*Spoilers throughout
"Olympus Has Fallen", the first of two "White House under attack movies" scheduled for release this year has about every single action movie cliché that you can fill in a two hour movie yet still remains surprisingly effective. OHF features a cast entirely too good for the material which probably benefits the film the most as it plays more as a campy guilty pleasure B movie rather than a "sign of our times" movie.
Gerard Butler takes a break from making dreadful "romantic" "comedies" in horrible American accents to come back to his action roots, with a horrible American accent... He plays secret service agent Mike Banning, the President's right hand man, even the first lady and POTUS's son are sweet on Mike until of course a car crash involving the Presidents motorcade leads to the death of the first lady (Ashley Judd). Mike blames himself as he had to choose between saving POTUS or the first lady and leaves the White House and becomes lead security for the department of treasury. 18 months goes by and during a visit from the South Korean prime minister the White House is overtaken by an army of North Korean militia. Thankfully our hero is only a few blocks away during this invasion and since he knows all the in's and out's of the property he is able to sneak inside while kick ass and taking a few names along the way.
Its not a huge spoiler to indicate that by the end of the movie the President and America's freedom are all still well in tact."OHF" is not about breaking new cinematic ground, sure there are hokey moments like a tattered American flag being taken down as you hear saddening orchestra music. The cast is top notch overall, Dylan McDermott plays a secret service agent turned bad (you know this because he smokes in the movie) Morgan Freeman is very "Morgan Freemanish" here as well as the speaker of the house who becomes acting President during the crisis and maybe most unrecognizable is recent Academy Award winner Melissa Leo (The Fighter) as the Secretary of Defense-the fact that they cast actual "actors" in this really helps the overall tone and pace of the film, its a ridiculous concept but it works nonetheless
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