“I want to reassure all American’s and everyone around the world, that despite today’s event’s, our government remains 100% functional,” declares Allan Trumbull (Freeman), the Speaker of the House now Acting President.

What is it about watching Washington D.C. under siege that causes such a big draw at the box office? The Washington Monument has been damaged after being struck by a plane. The White House has been seized by terrorists. Is the government really 100% functional? Olympus has fallen plays out our deepest nightmares; the President being kidnapped by terrorists and Olympus (The White House) being taken over.

Presidential Guard Mike Benning (Gerald Butler) is assigned the ultimate responsibility of keeping President Asher and his family safe, however, on a fateful night, a tragedy occurs. The president’s wife is killed during a horrific traffic accident. As a result, Benning is removed from Presidential guard duty when the President is unable to look at him without reliving that night. The movie fast forwards to 18 months later. Benning is working in the Treasury Department where he witnesses the beginning of the takeover.

A Korean terrorist, Kang Yeonsak (Yune), wants a reunification of Korea. His devises a plot to use the president to force the U.S to withdraw. The plan is to use the president as a hostage to gain leverage to force U.S. officials to withdraw the Seventh Fleet and US troops from the Korean Peninsula, removing American opposition from a North Korean invasion on South Korea. Olympus has Fallen is a high-power, explosive assault on everything that the American people hold dear.

Many critics have compared Olympus has Fallen to the movie White House Down. While the premise, the action and the underlying political message is the same, I found them to be two very different movies. Olympus Has Fallen is certainly a darker, more serious movie despite the occasional attempts at humor.

The action sequences in this movie are definitely not to be missed, but there are several story holes which the audience is left to infer. In addition, we didn't really get the opportunity to become vested in the President or Benning because of the swift leap from the start of the movie to the action. The movie briefly introduces Butler’s relationship, however, it seems to play such a minor role in the story it probably could have been left out.

Gerald Butler is excellent in the role of Mike Benning. The movie also stars Morgan Freeman, who is absolutely believable in the role of Acting President; Angela Bassett gives a decent performance as the Secret Service Director. Dylan McDermott plays a secret service agent gone rogue, definitely not my favorite role for him.

I would rate this movie a 2.5 out of 4 stars.

The movie Olympus Has Fallen is available at Amazon.com

This movie is part of my personal DVD collection.