Sunday, October 9, 2016

Movie review: London Has Fallen

U.S. President Asher and his Secret Service bodyguard, Mike, are in London attending the British Prime Minister's funeral along with most other world leaders when there is an explosion. Mike quickly realizes the situation is a terrorists dream as world leaders begin to fall.

Gerard Butler (Mike), Aaron Eckhart (Pres. Asher), Waleed Zuaiter (Barkawi), Shivani Ghai (Amal), Michael Wildman (Goight), Radha Mitchell (Leah), Angela Bassett (Lynne), Morgan Freeman (VP Trumbull).

London Has Fallen begins with a fair amount of backstory, setup, and some drama with the apparent intent of generating emotional investment. Being this is an action film however, it is quite simply boring and generic. As the film moves along to the action things get much, much better and the tension builds wonderfully. It seems Mike and Pres. Asher are dealing with a terrorist who is a step ahead at every turn with ridiculously extensive planning, which also makes the film a bit hard to swallow at times. But, the action moves things along well despite reality taking a vacation. The story finally wraps up with a debatable Feel Good ending.

Acting was decent with Butler and Eckhart apparently working well together. Butler shows he can still play the action hero and doesn't need the drama. Eckhart did well though it was a hard sell to believe a standing U.S. President would jump into a gun battle, let alone do well with it. Zuaiter made a pretty good terrorist, and Ghai did nicely with her role. Bassett and Freeman both delivered nicely as always, and fit their roles well.

Camera work, sets, and backgrounds were nicely done and blended well with CGI creating a very nice visual impact. CGI was well used, supporting the action and building tension throughout. Dialogue was solid and fitting. Sound and soundtrack were well done.

While London Has Fallen may not be a blockbuster or even very original, it is a solid action thriller with decent acting and technical work. Genre fans should enjoy this one.

Violence, gore, more graphic violence, and profanity, Oh My! Rated R, this one really should be fine for mature teens and above.

Released: 2016
Reviewed: 9.20.16
Star rating: 4 out of 5
Genre: Action & Adventure, Action Thriller, Crime Thriller, Crime Adventure, Drama

copyright ©2016 Dave Riedel

No comments:

Mine mine mine!!!!

Blog disclaimer and copyright information. . .

-I hope to make this blog revenue generating in the future and as such any posts found here may be paid posts. If you want to pay me to post for you, let me know!
-Content may change over time resulting in inaccuracies. I also make mistakes, some will be here.
-I have no control over what is at the other end of any links you may find here.
-Film pictures, dvd covers, film banners or whatever you like to call them are copied here from widely available public locations. I did not create them nor do I own them.
-Any files, programs or downloadables are provided only for convenience and fun. I in no way warrant, represent, or otherwise imply they won’t cause you problems. Use at your own risk! If your computer blows up I don’t want to even hear about it.
-Reviews posted here are my opinion and meant as informational for prospective viewers and are not meant to malign, defame, or otherwise harm anyone or anything. They also are not meant as advice or counsel , not necessarily factual or absolute, and the author will not be held responsible for the results of their use.
-Comments are NOT the opinion of this author, nor is he responsible or liable for the comments or their results. I will try to moderate them in a reasonable (to me) manner.
-Translation of any portion of this blog may result in other than desirable language for which the author is not responsible. Furthermore, I’m not an English major so there will be bad grammar and punctuation found here. There may also be language that is intentionally objectionable to support my opinions. Tough.
-Copyright: All reviews and opinions expressed here by the author are owned by the author. Please enjoy reposting and/or linking, I ask only that you give proper credit and inform me you have used my content for your own pleasure and devious purposes.
-Legal limit on damages: .02 cents, U.S. (Yes, I will give you my 2 cents worth if you abuse me in court).