Caught OLYMPUS HAS FALLEN, which opened this past weekend. The first of two "DIE HARD in the White House" movies we're getting this year, believe it or not.

As a DIE HARD rip-off, it has some merit with some laughs, some thrills, director Antoine Fuqua's most watchable movie since TRAINING DAY. I respect that like DIE HARD, he takes the time to set-up the pieces to be put into play once the hammer drops, i.e. the bad guys take over. (Something the original DIE HARD was brilliant at.)

Unlike last year's RED DAWN remake, the North Koreans here are the semi-believable enough adversariess needed to make a paperback thriller fantasy like this work. But ultimately not memorable enough for me to wholly recommend this OK, disposable entertainment. I give it 3 stars out of 5.

(Why? I got tired of this movie reusing way too many scenes from DIE HARD. Its one thing to borrow this very dependable story formula, its another to echo that film beat by beat. Hero and adversary exchange threats and one-liners over walkie-talkies, the hero dodges a rooftop helicopter-involved explosion, the useless authorities launch a futile raid that the hero advises against, etc. Too much photocopying, not enough originality from OHF's end.

They could've taken inspiration from the best of the DIE HARD knock-offs in UNDER SIEGE. Instead of one villain, that gives us two. Instead of a lone savior, he's saddled with a sidekick also stuck in the wrong place, wrong time like the hero. And so forth.)

EDIT - Sadly if DIE HARD was produced today, John McClaine would have a scene where he tortures a bad guy to death. I miss American movie heroes that prevailed because of wits and kicking ass. Why did we have movie villains like Darth Vader torture? Because we considered it barbaric, practiced only by despots and thugs.

Its one thing if say The Punisher or TAKEN doing this, because those characters are bastards, ruthless to accomplish their own little personal vendettas. But OHF, its your traditional supposed righteous American hero (even though Gerard Butler is Scottish, but nevermind) against the evil foreign terrorists, who torture which suddenly becomes bad. The hero does it, its good.

But times change. Weird to say that in this regard, the 1980s were more civilized than movies produced today.

Last edited by ronnierocketAGO; 03/27/13 07:53 AM.