The latest Die Hard movie doesn't have Die Hard in the title, doesn't have Bruce Willis in the cast and doesn't have a character named John McLane in the film.
But the plot from the original movie that started that franchise is alive and well in a new suit of clothes in "Olympus Has Fallen", a tale of what happens when North Korean terrorists take over the White House, holding the President, Vice President, and Secretary of Defense as hostage.
Luckily for our side, disgraced secret service agent Gerard Butler just happens to be passing by when all the mayhem breaks out and quickly gets himself inside the White House before it's totally sealed off.
Working alone but able to communicate with now acting-President Morgan Freeman through a handy satellite phone, he's got to figure out how to rescue the President's pre-adolescent son, save the President, prevent World War III and stop the bad guys from detonating the entire United States' nuclear arsenal. You know, the usual stuff.
He's obviously seen "Zero Dark Thirty" because he knows just what to do to make straggling bad guys he encounters tell him what he needs to know, and in fact, the terrorists have a lot of success with the same techniques on their hostages. However, this is kinder, gentler torture than we saw in "Zero Dark Thirty", so maybe all the victims here saw that movie, too, and not wanting things to go as far as they did there, decide to spill-the-beans rather early on.
To be honest, though, this doesn't reflect well on the President and his staff and could be a dangerous thing for our country if this movie gets in the wrong hands. "So," the bad guys will say," that's all it takes to get the President and his staff to talk!"
However, if you don't let little things like that bother you and just roll with it, there's a lot of tense, exciting fun to be had here and there is no grander satisfaction in the movies than seeing the mean, evil, arrogant villain finally get what he deserves. Just ask Liam Neeson.
And out of a possible four, "Olympus Has Fallen" gets 2 ½.
By Jonathan Mumm jmumm@news10.net
News10/KXTV