London Has Fallen

This franchise has fallen.

In 2013, Olympus Has Fallen, the modest Die Hard-in-the-White-House film, outperformed the similarly plotted but ultimately less entertaining White House Down. Both were better than London Has Fallen.

In this sequel to Olympus, the death of the British prime minister lures the world's most powerful leaders to a funeral in London — and to a terrorist trap. After the attack, Secret Service agent Mike Banning (Gerard Butler) guides U.S. President Benjamin Asher (Aaron Eckhart) through the city to escape from the bad guys.

True to many sequels, bigger is not better. All the original’s suspense of being trapped in the White House disappears when the action is expanded to a sprawling city.

This is the type of film where the heroes are targeted by armies of terrorists who can’t seem to get just one shot or grenade on the heroes before they are all taken out. Those types of films can be fun with James Bond or Arnold Schwarzenegger’s characters, but I don’t buy it from a serious, gritty Gerard Butler.

Even worse, the xenophobic ending felt reckless and irresponsible given everything going on in the world today.

Simply put: Sometimes having Morgan Freeman as Vice President is not enough.

Award potential: None.

The ten buck review: Not worth ten bucks.