Olympus Has Fallen

If you don't mind the unflinchingly brutal violence, this is the kind of throwback action film in which one brave man is all it takes to set the world right. Like most presidential action thrillers, there's a certain amount of patriotic cheerleading that goes on when America gets the bad guys -- particularly after national landmarks like the White House and Washington Monument have been destroyed. Audiences demand revenge, and director Antoine Fuqua delivers it in bloody sequences intended to prove that it just takes one well-armed, well-trained American (OK, Butler's actually Scottish, but he's playing an American) to mete out justice. Butler, who's also a producer, has made a series of duds recently, but he's in his element cursing and killing and promising to save the president.

All of the cast members in Olympus Has Fallen bring their A-game to a script that isn't exactly inspired but doesn't need to be when the White House has been attacked, the vice president executed on television, and the female secretary of defense (Melissa Leo, who gives an electric performance) is being tortured and beaten while she recites the Pledge of Allegiance. The screenwriters know there's no way this story can end without a climactic fight between Butler, Yune, and Eckhart, who plays a remarkably fit president. And Freeman and Angela Bassett (as head of the Secret Service) are very good in their secondary roles.