No longer having to act off of punches and manly-man-men grumblings, Nolte’s unpredictability allows Butler to show off his straight-man comedy chops. Miraculously enough, Butler honestly begins to shine once Nolte shows up. It has this vibrant feel of a backwoods Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade: the straight-laced Mike and his SovCit father joining forces despite a general dislike of son towards father. The chemistry between Butler and Nolte is excellent, and even genuinely hilarious at moments. He is a whole new movie that, for a brief twenty minutes, becomes a glimpse into a full-length film that could have been. Sure, Nolte is playing Mike’s father, but he’s more than that. He is running to his only hope for him and the audience: Nick Nolte. An hour into the movie, Mike is on the run in the woods of West Virginia. Photo Credit: Simon Versano.īut then… an angel appears. Nick Nolte as ‘Clay Banning’ and Gerard Butler as ‘Mike Banning’ in ANGEL HAS FALLEN. The first fifteen minutes might as well not even exist. Sure, he has some wooziness at times, but it’s never enough to make it feel like Banning is in actual danger. But once the action starts, he might as well be fully cured. Hell, even one slip-and-fall could, if his doctor is right. The set-up hints that Banning won’t just be fighting the shadowy group that is trying to kill the president, but also the limitations of his own aging body. He gives a tone similar to Logan: a man dangerously past his prime, on the verge of death, but too addicted to his own sense of duty to stop. Written by Robert Mark Kamen ( Taken) and tweaked by Waugh & Matt Cook ( Patriots Day), there are some moments of real risk in Banning’s character. Even with a tighter script, the sloppy direction completely derails anything the dialogue would bring to the table.Īt least the script takes the franchise in a few interesting directions, at least at first. Waugh doesn’t seem to have the patience to allow a scene to linger nor when he has let the camera stay for far too long during non-fighting conversation. It’s frantic in a way that’s far more confusing than exciting, making the action scenes more than a little boring. The majority of the action is that kind of jump-cut fighting that’s been out of style since the 2010s the camera never lingers long enough on an action scene for the punches and gunshots to mean anything. Waugh, sadly, is not that kind of director. It can make a lot of sense having a stunt expert behind the camera for an action movie, especially one who ostensibly knows how to build on moments and ramp up the energy of a setpiece. Taking the helm for this turn is stunt man-turned-director Ric Roman Waugh. Gerard Butler stars as ‘Mike Banning’ in ANGEL HAS FALLEN. That is, until a shadowy group hacks the 2003 Chevy Astro that is carrying him to prison, frees him (inadvertently), and Mike goes off on a classic tale of retribution. Mike saves the President but is subsequently framed for the assassination, arrested by the World’s Worst FBI Agent ( Jada Pinkett Smith) and taken into custody. Seeing as how a doctor warns him his body is on the verge of full-on breaking from a lifetime of action-concussions and his addiction to opioids, retiring really isn’t the worst of ideas.īut all goes awry when a super-obvious “mysterious” villain attempts to kill new president Alan Trumbull ( Morgan Freeman). After fighting off the North Koreans in Olympus Has Fallen and cringeworthy Middle Eastern terrorists in London Has Fallen, Mike is left with the decision of whether to become the head of the Secret Service or to retire. But hey, the horse is dead, so they might as well flog it as long as they can.Īngel Has Fallen is the third of the Fallen series, which focuses on Secret Service super-agent Mike Banning (Butler). It’s a style that Gerard has ridden all the way to the bank since his first formidable performance in 300 and, judging by the minimal amount of care thrown into Angel Has Fallen, it doesn’t look like producers are anywhere near done with this easy-to-follow formula that hasn’t been exciting or surprising since the bonkers classic Geostorm. Wrap that in a package of political intrigue and you got yourself the standard Butler Action Drama. And not just normal trouble: recently, it’s the kind of specific trouble that involves multiple explosions, forgettable villains, and a cavalcade of extras that are there to only nudge the plot forward or die when convenient for the proper emotions. There’s something about Gerard Butler: no matter what, trouble always seems to find him. The third entry in Gerard Butler’s mil-porn series about patriot dads is almost saved by the sudden appearance of a wild Nick Nolte.
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