Olympus Has Fallen (2013)

Bradley Nelson2 said:Can someone explain why White House Down and Olympus Has Fallen dropped at basically the same time? They’re practically the same movie.🤷

Just because that topic happens to be "in" right now. 😁
Read : bring money.

Mark Walker97 said:So Mercedes-Benz and BMW release the same class of cars at the exact same time—so what? What does BMW actually care about regarding Mercedes-Benz sales? Or vice versa? It’s all the same.

You think producers coordinate things ahead of time? Give me a break—how does some kid like Ivan expect to manage a production of any kind, let alone a feature film?

You dive headfirst into a project—commit fully to the execution—because we’re talking months, maybe even years of grinding. By then, you’ve already burned through a mountain of cash. Then comes the realization: the competition is running the exact same play. At that point, there’s no turning back. You either see it through to the finish line and force it onto the market, or you fold. It becomes a survival of the fittest. Isn't that right? It is.

Is it any clearer now why similar projects tend to pop up at the exact same time—sometimes? 😁

Yeah, but nobody sane buys the exact same tier of car from two different brands, just like nobody watches both movies if they know they're basically identical. These two dropped at practically the same time. One side could have easily waited six months; people would have watched it anyway, and they wouldn't have dealt with the "copycat" labels.

frozenheron7 said:Just because that topic happens to be "in" right now. 😁
Read : bring money.

Yeah, seems that way.

I intend to watch both films 😁

Sometimes I find myself gravitating toward mindless action flicks, and since Jamie Foxx plays the President in this second installment, it ought to be quite entertaining 🙂

I've seen both of them. In the sense you're asking about, they're both solid choices. 😁

This movie easily sits at the top of my list for the absolute dumbest things I’ve ever watched. I made it to the 1:46 mark, but those last ten minutes? I just couldn't do it. I genuinely felt like if I sat through the end, my stomach ulcer was going to give up on life... and hey, health comes first. I gave it a 1/10 on IMDb strictly because they won't let you input a zero, though honestly, this deserves an -8. If you know anything about math, you'll know exactly what I mean by that... Gerard Butler used to be a great actor before this came along, but after this, I’m done with his entire filmography, unless my wife forces my hand (much like how Butler was forced by the South Koreans in this flick). All things considered, regardless of how massive the budget was, they should have just used that money to feed people in starving nations, or burned it in a pile, or literally anything else. This movie is a crime against humanity. Everyone involved in making this belongs in a maximum-security prison in the middle of nowhere...

over & out

I've been reading reviews from some really smart people, so I guess I’ll head to the theater to check it out. Maybe.

Is this heading toward some kind of Hollywood meltdown? It feels like they're just releasing the exact same movie again, just as mindless. 🤣

No, no way, that second one is much more entertaining 😁

Early reviews are suggesting that Olympus Has Fallen actually edges out White House Down. Honestly, both are pretty mindless and loaded with clichés—but the first one leans hard into that gritty, 80s action vibe like Rambo 2, featuring plenty of brutal kills, whereas the newer one feels more like sanitized, PG-13 popcorn fare.
Anyway, I thought Olympus Has Fallen was great, and I’m planning to squeeze in some time to watch White House Down later this week.

People are so weird, hating on a movie just because it has a line like "I'm gonna stab you in the brain"
It’s not even just hating, they’re basically giving it an infinite negative rating 🤣

Like acting like it’s some huge deal to trash 🤷Command

The only real downside is that nothing can quite top that sequence where they storm the White House.
If they had actually filmed something like that for the finale, this would easily be the best movie of the year.

ruggedcrane14 said:This movie easily sits at the top of my list for the absolute dumbest things I’ve ever watched. I made it to the 1:46 mark, but those last ten minutes? I just couldn't do it. I genuinely felt like if I sat through the end, my stomach ulcer was going to give up on life... and hey, health comes first. I gave it a 1/10 on IMDb strictly because they won't let you input a zero, though honestly, this deserves an -8. If you know anything about math, you'll know exactly what I mean by that... Gerard Butler used to be a great actor before this came along, but after this, I’m done with his entire filmography, unless my wife forces my hand (much like how Butler was forced by the South Koreans in this flick). All things considered, regardless of how massive the budget was, they should have just used that money to feed people in starving nations, or burned it in a pile, or literally anything else. This movie is a crime against humanity. Everyone involved in making this belongs in a maximum-security prison in the middle of nowhere...

over & out

Give it a rest. We all know you'll be first in line for his next flick.
Your attempt at a critique is about as effective as putting a Band-Aid on a gunshot wound.

Glad you're "over and out." There's always God.

It’s always amusing when people try to find realism,
consistency, logic, or depth in movies like this.

This is just a high-octane version of "almost being in the house" meant for adults—so
stop whining.

It was great. I found myself turning it on at midnight out of pure curiosity and ended up watching until 2 AM, despite having to be at work by 7 🙄

Gerard Butler is just as good. It feels a lot like Die Hard, where the goal isn't some deep philosophical dialogue, but rather action, action, and more action. It’s exactly what you want when you just want to kick your feet up on the couch and watch one guy take down all the bad guys 😛

Look, nobody with half a brain is actually expecting some profound masterpiece or gritty realism from a flick like this. We get it. But people are still allowed to have an opinion, and in my view, this movie fails to even function as a decent action flick. Don't get me wrong, there’s plenty of action, but is it actually fun? Not even remotely. What really kills the initial momentum of the takeover sequence isn't even the glaringly obvious CGI; it's the lack of soul. Then you have the second half, which just drags on with uncharismatic characters, overblown sentimentality, and a level of pretentiousness that feels like they're trying way too hard to be deep. It's just a collection of tropes we've already seen recycled a hundred times before.

ruggedcrane14 said:This movie easily sits at the top of my list for the absolute dumbest things I’ve ever watched. I made it to the 1:46 mark, but those last ten minutes? I just couldn't do it. I genuinely felt like if I sat through the end, my stomach ulcer was going to give up on life... and hey, health comes first. I gave it a 1/10 on IMDb strictly because they won't let you input a zero, though honestly, this deserves an -8. If you know anything about math, you'll know exactly what I mean by that... Gerard Butler used to be a great actor before this came along, but after this, I’m done with his entire filmography, unless my wife forces my hand (much like how Butler was forced by the South Koreans in this flick). All things considered, regardless of how massive the budget was, they should have just used that money to feed people in starving nations, or burned it in a pile, or literally anything else. This movie is a crime against humanity. Everyone involved in making this belongs in a maximum-security prison in the middle of nowhere...

over & out

In this quote, you could probably swap Butler for Butler Willis and it would basically be a review of the new Die Hard

Look, I’m a huge sucker for action flicks.

But man, this was easily one of the most exhausting, high-budget slogs I’ve ever sat through.
The violence is just... overkill. It feels like they cranked the gore up to eleven just for the sake of being shocking, and honestly, it gets pretty nauseating.
As for the plot? Don't even get me started—it's a joke.
And the casting? A total disaster from start to finish.
Personally, I thought Gerard Butler was completely out of his element here, and you can tell Morgan Freeman is just punching a clock; you can practically see him counting down the minutes until he hits the wrap on set.
But if this movie sticks in anyone's memory, it'll be because it features the absolute worst portrayal of an American President in cinematic history.

It didn't happen 🙂

Laura Cox said:It was great. I found myself turning it on at midnight out of pure curiosity and ended up watching until 2 AM, despite having to be at work by 7 🙄

Gerard Butler is just as good. It feels a lot like Die Hard, where the goal isn't some deep philosophical dialogue, but rather action, action, and more action. It’s exactly what you want when you just want to kick your feet up on the couch and watch one guy take down all the bad guys 😛

Actually, I don't think it resembles "Die Hard" at all. I saw it on TV a few days ago and didn't see the connection. Maybe it's more like that seventh installment of a franchise where they replace Bruce Willis with some plastic doll that vaguely looks like him.

Man, I swear, when I first saw Freeman on screen, I honestly thought he was some undercover terrorist or something.
He’s totally washed up now. Seriously, he looks like a total drunk and his acting is just straight-up garbage.

goldenscout14 said:Look, nobody with half a brain is actually expecting some profound masterpiece or gritty realism from a flick like this. We get it. But people are still allowed to have an opinion, and in my view, this movie fails to even function as a decent action flick. Don't get me wrong, there’s plenty of action, but is it actually fun? Not even remotely. What really kills the initial momentum of the takeover sequence isn't even the glaringly obvious CGI; it's the lack of soul. Then you have the second half, which just drags on with uncharismatic characters, overblown sentimentality, and a level of pretentiousness that feels like they're trying way too hard to be deep. It's just a collection of tropes we've already seen recycled a hundred times before.

Everything mentioned is a mandatory, fundamental part of this genre. It just is. By buying a ticket, you’re essentially signing off on those tropes—but clearly, some people failed to grasp that.

Patrick Martin said:Man, I swear, when I first saw Freeman on screen, I honestly thought he was some undercover terrorist or something.
He’s totally washed up now. Seriously, he looks like a total drunk and his acting is just straight-up garbage.

The guy was born in '37. It's a miracle he's even still standing.

Just walked out of the theater after seeing White House Down. Honestly, I don’t think we even need a dedicated thread for this one—it’s basically just a carbon copy of Olympus Has Fallen.

"WHD" is exactly what you'd expect: a total collection of clichés and mindless fluff. It feels like they just scraped the best bits from much better movies and glued them together.
The setup and the middle stretch are pretty tedious—though, I will say, it turns into this weirdly, aggressively stupid kind of fun toward the end.
But then the finale happens and just drags the whole experience back down into the dirt.

Now, Olympus Has Fallen covers the exact same ground and is just as dumb, but it's actually way better. The reason? The plot feels more like a loose excuse to watch the lead character go on a rampage, whereas in White House Down, there's action everywhere but it feels strangely bloodless—plus, it's dripping with an amount of American patriotism that's almost nauseating.
Look, let's not waste any more breath on White House Down. It's forgettable.

Skip "WHD" and just go watch "OHF" instead.