Image courtesy of Focus Features
6. London Has Fallen
In a year that saw our country grossly divided along political, racial and gender lines, one movie comes along to reiterate all the things that divide us. London Has Fallen is the sequel to 2013’s flag-waving weapon of mass destruction, Olympus Has Fallen. Like Liam Neeson’s daughter being perpetually absconded with, Secret Service man Mike Banning (Gerard Butler) has to protect the President after nearly half the world’s leaders are obliterated. You should know this movie makes no sense when they come up with a pointless excuse that would get all the world’s leaders in one place.
Olympus Has Fallen is a “so bad it’s funny” movie for the way its earnestness and throwback to 80’s action flicks are embraced. However, London Has Fallen falls into the world of Chuck Norris propaganda with Muslim terrorists being faceless terrors Banning has to kill, violently. I grew up with the hyperviolent video games of the 80’s and 90’s, but Butler’s character gets way too gleeful when skulls are being caved in. There’s nothing fun except for the truly sociopathic who get off on maiming people for kicks. By the end I was left wondering who the real terrible people were. Are they the heroes in the film or those who paid money to watch this? London doesn’t fall, she weeps.
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