Out of the wealth of "_Die Hard in an (X)_" movies that are on offer, "_Die Hard in the White House_" is an.... okay one. The story is old hat and the CGI is awful, but the sequence of the initial attack on the White House isn't just good, it's great. _Final rating:★★½ - Had a lot that appealed to me, didn’t quite work as a whole._

Olympus Has Fallen ironically insults America’s national security through lunacy and patriotism. “Die Hard in the White House” claims British lads’ magazine Zoo, divulging into the testosterone-fuelled minds of its laddish readers. To be fair to them, Fuqua’s patriotic perspective of a national terrorist attack is exactly that. A ‘Die Hard’ rip-off that relies on the same narrative rhythms beat-for-beat. One man, and only one man, can save the day by gradually depleting the numbers of the antagonistic gang that harness either monetary or diplomatic motives. But where the aforementioned feature excelled, this action extravaganza flopped. In apparently thirteen minutes, the entire Secret Service force is massacred at the hands of Korean ultra-nationalists, at the White House, in the middle of the day. “The most secure building in the world” exclaimed one of the useless decision makers attempting to assist the Acting President. Yeah. That’s an armoury of irony right there. Olympus Has Fallen is so unrealistic in plot, that for the majority of its runtime you’re left baffled as to how any of it was conceptualised. Fully trained Security guards joyfully skip towards barrages of bullets. Protocols are broken left, right and centre. The frickin’ Army Chief of Staff sends a fleet of armed helicopters into a danger zone despite already acknowledging the opposition acquiring a ridiculously overpowered turret. Boom! Dead. The lack of intelligence for its characters is, quite frankly, insulting. Especially when this action blockbuster is supposed to be shrouded in patriotism. The worst offender though is the obtuse amount of horrifically rendered visual effects. From blatantly obvious green screens to clunky polygonal helicopters floating around aimlessly. It was as if the team played ‘Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas’ and directly extracted the models from it. Just woefully terrible. Fortunately Butler emanated his “tough guy” brutality in the central role, because he was continually stabbing Koreans through the skull, throat and legs. A convincingly physical role that was perfectly suited to his acting style, enabling him to destroy his opponents whilst injecting some light buoyancy. Unfortunately the screenplay is limited in the “fun” department, taking the narrative extremely seriously, which hindered the nostalgic cheesiness of 80s action blockbusters that Fuqua took inspiration from. Speaking of, his directing style was taut as expected, with much focus on the shenanigans taking place within the Presidential bunker. But the frenetic editing hindered his clarity. Eckhart provided strength as the President, but as usual, picks lacklustre films to repress his talent. Freeman shouted at one point and I quivered. Bassett, Mitchell and Yune were underused and Leo overacted. Oh, and who stops a countdown at three seconds? Let it go down to one! Create that suspense for flip sake! So yes, for thirsty action viewers who crave violence blended with one-dimensional characters, unintelligent plot points and obscene amounts of polygonal visual effects, Olympus Has Fallen has got you covered. However, if you prefer your action blockbusters with an ounce of excitement, might I suggest a minuscule film called ‘Die Hard’?

Great movie with action throughout. Lots of drama as well. Just your average insane crew trying to take over the white house.

After a damned if you do, damned if you don’t decision, Secret Service agent “Banning” (Gerard Butler) has been removed from the presidential protection detail and given a desk job. That’s probably just as well for “President Asher” (Aaron Eikhart) as a visit from his opposite number from South Korea goes quite spectacularly awry and next thing the White House is in bits and the VIPs either dead or hostages in the bunker deep beneath the rubble. “Kang” (Rick Yuen) is leading the terrorists, with a little help from a disgruntled fifth columnist, and is demanding seismic changes to American policy in Korea else the body count is going to mount. “Banning” knows his way around the building and so in best “Die Hard” tradition, proceeds to sneak about causing the usual havoc to the perpetrators as they execute their dastardly plan and then hope to commandeer a helicopter to get them out of the wreckage and off to safety - with, of course, their prime hostage. I think to get anything from this you will have to be prepared to completely suspend belief and just sit back and let it wash over you. That an unidentified aircraft would be permitted to fly anywhere near a major global metropolis without being blitzed from the sky is just the opening eye-raising scene in this slew of frying pan to fire scenarios that just go to show that the spirit of those wartime adventures where one plucky person could defeat dozens of heavily armed and entrenched Nazis and… well you get the drift. Butler does enough, I suppose, as he makes for a reasonable action hero stalking the corridors using his ninja skills to deadly effect but there’s isn’t the slightest hint of jeopardy here as the body count mounts as per any number of shoot ‘em up video games. It passes the time if you just want some noise in the background, but to sit and concentrate on it for two hours is likely to cause brain rot.