Angel Has Fallen (2019) – Film Review

Director: Ric Roman Waugh
Cast: Gerard Butler, Danny Huston, Jada Pinkett Smith
Certificate: 15

by Roger Crow / @RogerCrow

“If I can get a contract for your special lobster…” remarks Danny Huston in the third part of Gerard Butler’s “Has Fallen” saga.

You may remember Mike Banning from 2013’s Die Hard in the White House thriller Olympus Has Fallen. That was the weaker of the two similar dramas from that year. White House Down being the gloriously bonkers superior popcorn fest. Then we had London Has Fallen, which saw Banning shooting just about everything with a pulse in the smoke.

Sadly there’s no “special lobsters” in this offering, which sees Banning on the run after a spectacular drone attack on POTUS Morgan Freeman. There is some mumbled dialogue however and a bad guy who may as well have a sign over his head in the first few minutes saying ’Generic Villain’.

“Forgettable”

Naturally Mike survives (because he’s possibly invincible), and following a hijack (which feels lifted from Line of Duty series two), we embark on a remake of The Fugitive.

There’s just enough time for some father-son bonding as Mike grabs quality time with grizzly Nick Nolte, whose appearance turns up as a surprise to absolutely nobody. There’s also no shock that gruff old Clay Banning is an explosives expert, leading to many fireworks in the First Blood section.

Do yourself a favour and turn the sound off before the first explosion (around the one hour mark), then play The Prodigy’s ‘Firestarter’ on your smart speaker. The mumbled movie dialogue is utterly forgettable so you’re not missing anything, but it makes a humdrum pyro scene a lot more enjoyable.

Morgan Freeman gets to sit most of this film out while Desperate Dan, sorry, Mike Banning kills everyone who looks at him a bit funny. Except his dad of course, who looks like Uncle Albert from Only Fools and Horses.

“Potty mouthed tosh”

I felt no empathy for anyone in the movie, except Banning’s kid, who looks genuinely distraught towards the third act. I’m guessing she read the script, which actually sounds like it was written by a five year old.

There is one good stunt involving a grenade towards the end, but that and the drone strike aside, this is so by-the-numbers, you’d wish everyone had given up after 90 minutes.

If you want to see how this sort of thing should be done, watch the first three series of 24, which is light years ahead of the sub-standard potty mouthed tosh on display here.

At a time when distancing is more important than ever, best to keep your finger at least six feet from the Angel Has Fallen ‘play’ button at all times.