I am a patriotic American, so if there is a movie out there that can potentially increase my patriotism, by golly, I will see it!

Not that I needed any more convincing to see “Olympus Has Fallen.” I love a lot of the actors in this movie, even though certain male leads may be pushing out a lot of crap in a row. But hey, this looks like “Die Hard” meets the White House! That is especially good news given how “A Good Day To Die Hard” turned out.

Mike Banning (Gerard Butler) used to be the best secret service agent there was, working for President Benjamin Asher (Aaron Eckhart). Unfortunately, after leaving Camp David on a snowy night, his limo hits a bridge and they are only able to save the president, not his wife. Mike didn’t do anything wrong, but the president just doesn’t want to be reminded of his dead wife every time he sees him.

Fast forward to a few years later, he is now stuck with some desk job. Can’t shoot anyone in the office (legally), damn it! He still relives that night, and his long-term lady friend (Radha Mitchell) can’t seem to help him.

But unfortunately, today is a day where everything will hit the fan. A fighter plane is able to make it into the DC airspace, and begins to open fire on the White House while the president has the South Korean Prime Minister under his care. But in the panic room, it turns out not everything is as expected. Surprise, North Korea is behind all of this! Not only have they locked the president and vice president in the panic room, but they have also taken over the building and have pretty egregious demands for the country they are holding hostage. Clearly only one man is good enough to save the day here.

Featuring Rick Yune as the bad guy, Morgan Freeman as the Speaker of the House and now acting president, Melissa Leo and Angela Bassett as government women, and Dylan McDermott as a former secret service agent.

Sometimes you can get an idea that is so crazy, so wild, that it works on some grandiose scale, and I believe that is what is happening with “Olympus Has Fallen.” It is action-packed (after the icy intro and set up) and entertaining. Sure, you can probably figure out how everything is going to end before it’s through, but that doesn’t even matter in this movie.

That’s right, no real big surprise twists. I think if the entire point of a movie is a twist at the end, it really loses its potential to watch it again for fun (unless you are watching with new people). That means “Olympus Has Fallen” is rewatchable!

However, there are some pretty dumb characters. I think the president is a moron, but at least he is a bit hard-assed. Part of the conflict involves getting three passwords from three individuals, through torture! The president has the last password, and orders the other two to give up their own because there is “no way” he would ever give his up. You know, to stop their torture. Gee, I guess he didn’t realize that they will probably just torture his friends to get the password out of him, since it basically worked two times in a row.

This movie is about Gerard Butler kicking ass, and damn it, he does. Nice fights, guns, explosions, and a high body count. This movie was so great that I am no longer looking forward to “White House Down.” When there are two similar movies within a few months of each other, one of them will always outshine the other. I don’t think there has ever been a situation where both have been amazing, but at least the other one has Jamie Foxx playing the president.

4/5