London Has Fallen

The get-the-President movie, a genre we might term "POTUS in Peril", has had a chequered history, from The President's Plane Is Missing, Air Force One and Escape from New York to White House Down and Olympus Has Fallen. Now here's London Has Fallen, which is the sequel to the last of these, but adds almost nothing in the way of innovation or inspiration.

However, fans of Gerard Butler, the bookmaker's son from Paisley who has risen to become the new Chuck Norris as well as an ambassador for Boss Bottled ("a truly masculine fragrance for men"), will be rewarded with copious helpings of his lunkheaded "charm" as he sets about hacking a swathe through the bad guys while once again rescuing President Benjamin Asher (Aaron Eckhart). Butler plays Mike Banning, a former US Ranger and now a secret service man on the Presidential detail. Once more he's the last bestubbled, expletive-grunting hero left standing after a ludicrously elaborate conspiracy starts obliterating assorted heads of state, who have gathered in London for the funeral of the British Prime Minister, James Wilson (Butler and Eckhart hear the news about London house prices, below).

Asher is the prized target, though Brexit enthusiasts may enjoy a chortle at the spectacle of the French premier being vapourised by a huge floating bomb on the Thames. The lavish use of London locations is the flick's most, or perhaps only, memorable trademark. There are plush overhead shots of the City, Westminster and the South Bank, with Battersea bridge and Westminster Abbey starring in their own mini disaster movie. St Paul's Cathedral (where the PM's funeral service is being held) soars majestically above an early set-piece in which swarms of assassins, disguised as everything from policemen to ambulance drivers, lay siege to the gaggle of unsuspecting international statespersons. With bodies dropping all around him, Banning hustles Asher into a Range Rover and speeds off towards a rendezvous with the Presidential helicopter, while murderous motorcyclists spray them with bullets. But it's going to be a long day.

In Olympus Has Fallen it was a group of rogue North Koreans who stormed the White House, aiming to take the President hostage to stop the Americans from thwarting their invasion of South Korea. This time, the diabolical eminence grise is billionaire Pakistani arms dealer Aamir Bakawi (Alon Aboutboul), who's seeking vengeance for a drone attack that killed his daughter (below, London's burning).

However, this isn't Homeland, so plot and character are chucked onto the screen like buckets of whitewash. Olympus Has Fallen at least had the death of the First Lady to add a twist of ersatz pathos, but all we get here is Mr and Mrs Banning anxiously expecting the birth of their new baby. The villains are one-dimensional fanatics who make Keith Lemon look like Jean-Paul Sartre, so of course Butler is their perfect adversary. As he drags the President around London, trying to evade their pursuers, he takes a sadistic delight in repaying the villains in kind, literally twisting the knife in the wound. "Was that really necessary?" asks Asher, after Banning has amusingly tortured one to death. "No," he retorts. Or again – Asher: "I've never seen a man choke to death before." Banning: "I didn't have a knife."

Even when the SAS are called to lend a hand, they become mere extras in the Mike Banning Show, as he tracks down the terrorists to their concealed lair in central London, where they aim to broadcast the President's demise to a horrified world (which includes Morgan Freeman, amiably reprising his role as the President's stand-in, Alan Trumbull). On the bright side, it's only 99 minutes long. On the dark side, the new British Prime Minister is called Clarkson.