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