London Has Fallen (2016)

Elevator Pitch: After the death of the British PM world leaders, including the US president guarded by his personal security Mike Banning. But as they begin to collect at St Pauls, many are shot down by terrorists wearing police, ambulance and guardsman’s uniforms. Concurrently there are massive explosions in many London landmarks. Mike and the president escape in an American Range Rover but are chased by the enemy, and once in  the presidential helicopter are shot down, leaving the two on foot attempting to get to safety. Oh dear!

Content:  There is no sex or nudity, nor any drinking, smoking or drug taking. There is a drone attack on an arms dealer’s family somewhere in the Middle East. We see the heads of state beginning to collect in London prior to the extreme events. Then there are many explosions both in London landmarks and on the river in barges, resulting in the destruction of bridges. There are car chases and helicopter crashes, finally resulting in the US president and Mike sneaking through the streets of London. There are many fire fights with automatic weapons, mostly in the dark.

A View: We are living in a world where there are constant plots to attack the inhabitants of many big cities, so if we are being charitable we might say that the film makers did not want to point out to dissidents a way in which they might attack London. This is because the actual plot is absolutely fatuous. How could an arms dealer manage in two years either to infiltrate or replace large sections of the UK security services? And where did the hundreds of armed men come from? This alternative reality is so stupid that I would suggest you give this outing a miss.

I am a bit of a fan of shoot’em ups so have reviewed 42 of them on my website. Here are three which I liked better than this one: Dredd, Everly and the one worthwhile Steven Seagal film, Under Siege .