OLYMPUS HAS FALLEN

Film District

Rated R

Running time: 120 Minutes



Click below to watch the Olympus Has Fallen trailer.



In Film District's Olympus Has Fallen, disgraced former head of Presidential Detail Secret Service agent and former U.S. Army Ranger Gerard Butler is on his own - when terrorists attack the White House and kidnap Aaron Eckhart, the President of the United States.

Directed by Antoine Fuqua, this is an action-packed political thriller that was a lot of fun for me to watch. It was basically Die Hard at the White House, although there were worldwide implications that were shown for the events that were happening in the White House. You got to see the security of the White House at work as well as Camp David as the Presidential family, including Ashley Judd and Finley Jacobsen, relaxes there. This is the most that I have seen Camp David in a movie, although I still would like to see more of Camp David in a movie some day.

While President Eckhart is having a meeting with the South Korean Prime Minister, a cable of North Korean terrorists, led by ex-North Korean terrorist Rick Yune invade the White House by air and ground. Working at the Treasury Department within eyesight of the White House, Butler rushes in to help to defend the White House - and winds up being forced back inside the White House. Butler then uses his Ranger skills as he goes up close and personal amongst the terrorists, while President Eckhart is trapped inside the White House bunker.

Angela Basset once again is the head of a government organization, this time she has a more meaty role to apply to an organization such as the Secret Service. Speaker of the House Morgan Freeman, as an actor also once again - due to the Presidential Line of Succession - acts as President. It has come to the point that I like these two worthy actors in these roles and I look forward for Basset to be an action hero in a similar role some day. Melissa Leo was great as the Secretary of Defense and reminded me that she is a lady I would not like to piss off.

Before North Korea became a topical enemy, the producers choose them because of their political mysteriousness years ago - as well as because the Middle East has been done to death as an enemy. As a result, I accepted North Korea as the enemy as well as being less obvious a security threat to the Secret Service.

What I did not like was that there were no U. S. Marines on Presidential Guard Duty at the White House, everyone was all Secret Service. It also appeared that there was only one anti-aircraft weapons system in place. You would think that there would be at least two anti-aircraft systems. I liked the fact that the civilian District of Columbia Metropolitan Police tried to back up the White House personnel and that the local military forces were sent in to back up the White House. Although you do not see what happened to the heavy terrorist forces that were outside. I also liked the fact that Butler's wife Radha Mitchell is a nurse and was dealing with the civilian victims of the attack at her hospital as the aircraft that attacked did strafe the surrounding territory around the White House - showing that there were consequences to the events, rather than just shooting up everything.

Rated R for violence and language. Running time: 120 Minutes.

Pancho 
All people smile in the same language.

 Pancho's Movie Reviews

OZ THE GREAT AND POWERFUL

Walt Disney Pictures

Rated PG

Running time: 130 Minutes




Click below to watch the Oz the Great and Powerful trailer.




In Walt Disney Pictures Oz the Great and Powerful, James Franco is Oz, a con artist carnival magician who gets caught up in a twister - and winds up in the Land of Oz.

Based on the works of L. Frank Baum and directed by Sam Raimi with music from Danny Elfman, this is a prequel to The Wizard of Oz from 1939 as elements from The Wizard of Oz is explained in Oz the Great and Powerful. Like The Wizard of Oz, at the beginning of the movie Oz the Great and Powerful, the movie starts out in black and white when it is set in Kansas - and turns into color when Franco/Oz arrives at the land of Oz. The aspect ratio of the movie also changes to the wider widescreen format and goes from monaural sound to surround sound when the movie is in the Land of Oz. And just like the original The Wizard of Oz, several characters from the black and white Kansas play characters in the land of Oz, such as Michelle Williams, Zach Braff, and Joey King.

After an unsuccessful magic show in a traveling circus, Franco/Oz gets caught in a twister while riding in a hot air balloon. When he arrives in the Land of Oz, Franco/Oz gets mistaken to be the Wizard that was described in prophecy. Franco/Oz soon gets recruited to save the Land of Oz from the wicked witch who had killed the king of Oz.

I liked the fact that the opening credits were created more like practical credits in line with the time of the movie instead of CGI credits and that practical sets were mostly used in the film. Elfman's music gives the movie a classic Hollywood movie feel to the movie. The song Almost Home from Mariah Carey is used during the end credits of the movie and is the only contemporary song in the movie. This is not a musical with characters breaking into song like in the original Wizard of Oz or as Disney musical animated fairy tale films tend to do.

While it has been years since I have read Baum's Oz series, and I have never seen the theater musical play Wicked, this felt like a true prequel to the movie The Wizard of Oz as we got to know much more of the characters from the original The Wizard of Oz movie. The story is such a tragedy, but the movie does set up the events to The Wizard of Oz movie that is set 20 years later.

I felt that Franco/Oz's relationships with the women in the beginning of the movie were a little too long to get to the story - but when Franco/Oz first arrives in the Land of Oz, it feels like riding in an attraction at Disneyland, which is quite appropriate as the movie was produced by Walt Disney Pictures. Disney had been trying to produce a film based on the Baum's Oz books since the late 1930's. Producer Joe Roth was happy to finally have a fairy tale with a male protagonist, such as the male protagonist in the origin story of Oz the Great and Powerful. Franco/Oz's desire to be a great man, obviously leads to him becoming Oz the Great and Powerful. Franco received magical training with magician Lance Burton in preparation for the role of a magician in this film. Franco and Braff reminded me of Matthew Broderick and Nathan Lane. In fact, I could see Broderick and Lane doing their roles.

The twister was much more intense and violent than the twister in The Wizard of Oz. It was more like the movie Twister than the sanitized fantasy version that was shown in The Wizard of Oz. In fact there were several times that I expected Franco/Oz to be seriously injured during the various episodes of the movie.

I saw the movie in regular 2-D, but the movie was obviously designed as a 3-D movie. The movie does have some scary scenes that Raimi had to edit down to get a PG rating, which is Raimi's first PG film. For those of us who were scared as children from the original The Wizard of Oz, Oz the Great and Powerful is a scarier movie for children - especially the flying baboons. I am sure the movie is even scarier in 3-D.

Rated PG for violence. Running time: 130 Minutes.

Pancho 
All people smile in the same language.