THE WASHINGTON POST.
FRIDAY, AUGUST 23, 2019EZ22
Movies
Angel Has Fallen
An unexpected twist: An action film with half a brain but no fun
BY HAU CHU
Against all better judgment, an-
other installment of the Fallen se-
ries has arisen.
Well, maybe not all better judg-
ment. Those who stand to squeeze
even more money from a franchise
that has already earned nearly $376
million at the worldwide box office
(for “Olympus Has Fallen” and
“London Has Fallen”) surely
thought a third movie was a good
idea. That means we get to sit
through another chapter in the ad-
ventures of Mike Banning, a Secret
Service agent code-named Angel,
and played by Gerard Butler as an
indiscriminate macho man.
In the forgettable but fun
“Olympus,” we watched as Ban-
ning fended off a North Korean
terrorist plot to assassinate the
U.S. president. What that 2013
film lacked in originality was
made up for by tense direction,
courtesy of Antoine Fuqua
(“Training Day”), and action se-
quences that, despite gratuitous
neck stabbings, were viscerally
gratifying. Its 2016 sequel, which
revolved around a terrorist plot
hatched by a Pakistani arms deal-
er, combined direct-to-DVD-cali-ber special effects with xenopho-
bic stereotypes of the worst sort,
including the cringeworthy line,
“Go back to F---head-istan.” If
“Olympus” was largely indifferent
to politics, “London” had an un-
mistakably conservative bent. At
that point, it would have been easy
to scrub all memory of this “Die
Hard”-like franchise.
But “Angel” has seemingly re-
flected on the real-world events of
the past three years to deliver a
more nihilistic message: everyoneis to blame. In what you might
expect to be a mind-numbing ex-
plosion-fest, the most novel thing
about the new movie is its themat-
ic underpinning.
As the film opens, Banning is
suffering from PTSD and abusing
pain pills, thanks to the injuries of
past two films. He’s on the verge of
hanging up his earpiece, yet, pre-
dictably, he’s also about to earn a
promotion to head up the Secret
Service. During an assassination
attempt by drone that leaves thepresident (Morgan Freeman) in a
coma, every member of the presi-
dential security detail is killed —
except Banning.
When he comes to in the hospi-
tal, our hero is accused of planning
the attack, as the only Secret Serv-
ice survivor. In a nod to the current
political climate that will almost
surely elicit groans, the FBI has
found evidence on the Dark Web
suggesting a link between Ban-
ning and the Kremlin. What fol-
lows are the sort of perfunctory
twists and turns that any attentive
viewer will spot from a mile away.
But the way the movie shapes its
plot into a kind of social commen-
tary is worth chewing on. Who is
to blame for our national panic?
There is no simple answer.
In its search, “Angel” takes aim
across the political spectrum: Rus-
sia-obsessed conspiracy theorists
are a particular focus, as is a group
of private citizens-turned-merce-
naries (think: Blackwater). The
sanest person in the film turns out
to be Banning’s father (Nick
Nolte), a kooky geezer living off
the grid in West Virginia, where
his concerns about the direction of
society feel more justified than
paranoid. You’d expect a meat-head action movie to play Nolte’s
character for laughs, but he ulti-
mately develops into a sympathet-
ic figure — no surprise, given the
film’s skewering of the political
climate.
On the other hand, here’s the
real mystery: How does an
$80 million movie end up looking
so low-rent? Several exterior shots
look like a soundstage. Action set
pieces are laughably choreo-
graphed. In one, Banning flees an
exploding building, but the CGI is
so obvious that he never looks the
least bit in danger.
Most action flicks would settle
for thrilling violence and may-
hem, in service of a utilitarian plot.
“Angel” flips this formula on its
head, delivering a surprisingly co-
herent story but with no discern-
ible sense of fun. Maybe it’s worth
giving the series another crack;
“Angel’s” ending certainly hints at
the prospect of another sequel.
Then again, we all might be better
off at this point if Banning simply
traded his badge for angel’s wings.
[email protected]SIMON VARSANO/LIONSGATEWith the first two films in the franchise taking in $376 million, it’s
little wonder why Gerard Butler’s Mike Banning is back for a third.R. At area theaters. Contains
violence and crude language
throughout. 114 minutes.Ready or Not
Is stalking a normal young woman terrible or fun? Maybe both.
BY MICHAEL O'SULLIVAN
Have you heard about the sa-
tirical horror thriller where a
bunch of superwealthy elites cal-
lously hunt down a normal young
woman, who ultimately turns the
table on them? No, not “The
Hunt,” the controversial film —
with exactly that plot line — that
recently got pulled from release
by Universal. The film I’m talking
about is called “Ready or Not,”
and it’s slipping into theaters,
with essentially the same story,
without a peep of political dis-
sent.
So the plot is slightly different.
Unlike “The Hunt,” in which
wealthy Americans hunt a group
of average Joes and Janes purely
for sport, the one-percenter vil-
lains in “Ready or Not” — a family
whose money derives from a busi-
ness that includes the manufac-
ture of board games and owner-
ship of several professional
sports teams — stalk their victim
in a perverse and bloody version
of hide-and-seek. It isn’t for plea-
sure, you see, but self-preserva-
tion. To maintain their livelihood,
and their very lives, they’ve madea pact with the devil, dating from
the Civil War, that includes one
stipulation: Any outsider who
wishes to join the family — in this
case Grace, the bride-to-be of the
family’s youngest son — must join
the family in a game, chosen at
random, on her wedding night.
Unfortunately, Grace (Samara
Weaving) picks a pastime that
entails her being pursued by in-
laws wielding firearms, a cross-
bow and a medieval poleax.
By the way, that pact-with-the
devil thing isn’t just a metaphor.
There’s an actual contract, appar-
ently, as well as an actual devil,
referred to here as Mr. Le Bail.
Brought to you by the horror
filmmaking collective known as
Radio Silence — a.k.a. co-direc-
tors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and
Tyler Gillett and executive pro-
ducer Chad Villella, whose résu-
mé includes the awful “Devil’s
Due” — the film is polished and
professional. And if the plot
doesn’t sound too silly to dismiss
out of hand, well then: go for it.
Weaving (the niece of the Austral-
ian actor Hugo Weaving) makes
for a game and moderately ap-
pealing heroine, eliciting oursympathy — if also a few groans
— as she suffers through bullet
wounds and other grisly injuries,
along with the indignity of falling
into the carrion pit where the
family has unceremoniously
dumped its previous victims.
This is, by some lights, fun.All the violence is, of course,
played for laughs, which came
often enough, during a recent
preview screening, to make this
crotchety critic wonder whether
there was something wrong with
him. (Don’t answer that.) The
dialogue is less than sparkling,and what passes for witty repar-
tee is mainly a barrage of sarcasti-
cally delivered f-bombs and such
insults as “gold-digging whore.”
The style of acting would, at a
sporting event, merely be called
shouting. Nicky Guadagni, as the
family’s bloodthirsty dowager
aunt, is the most histrionic, lead-
ing Andie MacDowell and Adam
Brody — those names are not
typos — to move through the film
with expressions of profound
mortification on their faces.
As for the rest of the cast, they
seem to be having a blast. Your
mileage may vary.
[email protected]ERIC ZACHANOWICH/FOX SEARCHLIGHT PICTURESR. At area theaters. Contains
violence, bloody images, crude
language throughout and some
drug use. 95 minutes.Mark O’Brien plays Alex Le
Domas, the youngest son in his
family. Grace, an outsider and
his bride-to-be, played by
Samara Weaving, is pursued in
a game she must choose on her
wedding night. The film sounds
like “The Hunt”but it is not.