I Watch Films: London Has Fallen
I couldn’t remember which film was Olympus Has Fallen and which was White House Down (2013 was the year for armed takeovers of the White House it seems) and didn’t care enough to check before watching this film. It turned out to be the Gerard Butler as secret service agent and Aaron Eckhart as president one rather than Channing Tatum as cop and Jamie Foxx as president.
Anyway the US try to kill an arms dealer Aamir Barkawi with a drone strike, fail but get his wife and daughter. He swears revenge. Two years later the British Prime Minister dies in office and the world’s leaders go to the funeral. Barkawi has planted hundreds of terrorists, mostly disguised as police, and tries to murder all the leaders, doing a pretty good job except for the US President because Gerard Butler manages to get him away.
There’s some extremely dumb stuff. First you have to take on board that this can be organised and arranged and none of the terrorists let slip what’s going on, or make mistakes or have second thoughts and shop them all. I mean this is always the case with big fictional terror plots so okay. I believe in the police not recognising each other because this is a big ridiculous exercise and you’d be surrounded by strangers. The soldiers at the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace being infiltrated by ringers I don’t. What do you think "Changing of the Guard" is? When do you slip the rogue squaddies into the formation? The Commissioner of the Met gets referred to as Chief Inspector at one point which is... well it’s wrong. And an MI6 agent discovers that someone in MI5 has control over the city’s “security system” which is just weird, organisationally speaking. Also there’s a TV report in which the presenter declares that London’s recognisable landmarks have been decimated which... is odd phrasing.
Some good stunts, a little bit more torture than I really wanted, some occasions when the good guys almost consider if using a drone to blow up a family might not have been a good idea, and a hint that Barkawi might have worked for the US at some point (?) but the film offers no real thoughts on the matter.
I didn’t pay as much attention to the plot as I might have.
Watch This: For a dumb action film with dubious politics.
Don’t Watch This: For a smart action film that raises interesting questions
One More Thing: Budgets
Olympus Has Fallen, 2013: $70 Million
London Has Fallen, 2016: $60 Million
Angel Has Fallen, 2019: $40 Million
"In November 2019, series producer Alan Siegel announced plans for a fourth, fifth and sixth film..." Source.
It's a bit early to make any predictions, but according to this sequence the 6th film in 2028 may be made for free, presumably directed by Gerard Butler who also stars as the President who is his own Secret Service bodyguard.
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