ANGEL HAS FALLEN (2019) MOVIE NEWS & REVIEW

angel has fallen (2019) movie

Genre              |   Action Thriller

Classification   |   MA 15+

Running time   |   121 minutes

Released         |   22 August 2019

cast

Gerard Butler ... Mike Banning
Morgan Freeman ... Allan Trumbull
Lance Reddick ... Gentry
Tim Blake Nelson ... Vice President Kirby
Danny Huston ... Wade Jennings
Piper Perabo
Jada Pinkett Smith
​Nick Nolte

director

​Ric Roman Waugh

writer

Matt Cook ... (screenplay)
Katrin Benedikt
Robert Mark Kamen ... (writer)
Creighton Rothenberger

cinematographer

​Jules O'Loughlin ... director of photography

music

​David Buckley

film editor

​Gabriel Fleming

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box office result

Worldwide             $​TBA

Australia                 $​TBA

North America       $TBA

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movie minutiae

​Production on the film has been delayed by three months, to allow Gerard Butler time to recover from an injury he received while riding his motorcycle.

​Morgan Freeman will take over the role of the President of the United States from Aaron Eckhart, who will not return for this film.

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related movies

LONDON HAS FALLEN (2016)

ANGEL HAS FALLEN (2019) MOVIE IMAGES

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ANGEL HAS FALLEN (2019) STORY SYNOPSIS

​When there is an assassination attempt on U.S. President Allan Trumbull, his trusted confidant, Secret Service Agent Mike Banning, is wrongfully accused and taken into custody. After escaping from capture, he becomes a man on the run and must evade his own agency and outsmart the FBI in order to find the real threat to the President. Desperate to uncover the truth, Banning turns to unlikely allies to help clear his name, keep his family from harm and save the country from imminent danger.

ANGEL HAS FALLEN (2019) MOVIE REVIEW

Reviewed by Mark Geraghty   |   Review date 29 August 2019

​​Pop Movee Rating

By rights, the third film in a second tier Action franchise shouldn’t be as enjoyable as ANGEL HAS FALLEN…

Gerard Butler returns a third time as Secret Service Agent Mike Banning, whose two previous on-screen adventures, OLYMPUS HAS FALLEN (2013) and LONDON HAS FALLEN (2016), saw him fight off all manner of terrorists to protect the incumbent P.O.T.U.S. (Aaron Eckhardt) from whatever nefarious plot the “bad guys of the moment” had cooked up!

OLYMPUS HAS FALLEN, under the direction of Antoine Fuqua, had an assuredness about it that made it infinitely more watchable than WHITE HOUSE DOWN, the competing Roland Emmerich film, starring Channing Tatum and Jamie Foxx, that had a near-identical story and was also released in 2013. Fuqua had less than half the budget of Emmerich, but proved that money is everything, especially when you’ve got Gerard Butler, Aaron Eckhardt and Morgan Freeman at your disposal. 

LONDON HAS FALLEN, released three years later, appeared incredibly far-fetched (blowing up half of London), but Director Babak Najafi - quite remarkably - managed to improve the film’s worldwide Box Office result on a smaller budget than the first… Given most of the movie is Butler and Aaron Eckhardt running from one thing to another, it’s not surprising Najafi was able to deliver such a cost-effective Action Thriller!

ANGEL HAS FALLEN is not quite a full-circle story, but this third film sees Butler’s Mike Banning on the edge of stepping down from active duty. In the first film, Banning was a flame-out; now he’s just burned out. Years of rough and tumble has taken its toll on him and he’s no longer physically to cope with the demands that come with his role in the Secret Service and the protection of the President…

Series creators Katrin Benedikt and Creighton Rothenberger provided the story for the new film, but Robert Mark Kamen (writer on a number of Luc Besson’s TAKEN and TRANSPORTER movies), along with Director Ric Roman Waugh & Matt Cook share the screenplay credit. Taking a leaf out of the JOHN WICK franchise textbook, longtime Producer Avi Lerner has drafted in Waugh, a vastly experienced Stuntman, to take the helm and deliver one hell of an action-packed outing that feels like it’s go much more going on than the average Action movie.

While on R&R, Morgan Freeman’s Allan Turnbull, now the President, is the target of an elaborate assassination attempt that sees his whole Secret Service detail killed, with the exception of Mike Banning...

Banning saves the President, but with everyone either unconscious (Turnbull & Banning) or dead, the FBI, led by Jada Pinkett Smith’s Agent Thompson, piece together evidence that suggests Turnbull’s number one protector is behind the attempt!

It’s pretty obvious that Banning isn’t behind the attempt and, without too much deception on the part of the writers, the plotters are revealed pretty quickly, but that’s not the point of ANGEL HAS FALLEN. With Banning’s subsequent escape from custody, the film becomes more like THE FUGITIVE (1993), as every law enforcement agency in America goes on the hunt for their man.

The big set pieces, no end of gunplay and there’s the mandatory hand-to-hand combat scene between Banning and the film’s principal antagonist. 

But that’s not all...

Surprisingly, the story’s themes (rather than its plot), are the primary driver and this third “FALLEN” franchise film is all the better for it.

It’s not Award season material, but nor is it a mindless popcorn blockbuster wannabe.

The addition of talent such as Danny Huston and  Nick Nolte fill out a highly talented cast and, for an Action film, provide a layer of characterisation and depth not normally found in the genre. Both actors do a great deal more with their material than what might otherwise be expected of a supporting role in a film like ANGEL HAS FALLEN.

Central to their performances, as well as Butler’s, is the exploration of a man’s purpose and worth…

Mike Banning is so fraught about his loss of purpose that he conceals the details of deteriorating health from both his wife and the leader of the Free World for fear that they will think less of him.

Danny Huston’s Wade Jennings struggles to find relevance in a world absent of conflict and Nick Nolte’s as Clay Banning is driven by a need to redeem himself with a family he no longer knows because he’s allowed the past to shape his future.

Central to all of this is Butler’s Mike Banning…

Butler is closing in on 50 years of age and, if his roles in DEN OF THIEVES (2018) and ANGEL HAS FALLEN are anything to go by, he’s moving into a similar space that Liam Neeson did in his mid-fifties in the aforementioned Luc Besson TAKEN series. Butler’s a middle-aged Action star whose films are smarter-than-the-average Hollywood fare and get their audience just a little bit of credit for understanding what motivates people is sometimes a little more sophisticated and subtle than  Bond-like global domination!

If the mix of action and character established in this latest film are the formula that Butler’s “FALLEN” series will aspire to in the future, then further Mike Banning tales would be a welcome, ongoing addition to the feature film watchlist!

ANGEL HAS FALLEN MOVIE (2019) USEFUL LINKS

Angel Has Fallen - Wikipedia
​Angel Has Fallen (2019) - IMDb
​Angel Has Fallen (2019) - Rotten Tomatoes​

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