUS HAS FALLEN review by Zarban (slight spoilers)

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OLYMPUS HAS FALLEN (2013)
Gerard Butler stars in this Die-Hard-in-the-White-House picture which seems tailor-made for today's on-the-go audience that loves America and can't follow much of a plot.

Bad guys take over the White House thru reasonably plausible means, and Butler stalks and kills them one-by-one like small game. It features all your favorite hits, such as...

  • a semi-disgraced Secret Service agent a la In the Line of Fire

  • stabbing someone in the skull

  • casually applied security protocols

  • an obvious turncoat

  • improbable computer hacking

  • secret passages that don't make sense

  • a lifelong military man who gives up secret codes at the threat of violence

  • a terrible helicopter decision a la Die Hard

  • an I'm-a-victim-not-a-baddie scene a la Die Hard

  • 'splosions of every shape and size

The depiction of the White House itself is very good, with only the aforementioned secret passages as egregious nonsense. There's actually a point where Gerard Butler goes thru a door in the second floor family quarters and enters what appears to be a disused cowshed in the basement. (And it's not a cut for shoe leather: Fuqua keeps cutting back and forth to show they're connected.)

What does it not have?

  • Journalists. Apparently, every correspondent with a desk in the West Wing flees into the sewers at the first sign of trouble.

  • Doubt for our hero. Aside from the opening, there is literally not one moment when the hero feels defeated. There are moments when he feels bad that OTHER PEOPLE are defeated, but oh well...

  • Much humor. Just a couple of dark quips.

I would say that it's a relentless march thru the White House to rescue the president, but actually Butler is up and down and all over in the Residence and the wings from one scene to the next. It's kind of dizzying.

Last edited by Zarban (2013-09-29 19:09:08)

Warning: I'm probably rewriting this post as you read it.

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Re: OLYMPUS HAS FALLEN review by Zarban (slight spoilers)

One thing you haven't mentioned is the atrocious CGI work, some of the absolute worst I've ever seen in a theatrical release.

Aside from that, it's pretty watchable, if forgettable. The big problem for me is they do the thing the later Die Hard movies do where the hero is an unstoppable badass who knows he's an unstoppable badass and has no fear or danger. It would be a lot better if the movie played him as vulnerable. Also, the movie doesn't seem to have a good grip on the geography and just feels kinda aimless through a lot of it. You'd think there'd be a lot of really tense sequences where he has to evade the baddies, since he's trapped in a really confined location, but it really doesn't do that. The terrorists really don't seem to put a concerted effort into finding this guy, you'd think they'd just sweep the place room by room.

The actual initial attack on the white-house sequence is quite good though.

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  • From: Indiana, USA
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Re: OLYMPUS HAS FALLEN review by Zarban (slight spoilers)

Yeah, the CG work was pretty uneven. From the extras on the Blu-ray (it was a gift, and has no commentary track), basically anything that's not in an interior room with no computer screens has major CG components. So you probably didn't notice a lot of it that was good, but the Washington Monument and the weaponry on the roof looked terrible.

And, yes, they didn't give a shit about geography... Show
At the end, the president has been shot but Butler helps him walk to the bunker elevator in the East Wing (and all the way thru to the Residence, including up a flight of stairs, which we don't see), to the Entrance Hall, out the North Portico, and ACROSS THE ENTIRE NORTH LAWN to an ambulance. AND NO ONE MOVES TO HELP THEM even tho Butler has reported that all the bad guys are dead.

Warning: I'm probably rewriting this post as you read it.

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Re: OLYMPUS HAS FALLEN review by Zarban (slight spoilers)

I took particular offense to this movie because of how damn successful it was at our theater. I came out of it going "holy crap that sucked," yet it played for eight or nine weeks, which is insane for our little 7-plex. The damn thing outlasted Star Trek Into Darkness! And then of course White House Down came along, which I enjoyed much more and could tell was the film Olympus ripped off and rushed to theaters to beat, and that only played for two weeks. But I digress...

My biggest issue, plot-wise,

  Show
was the supposed failsafe system on all of our nukes. The purpose of this system was to be able to take down any of our nuclear missiles should they be launched without authorization. This seemed plausible since a nuclear weapon must be properly armed and go through a process to detonate. So fair enough. I could see where the bad guys were going with this: gain access to that system, disable it, at which point they probably have the ability to launch anyway (I'll roll with it, movie), and then target US cities. Good enough for a movie like this.

But nooooooo. What happens is they gain access to the failsafe system, and then ACTIVATE it on every missile while they're in their silos. Aha! They're disabling our nukes so North Korea can launch a nuclear attack without any risk of retaliation... right? Right? Of course not. Activating the failsafe system seems to just mean every missile will now detonate right where they sit.

...

WHAT KIND OF FAILSAFE SYSTEM SIMPLY DETONATES THE WEAPON? Detonating before it hits its intended target? Okay... But we're talking nuclear ****ing weapons here. What if the inadvertent target is a US city? You're detonating the weapons over US soil regardless.

What pissed me off so much is that what I was assuming as the movie went along would have worked just fine. It just kept taking turn after turn into absurdity. The rules were there to make it work. Instead, it all hinged on a failsafe system that was like a gun safety that works by firing the gun until its empty. There, no more bullets.

Bah!

Last edited by NateCow (2013-11-03 20:11:44)

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  • Teague
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Re: OLYMPUS HAS FALLEN review by Zarban (slight spoilers)

Zarban, watch White House Down. I had a lot of fun with that one.

Also, since you know, tell me about underground White House tunnels. Tell meeeeee.

Teague Chrystie

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  • From: Indiana, USA
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Re: OLYMPUS HAS FALLEN review by Zarban (slight spoilers)

There's a tunnel under the North Portico that goes to the Treasury Building across the street. And there is very likely now a tunnel under the West Wing that goes to the Eisenhower Executive Office Building across the other street.

There's much cooler stuff under the Capitol, including a little private subway system, since there's no place for 535 Congresspeople and their staffs to park nearby.

Warning: I'm probably rewriting this post as you read it.

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Re: OLYMPUS HAS FALLEN review by Zarban (slight spoilers)

Eisenhower Executive Office Building = OEOB, right?

/west wing

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Re: OLYMPUS HAS FALLEN review by Zarban (slight spoilers)

I just watched this on Netflix, it was ok for a mindless "let's shoot and blow shit up" movie... but it was a waste of a good cast.
Also, the CG was HORRIBLE, why not just send a 2nd unit to DC to shoot ANYTHING!?

  Show
The Cerberus was a fail safe missile self destruct system right? So, if you set it off when the missiles are still in their silos (warheads unarmed) the missiles will blow up and the warheads won't go off.... whoop-dee-doo... America will not become a wasteland...  roll 

I have yet to see White House Down, and I'm kinda scared to.

Zarban wrote:

There's much cooler stuff under the Capitol, including a little private subway system, since there's no place for 535 Congresspeople and their staffs to park nearby.

I walked the Congressional subway when my Cousin worked,.. it was cool.

Last edited by Snail (2013-11-03 22:02:29)

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  • From: Indiana, USA
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Re: OLYMPUS HAS FALLEN review by Zarban (slight spoilers)

Teague wrote:

Eisenhower Executive Office Building = OEOB, right?

/west wing

That's right. The magnificent Second Empire building to the west of the White House. Originally the War, State, and Navy Building. It's the home of the majority of the "White House" staff.

Warning: I'm probably rewriting this post as you read it.

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Re: OLYMPUS HAS FALLEN review by Zarban (slight spoilers)

I thought America had more than six helicopters, but apparently not

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Re: OLYMPUS HAS FALLEN review by Zarban (slight spoilers)

Snail wrote:

  Show
The Cerberus was a fail safe missile self destruct system right? So, if you set it off when the missiles are still in their silos (warheads unarmed) the missiles will blow up and the warheads won't go off.... whoop-dee-doo... America will not become a wasteland...  roll 

  Show
Indeed. But the film played it out as if blowing up the missiles = detonating the warheads, because you know, that's how nuclear weapons work.

Snail wrote:

I have yet to see White House Down, and I'm kinda scared to.

I'd actually recommend it, if only to get the taste of Olympus Has Fallen out of your mouth.

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