London Has Fallen Icon Cinema’s $5 Tuesday Movie Pick of the Week

This is the second week for the release of a Gerard Butler Hollywood flick; however, instead of being a larger-than-life angry God with a Scottish accent wanting to take over the world, he’s a Scottish actor playing an American Secret Service Agent. In true Braveheart fashion, Butler protects and defends the President of the United States at all costs.

Similar to Gods of Egypt, London Has Fallen came in second this week to another film, in this case being Walt Disney’s Zootopia. Also, like Gods of Egypt, critics and ratings of the film weren’t quite so favorable.

As stated, in London Has Fallen, Butler plays Mike Banning, an American Secret Service Agent who protects the President of the U.S. played by Aaron Eckhart. Banning, the U.S. President, and other world leaders learn that revenge is both “swift and violent” when they attend the funeral of England’s Prime Minister. That’s when London falls into the hands of ISIS-like terrorists out to destroy the Western World.

Okay, so this is another movie that got a low rating on Rotten Tomatoes. At #2, the flick raked in $21.7 million, but it did a little better than Gods of Egypt. Critics gave the movie an average rating of 4 out of 10, or 26 percent, out of 110 reviews on the TOMATOMETER. Movie lovers gave the flick a 3.6 out of 5, or 64 percent, based on 19,360 user ratings.

Critics noted, “London has fallen traps a talented cast—and all who dare to see it—in a mid-1990s basic-cable nightmare of a film loaded with xenophobia and threadbare action-thriller clichés.”

Quite honestly, I thought the 90s action-thriller vibe to the movie worked; but, as with Gods of Egypt, watching the movie in Icon Cinema’s Screen 2 theater where the seats vibrate with all the action, movie viewers become immersed in that “action-thriller” vibe. That makes it more enjoyable. It’s also another movie you don’t have to overthink as it has all the normal bad guy wants to destroy America and the Western World, and one great American saves the day cliché element to it.

Now, is there some xenophobia? Yes. However, that’s the case with many movies of the same genre that deal with good versus evil. Whenever we’re at war with a particular country, that group of people become the Other (the evil ones/bad guys) who want to destroy life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That happens to be extremist Muslims associated with groups like al-Qaeda and ISIS at the moment. Previously, the Other included Mexicans, Blacks, Cubans, Catholic Irish, Russians…you get the picture.

Additionally, there are some silly one-liners worthy of an Arnold Schwarzenegger film; only in this case, they come from a Scot playing an American in a very William Wallace-like way. One thing’s for sure, after a hard day at work, or maybe during a Tuesday off, or even while playing hooky, all the violence and explosions mixed with American patriotism, vibrating seats, all-you-can-eat popcorn, all-you-can-drink soft drinks and a bit of candy, it’s worth the price of a discounted admission ticket.

Of course, for the added movie experience of vibrating seats, movie goers have to pay $2 more, but that’s still less than what they would pay on any other day. Again, as with Gods of Egypt, this is a movie that works best with all the above-mentioned. Overall, San Angelo LIVE! rates London Has Fallen with 4 out 5 stars based on the full Icon movie experience; without it, that rate falls to 3 out of 5 stars.

For people who want to experience London Has Fallen in the Vibrating Seats theater ($7 or $8 if reserved online) or Iconic Theater ($5 or $6 if reserved online), here are Tuesday’s showtimes:

• 1 p.m.
• 3:20 p.m.
• 5:40 p.m.
• 8 p.m.
• 9:35 p.m.
• 10:20 p.m.

To see what the movie is about, watch the trailer below.

Click here to reserve your seating now, so all you have to do is walk in to Icon Cinema, get your snacks and enjoy a movie on a Tuesday.