When the prime minister of England dies, world leaders gather for his funeral. A very large, well coordinated terrorist attack is unleashed on the city of London and the president of the United States (Aaron Eckhart) is caught up in the commotion.
Luckily he has secret service agent Mike Banning (Gerard Butler) to protect him.
Again we chant, “USA! USA! USA!”
HOWE: London Has Fallen has everything you need in an action movie: fight scenes, car chases, lots of explosions and, of course, my favourite of the lot, cheesy one liners. What is an action movie without them?
There is one fault with it and that is the special effects. We mentioned how special effects can fail a movie a couple of weeks ago, reviewing Gods of Egypt. It must have something to do with Gerard Butler movies. I thought they were bad there, but in London Has Fallen, the effects are taken to a whole new level. These are, at times, so bad it makes the graphics on the original PlayStation look modern.
TAYLOR: I will agree with your opening sentence entirely. London Has Fallen will not disappoint action film buffs. It’s bigger, faster and louder than its predecessor Olympus Has Fallen.
It’s also just as blatant in its message. As for the special effects, explosions are explosions. I did notice some wonky looking helicopter flying. Your penchant for exaggeration aside, the effects were occasionally distracting, but certainly not the only fault with this film.
HOWE: With the effects being bad, is the story up to par? Well yes, it did keep me entertained, but with most movies like this you know the outcome already even before you sit down to watch it. You know someone in the close knit pack of friends is going to die, you know that someone will be a traitor and you just know that our hero will save the hostage, or will they?
TAYLOR: I think it’s telling that you and I both said almost the absolute same things when we reviewed Olympus Has Fallen.
London Has Fallen is a film with an agenda. Like this poor, same ol’ president of the United States, we too are doomed to relive the nightmare that is a terrorist attack on gathering of global leaders, a state funeral.
Just like with the original film, London Has Fallen is an jingoistic advertisement for a continued war on terror. At one point, as our hero is attempting to choke out a Middle Eastern ringleader he’s managed to get his hands on, he is delivering a speech to him about how what “we do is right” and “in a thousand years, we’ll still be here.” I almost laughed out loud.
Any country that would consider voting Donald Trump into power is not long for this world, but I digress.
– Howe gives London Has Fallen 3 paint colour chips out of 5.
– Taylor gives it 2 Scottish accents out of 5.
Reel Reviews with Brian Taylor and Peter Howe appears in the Morning Star every Friday and Sunday.