23 August,2019 04:20 PM IST | Mumbai | Johnson Thomas
Gerard Butler in a still from Angel Has Fallen. Pic/YouTube
The hero of Olympus Has Fallen and London Has Fallen, Mike Banning (Gerard Butler), finds himself in a unique predicament in this thriller sequel that has him on the run because the acting President, Vice President Kirby (Tim Blake Nelson) believes that Banning is in the truck with the Russians.
The film opens with a familiar scene at the Banning household. Banning is hiding his addiction to prescription painkillers, has spinal-cord damage and suffers from post-concussion insomnia and migraine headaches and is on his way out to keep President Turnbull (Morgan Freeman) protected during a short fishing vacation. So the degree of difficulty is certainly higher here. In a massive assassination attempt by a renegade group constituting a former Viet Vet and his trained insurgents, the entire Presidential guard is eliminated. Banning and the President manage to escape only to land up comatose in the hospital.
Then screenwriters Robert Mark Kamen, Matt Cook and Ric Roman Waugh (also the director of this and the previous series entry) write up a storm trying to find multiple ways for Banning to wriggle out of several inescapable pickles.
Co-writer and director Waugh makes the smart edits and CGI assisted stunt work look credible enough to garner high tension. Butler's world-weary, pained look, suits the situation well, Freeman continues to be majestic whatever be his role and Nick Nolte's presence as alienated Vietnam Vet Dad to Banning, adds psychological lustre to the 'man against system' construct. Danny Huston as the main bad guy, a loyalty-free mercenary willing to betray friend and foe alike for pecuniary gain, is solid and Jada Pinkett Smith as the FBI team head does her bit with a fair degree of seriousness. Despite hurtling down to the level of stunts, cliches and plot holes, repeat, Angel Has Fallen redeems itself with a fair amount of grace!
Also read: Crawl Movie Review - A fairly exciting thriller
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