*MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS*
Many have made comparisons to Die Hard and I completely agree. Take John McClane and put him inside the White House and that's what you get here. That's not a bad thing though. Butler gives Bruce Willis a run for his money. His Banning is both brave and bad-ass. In the beginning, we see that he has developed a good friendship with President Asher.
The film has a strong opening. It's Christmas and the President is getting ready to attend a fundraiser with his wife, Margaret (Ashley Judd) and son, Connor (Finley Jacobsen). Unfortunately, on the way to the fundraiser, tragedy strikes and Banning loses his job. It's in this opening that we feel both sympathy for both Banning and the President and want Banning to succeed in rescuing the President later in the film.
This film is full of great sequences, especially once Banning is inside the White House. He never gives up and does whatever it takes to save the President. This is where the heavy violence comes in. Banning shows no mercy to the terrorists and gets rid of them in the most brutal ways.
Also trying to rescue the President are the Speaker of the House, Allan Trumbull (Morgan Freeman) and Secret Service Director, Lynne Jacobs (Angela Bassett) who help Banning by giving him information about the terrorists.
Like I said earlier, Butler is great as Banning. Aaron Eckhart makes a likable President, the scenes with him in the bunker shows how brave he is.
Of course, with every action film, there's a villain and in this, it's Kang Yeonsak (Rick Yune), a terrorist from North Korea who wants the U.S. officials to withdraw the Seventh Fleet U.S. Forces from Korean Peninsula. He threatens to kill the President live on air if he doesn't get his way. Yune makes Kang a truly evil villain, we never know what he's going to do next.
Overall, this is a brilliant film, with solid performances from the whole cast and thrilling action sequences.
8/10
Read my review of 'London Has Fallen' here.
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