Olympus Has Fallen

Olympus Has Fallen 4.0 stars

“Why can’t you simply put your critical faculties on hold long enough to sit back and enjoy the damn movie?” The question comes up — particularly in the summer months — more times than I care to remember. Olympus Has Fallen is the answer to discerning action fan’s prayers: an armrest-squeezing, seat-shifting blockbuster that never lets up. North Korean terrorists hold the White House hostage, and it’s up to Gerard Butler, a disgraced former Secret Service man once assigned to presidential guard duty, to get back inside 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue the hard way and reset the course of history. On the surface, it represents everything contemptible about contemporary cinema — a propagandistic, effects-driven cavalcade of carnage that probably boasts a higher body count than all of George Romero’s “living dead” safaris combined — but damn if (for a change) this wasn’t an effectively constructed thrill ride I enjoyed hopping. Antoine Fuqua directs. With Aaron Eckhart, Morgan Freeman, and Rick Yune. 2013.

— Scott Marks

View trailer
Rated R | 1 hour, 40 minutes
Official website

"ashley Judd makes history: First movie star not to survive the trailer" • March 28, 2013
"Interview: Robert Forster has risen!" • March 27, 2013

Showtimes

Regal Oceanside

401 Mission Avenue, Oceanside, 760-439-1327

Wednesday, May 22

11:05am, 1:50pm, 4:35pm, 7:20pm, 10:05pm

Dragonfly March 25, 2013 @ 11:45 p.m.

Olympus Has Fallen

Nothing more than a mirthless, suspenseless and utterly pointless Die Hard ripoff. See this only if you too can put all of your critical faculties on hold. Man, do I miss Duncan Shepherd. (And for the record, Gerard Butler is not a disgraced former secret service man. He's an actor.)

San Diego Reader