From Uncork'd Entertainment comes the new political action thriller, America Has Fallen. Based on current themes of war and domestic terrorism, this low brow, no budget feature plays to the conspiratorial mindset that covers our nation. Part Shooter, part Bait, part U.S. Marshalls, a man is implicated in an explosive terrorist plot that puts him in the crosshairs of government agencies. While he tries to prove his innocence, a blanket of right wing, gun toting, non-committal plot elements unfold into a movie that has a lot of heart but lacks the talent to pull this thing off. Like most other movies that have no resources, the lack of proper effects work and amateur level acting taints this flick from the very second it starts.
Falling back on standard interrogation tropes, story points we've all seen before and a script that's riddled with holes, this only qualifies as a straight to video action wannabe that strives to create 24 like tension but falls into a pit of thrown away shaky cam footage that's not even watchable. Using old warehouses and terrible looking sets, America Has Fallen tries so hard to create a sense of gritty realism that it absolutely falters behind a reprehensible audio mix that pulls the viewer right out of the movie. Honestly, the person that made this probably worked hard to try and make what they thought would be a good riff on our fears of explosions and mayhem. They're obviously a big fan of Jack Bauer and Jason Bourne. What they end up giving us is a dollar store knock off that's not entertaining in the least that uses a stock score that's annoying and off putting.
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| Are you scared yet? |
And then there's the villain. Like a dime store rehash of Tom Hardy's Bane blended with the real world's political hacktivists Anonymous, there is nothing scary about the character. Hidden behind a silly looking gas mask and a voice that sounds like a total rehash of that previously mentioned Batman foe, America Has Fallen is nothing anyone needs to see. It's all been done before.
I declare Jihad on this horrendous film.
Score
-CG