There could be a moment where films like London Has Fallen start to accidentially reflect reality a little too much but in the escapism of cinema, and the vast push towards those classic almost-impossible action movie boundaries, there’s more than enough here to take you away with an entertaining and cheesy, yet action packed, sequel of sorts to Olympus Has Fallen.
Not messing around with the winning formula in any way, Gerald Butler‘s Mike Banning returns to try and save President Ben Asher, played again by Aaron Eckhart, after a routine State visit to London ends up becoming a setup to kill all the world leaders and consequentially a deadly bloodbath. There’s not an excessive amount you can say about the plot because as a whole it involves Banning and Asher trying not to be killed by a seriously high volume of baddies that are both seemingly hiding in plain sight as Police, or obviously carrying the wrong kind of gun and shooting without ever re-loading.
Of course along the way Banning gets a little help where possible and he’s always questioning why the hell he’s there, but there’s one thing we know, which is that he’ll go out there with Bruce Willis levels of insurmontable survival in almost inescapable circumstances. Some of the early explosions in the film, from a distance, look like they’ve been dragged out of ’95 with some shoddy CGI but the close-up fight sequences and chorography as a whole are deeply impressive, really dragging you into the action like a first-person shooter with the additiona of some hilarious one-liners kicking in. There’s also a cameo for Angela Bassett, Jackie Earle Haley goes full action-film White House exec, and Morgan Freeman returns as help for our two on the run back in the USA and everyone gets into the spirit of things.
If you’ve got a crap load of popcorn and beer this won’t let you down but I’d also recommend teaming it up with No Escape, starring Owen Wilson and Lake Bell, if you’re looking for something more intense and surprising. What does London Has Fallen say about society? I have no idea but in forgetting the outside world for a moment, it’s an utter kickass action movie that doesn’t remotely pretend to be something it isn’t.
London Has Fallen is available on Blu-ray and DVD on Monday 18 July 2016.
