Angel Has Fallen (2019)

Spoiler Free
Action/ Thriller
Rated 15
Newly available for home viewing

After enjoying Olympus Has Fallen, but then suffering through the awful follow up London Has Fallen, going by the law of sequels (decreasing in quality) I was incredibly reluctant to see Angel Has Fallen.

However, assured it was equal to if not better than Olympus, I thought I’d be charitable to Gerard Butler’s latest machismo vehicle. That’s not really meant as a complaint by the way, most action films are, by design, muscle bound spunk bombs, jacked up on man-juice. Butler does at least do other genres too, and I do enjoy much of what he does, Den of Thieves aside

Directed by Ric Roman Waugh, who also wrote and directed the excellent Shot Caller, my first worry with Angel Has Fallen was that it would fast descend into the kind of crap CGI that London Has Fallen featured; computer effects so poor they screamed “reduced budget”. Fortunately, Angel rather quickly feels far better made than its predecessor, but as I say, that’s not hard.
Butler’s Mike Banning is close to being made head of the Secret Service, but then Morgan Freeman’s President Trumble is almost assassinated and Banning is framed for it. That’s basically all you need to know. There’s not even any mystery as to who has framed him, because it is really not important. If you’re watching Angel Has Fallen you’re watching for one reason and that is to watch people get shot and shit to get blown up.



Worry not, these things happen and with nice variety and levels of explicit violence. Machismo! Swinging dicks! Angel Has Fallen is knowing gun-fun and there are some brilliant scenes, particularly one after Nick Nolte has shown up. The whole thing is unashamedly stupid, but it is well made for what it is and it never drags.


Bedsit it?

I very much enjoyed Angel Has Fallen and there is a good chance I will do so again with another viewing down the line. Does exactly what it says on the tin, and even better repays viewers still recovering from the trauma of seeing London Has Fallen. 7/10
Have a look at some other action reviews from Bedsit Cinema...

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