<Review by: Sailesh Ghelani>

Directed by Ric Roman Waugh. Starring Gerard Butler, Morgan Freeman, Jada Pinkett Smith, Lance Reddick, Tim Blake Nelson, Piper Perabo, Michael Landes, Danny Houston, Nick Nolte

Running time: 2 hours

I loved Olympus Has Fallen and hated London Has Fallen. You’d think by now, Mr Mike Banning (Gerard Butler) would be President of the USA. But unfortunately, he’s still a Secret Service Agent, not even the boss of the Secret Service. Strangely, this film makes no reference to the previous two films or his brave and super heroic acts. It’s almost like a stand-alone movie. 

While I preferred Aaron Eckhart’s President in Olympus Has Fallen, Morgan Freeman plays out his signature role with the flair he’s known for. This time a group of mercenaries are out to get the President with a flock of killer drones. You pretty much know from the very first scene who the bad guy is and then later who his accomplice will turn out to be. Absolutely no way these two actors could turn out to be good guys. So, the intrigue comes in the form of Banning being framed for the deaths of 18 security men and the attempted murder of POTUS.

Borrowing from such great films as The Fugitive, Angel Has Fallen sets up a game of cat and mouse where Banning must escape the FBI and the bad guys to prove his innocence, kill the bad guys, protect the President and save a whole bunch of people while leaving a trail of devastation in his wake. Just a regular day in his life. But Gerard Butler has become a tad old and overweight for these roles, a fact that he doesn’t try to hide even as part of the movie’s plot where he’s seen visiting doctors and popping pills for aches and pains caused due to his action hero antics.

Lots of explosions and riveting chase scenes keep you engaged. Some shoddy CGI does pop up now and then especially at the end. But, the sheer ferocity of the action, the kill count that keeps mounting and your adrenalin that surges to see Banning come out on top, make Angel Has Fallen a satisfying watch.

The not-so-subtle references to the ‘bad guy’ situation in US politics right now make this film closer to real life than fiction.