A One Mann’s Movies review of “Angel Has Fallen” (2019).
Bob the Movie Man’s Rating:
Certification:
US: R; UK: 15.
“Olympus Has Fallen” (2013) was a great tongue-in-cheek action movie, directed by Antoine Fuqua, with a dynamic Gerard Butler – then 44 – saving the President of the United States (Aaron Eckhart) from certain death from Korean terrorists. Roll forwards three years and an appallingly xenophobic repeat – “London Has Fallen” – failed to impress me (though I note that I did call it as probably Trump’s favourite of the year!). Yet another three years have now passed, and with Morgan Freeman‘s character making his way from Speaker to Veep to President, the team are back for more of the same.
An action packed opener. Gerard Butler as Banning taking on multiple bad guys single-handedly. (Source: Lionsgate).
The plot
The film starts with a bit of a bang but – unlike Kevin Maher of The Times – I won’t spoil it by saying more!
Mike Banning (Butler) is still on presidential protection duty but time is taking its toll. Suffering from back pain and crippling headaches, he tries his best to hide the symptoms since his ability to function in the role is questionable. Moreover he is wrestling emotionally as to whether to accept a ‘way out’ in the form of a cushy desk job.
When a terrorist attack leaves Banning as the ‘last man standing’ the finger points to him as “the inside man”. How can Banning prove his innocence and bring the real villains to justice?
Not in the line of fire.
I saw Butler in a hire-car commercial a few weeks back ‘playing the action hero’ and thought at the time “Man, he’s looking too old for that!” And so it seems. In the movie he lumbers around the screen like an overweight traffic warden.
The script – by Robert Mark Kamen, Matt Cook and director Ric Roman Waugh – very sensibly tries to deflect that by writing his creakiness into the story…. but it just really doesn’t make a great job of it.
One of the problems is that this material – a protection officer past his prime – was done SOOOO much better by Clint Eastwood in 1993’s “In The Line Of Fire”, one of my favourite action films of all time.
This pales in comparison. Banning’s ills are inconsistent: his headaches don’t seem to apply when he’s 12 inches from a grenade going off!
Messing about on the river. Butler trying to single-handedly save the president. (Source: Lionsgate).
Paint by villain numbers.
The movie is also ludicrously predictable. You would have to be seriously lacking in attention not to work out who the ‘baddie’ is going to be. The film doesn’t even bother to do a decent “reveal”…. it’s more of an apologetic whimper! Even the “big boss” – a distorted voice on the phone – I guessed at the first call!
So this is not a film to tax the brain cells. But you’d at least have respect for the evil masterminds if they actually had an evil masterplan that made even remote sense: you know…. irradiating Fort Knox to increase the price of their Nazi gold, or fixing Brexit or other such implausibility. But no – it seems the evil masterminds seem to have no plan other than their self-destruction: like Disney’s lemmings, bad-guys are just herded off the cliffs with Land-rovers to be machine gunned.
Injecting some “She do” into the FBI command, Jada Pinkett Smith stars as Agent Thompson. (Source: Lionsgate).
No animal or children were hurt during the making of this film.
I’m sorry to announce this, but really young toddlers just can’t act very well. They certainly CAN’T act “traumatised” as armed men break into their house and violence happens in front of them. Young Lynne Banning (played by one of Jessica or Maisie Cobley – coincidentally Mrs Movie-Man’s maiden name) appears to be QUITE distraught during this particular scene. Unless this was some top class CGI work (the effects in the rest of the film would suggest otherwise) this is stepping over a line for me and I felt highly uncomfortable.
A class act, even with this warmed up sh*e. Morgan Freeman – “old, not obselete” – as the US president. Has any other actor – not counting Ronald Reagan – played the president more often?? (Source: Lionsgate).
High-spots would be stretching it.
There are two saving graces in the film: Morgan Freeman (who must have seriously wondered what turd he was polishing here) and Nick Nolte, playing Banning’s reclusive father Clay. The film actually starts to come alive for a bit in a middle forest section, with some nice interplay between father and son. But, after some serious pyrotechnics, and another double digit lemming body-count, we return to staider fare.
Nick Nolte as Mike’s delinquent drop-out Dad, Clay. (Source: Lionsgate).
Better than “London”… but barely.
I asked the illustrious Mrs Movie Man, over a much needed glass of Malbec, what she thought and she declared it was “the worst film I’ve ever seen. If I could have walked out like that couple (two folks got up and left after 20 minutes) I would have”!
Now, I haven’t been THAT harsh in my assessment. It didn’t have the distasteful xenophobia of “London Has Fallen” (which I rather generously gave a 1.5/5). So I feel I should at least top that. But again I feel I’m being generous. It’s all crushingly mediocre, and if I can remember any of it after three months, I’ll be very unlucky indeed!
Trailer:
The trailer is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=isVtXH7n9lI.
A very fair assessment except despite the predictability etc. Nonetheless The time went past fairly quickly and I enjoyed it. So 3 stars from me.
Crazy talk! 🙂
It was VERY disturbing to see the distraught toddler in one scene. I don’t know what was done to elicit the baby’s response but I’d be bloody angry if that was my child.
Me too!