The Pitch:Ā After years of serving as a dedicated member of the Secret Service (and saving Aaron Eckardtās President Asher from Korean and Middle Eastern terrorists in the previousĀ Has Fallen films, respectively), Mike Banning (Gerard Butler) is eyeing a desk job as Secret Service Director so he can settle down and spend more time with his wife Leah (Piper Perabo) and their little girl. Wouldnāt you know, former Speaker of the House Alan Trumbull (Morgan Freeman), now President, wants to offer him the job.
Before he can, though, a high-tech assassination attempt leaves Trumbull in a coma and Banning framed for the attack. Escaping from his captors, Banning goes on the run, hoping to evade both law enforcement and the rogue military contractors responsible for the setup. Heāll need more than just his wits and expert fighting skills to clear his name; heāll need the help of his kooky doomsday-prepper dad Clay (Nick Nolte).
White House Dumb:Ā Something in the fabric of the universe went decidedly hinky in 2013: of the two āDie Hard in the White Houseā flims that came out that year āĀ Olympus Has Fallen andĀ White House Down ā we clearly picked the wrong one to turn into a trilogy. Instead of a campy series of buddy action movies with Channing Tatum and Jamie Foxx as Fantasy Action Obama, we as a moviegoing public chose the self-serious flag-waving of the Fallen series (not to mention some of the ickiest geopolitics to come out of an action movie series this decade, but more on that later).
This time around,Ā Angel Has Fallen strips down the seriesā usual formula into a lo-fi domestic thriller, the kind of ā90s throwback that feels way moreĀ The Fugitive than Die Hard. Butlerās still a gruff, workmanlike action lead, mumbling through braindead dialogue with a marble-mouthed American accent. In theory, his age is supposed to be a liability; we learn heās downing pain pills in secret to hide the spinal damage heās endured from decades of ass-kicking, but after the inciting incident that doesnāt get brought up once.
In a post-John Wick world, the action isnāt great; director Ric Roman Waugh (Felon, Snitch) directs the action with Bourne-era shakycam and a greyed-out color palette. So much ofĀ Angel Has Fallen feels like youāre watching a GoPro video in an abandoned warehouse. Most of the setpieces take place in the dead of night, making it almost impossible to see whatās going on.
That being said, Waugh (a former stuntman) does place a greater emphasis on practical stunts and effects, which offers some intermittent thrills. Explosions fling flaming bodies into water; a semi truck speeding down a back road flips and tumbles. In an age where most action thrillers are plastic walls of CG, one can thankĀ Angel Has Fallen for at least maintaining the grand tradition of the stunt performer, even if you can barely see it happening.
Just in the Nick (Nolte) of Time:Ā About an hour into this two-hour Redbox chow, Nolte shows up as a craggy, flannel-wearing survivalist who turns out to be Banningās estranged dad ā a Vietnam war vet living in the woods and packed to the gills with weapons, supplies, and more conspiracy theories than you can shake a stick at. For these blessed 20 minutes, Angel Has FallenĀ is a sheer delight; late-stage Nolte is always a treat, but give him some claymores and a tinfoil hat, and heās absolute gangbusters. He even manages to eke some personality out of Butlerās all-business Banning, the two sniping at each other about old grudges while claymores go off around them. Itās a shame, then, that after this blessed setpiece (the one time in the movie Banning ever feels out of his element), he and Nolte part ways for nearly the rest of the movie. I just wanna shake the screenwriters by the shoulders and scream, āYou had something good going! Hold onto it!ā
The Treason Is Coming From Inside the House:Ā One of the biggest shakeups to the franchise is its politics: Olympus andĀ London were soundly (and rightly) condemned as āterrorsploitation,ā the kind of post-9/11 flag-waving that veered all the way into racism and xenophobia. Here, the villains are internal: a group of out-of-work military contractors with state-of-the-art technology and a desire to kill the president so he wonāt put them out of work. Whatās more, theyāre led by an old friend of Banningās, a fellow war horse named Wade Jennings (a suitably feline Danny Huston).
There are shades of Blackwater in theirĀ modus operandi, and the screenplay (co-written by Waugh, Matt Cook, and genre vet Robert Mark Kamen) takes a few potshots at Americaās internal corruption ā get ready for a member of the executive branch wearing a red tie to say āMake American <verb> againā ā and our uneasy relationship with privatized military forces like Blackwater. But most of these critiques are confused and toothless, shying away from any real systemic critique in favor of explosions and clear good/bad guys.
But What About Morgan Freeman?Ā What about him? Heās barely in it. He spends most of the film (a film,Ā I remind you, heās second-billed in) in a coma, bookended by a low-energy performance as a sleepy president who can barely bark orders from his hospital bed. I never thought Iād say this, but I miss Aaron Eckhart.
The Verdict:Ā Angel Has Fallen is maybe the least objectionable of theĀ FallenĀ series, but thatās not really saying much, is it? At two entire hours, this thing drags like nobodyās business, flitting from one ā90s thriller cliche to the next with only a brief, joyous respite centered around Nolte. Whatās more, it canāt quite decide on a coherent political philosophy to replace the jingoism of the first two. Sure, Banning isnāt busting brown peopleās heads and telling them to āgo back to Fuckheadistanā in this one, but replacing that with a milquetoast critique of Trump-era kleptocracy feels like too little, too late. Itās hard to forgive a film series that celebrated the kind of xenophobia that got Trump elected for turning back around and trying to absolve itself of the same crimes.
Whereās It Playing?Ā Angel Has Fallen solemnly salutes an American flag while firing a machine gun in theaters August 23rd.
Trailer: