Movie Review: Greenland 2: Migration (2026)

Genre: Apocalyptic Thriller  

Director: Ric Roman Waugh  

Starring: Gerard Butler, Morena Baccarin  

Running Time: 98 minutes  

Synopsis: A comet strike has wiped out most life on Earth. John Garrity (Gerard Butler), his wife Allison (Morena Baccarin), and son Nathan have been living in a Greenland bunker with other survivors for five years. But now seismic activity destroys the bunker, forcing the Garritys to flee. They travel by sea and land to Liverpool, where an old family friend is running a shelter, then onto France, where rumours are circulating that life is resprouting at the main comet crater site.

What Works Well: Gerard Butler's grizzled never-give-up attitude rescues a few moments. 

What Does Not Work As Well: More of a filmed video game than a serious movie, this unnecessary sequel is a listless and repetitive adventure where the Garrity family faces a frantic existential crisis (a planet convulsion, a human threat, or a plain old obstacle course) every 10 minutes. The special effects are cheesy and overcooked, the aesthetics grimy, the logic absent (everyone looks remarkably healthy given the absence of food and water; gasoline, bullets, and functional armaments seem plentiful), and the science ridiculous.

Key Quote:

John (to Ally): I promise you...I'm going to get you to the crater.

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Movie Review: A Family Man (2016)

Genre: Drama  

Director: Mark Williams  

Starring: Gerard Butler, Gretchen Mol, Alison Brie, Willem Dafoe, Alfred Molina  

Running Time: 108 minutes  

Synopsis: In Chicago, Dane (Gerard Butler) is a high-performing workaholic at a headhunting agency, habitually ignoring his wife Elise (Gretchen Mol) and their children. He routinely uses unethical tricks at work, but still cannot find a position for unemployed aging engineer Lou (Alfred Molina). The agency's boss Ed (Willem Dafoe) is retiring and encourages cut-throat competition between Dane and Wilson (Alison Brie) to determine his successor, but a family crisis threatens to derail career ambitions.

What Works Well: This work-versus-family drama probes the pressures of being the sole income provider, and the dangers of being sucked into the take-the-next-work-phone-call-at-any-hour ethos. Gerard Butler creates a worthwhile character out of Dane, who has evolved into an unlikable and selfish man never available to his family, and disturbingly comfortable with maliciously manipulating lives and careers for personal gain. The plot's maturity registers in the respectable time it takes for the family crisis, once it strikes, to seep into his consciousness.

What Does Not Work As Well: The script displays a tendency for repetition, providing several examples of Dane's immoral work practices, and replaying the same argument with Elise more than once. Alison Brie is underused, and the dramatic moments in the final act quickly creep from sensitive to schmaltzy. 

Key Quote:

Lou (to Dane): Every family has its issues. But you only have one family.

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Movie Review: Den Of Thieves 2: Pantera (2025)

Genre: Heist Action  

Director: Christian Gudegast  

Starring: Gerard Butler, O'Shea Jackson Jr.  

Running Time: 144 minutes  

Synopsis: After stealing a precious Mafia-controlled diamond in Antwerp, master thief Donnie (O'Shea Jackson Jr.) moves to Nice in southern France to plan a complex heist of the seemingly impenetrable World Diamond Centre. He connects with Cleopatra (Evin Ahmad) and her gang of Serb experts to plot the theft. Donnie's nemesis Nick O'Brien (Gerard Butler) of the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department is disgruntled with his law enforcement career, and shows up in Nice offering to switch sides. The two man have to guard against each other as well as disgruntled team members, while Mafia leaders are keen to get their diamond back.

What Works Well: This sequel tries something new by dialing down the hardcore grittiness of the original and aiming for a smoother, cooler vibe. The picturesque European locations underline the shift away from violence and towards cleverness, and just the one high-energy (electric) car-chase-with-bullets scene makes the final cut. Instead, director and writer Christian Gudegast elevates a tense and mostly quiet heist centrepiece sequence into a highlight, and searches for seeds of camaraderie between Donnie and Nick. 

What Does Not Work As Well: The running time is again unnecessarily flabby, the plot holes are sometimes just astonishing (including Mafia dudes showing in the middle of nowhere for a perfect intervention), and the supporting characters surrounding Donnie and Nick promise much but all fade into irrelevance. Every prominent vehicle is from the Audi/Porsche family, pushing product placement to an extreme.

Key Quote:

Nick (to Donnie): I'm broke, and I'm sick of being the hunter.

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Movie Review: Butterfly On A Wheel (2007)

Also Known As: Shattered  

Genre: Crime Thriller  

Director: Mike Barker  

Starring: Pierce Brosnan, Maria Bello, Gerard Butler  

Running Time: 91 minutes  

Synopsis: In Chicago, successful marketing executive Neil Randall (Gerard Butler) is on the fast track to career success and living the good life with his wife Abby (Maria Bello) and young daughter Sophie. Suddenly their life is upturned by a mysterious abductor (Pierce Brosnan) who holds Neil and Abby at gunpoint and threatens to harm Sophie unless they complete specific tasks. Neil and Abby frantically try to meet their abductor's demands while trying to understand his motivations and summon help.

What Works Well: Director Mike Barker quickly cranks up the tension and maintains an elevated level of thrills, close-calls, and frantic decisions-under-pressure. The three lead cast members add plenty of quality star power, and the action is supplemented by no shortage of cerebral dueling, the antagonist and victimized couple locked into a game of mental upmanship. The final act features a couple of juicy, if highly unlikely, twists.

What Does Not Work As Well: The plot holds on to its secrets too tightly and for too long. The abductor's identity and cause are stubbornly opaque, confining most of the obstacle course episodes (take item A to location B or else the child dies) into samey treatment with no context. 

Key Quote:

Never pick a fight with someone who's got nothing to lose.



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Movie Review: Kandahar (2023)

Genre: Action Thriller  

Also Known As: Mission Kandahar  

Director: Ric Roman Waugh  

Starring: Gerard Butler  

Running Time: 120 minutes  

Synopsis: After blowing up a secret Iranian nuclear facility, the CIA's Tom Harris (Gerard Butler) is desperate for family time but is quickly assigned a follow-up mission near the Iran - Afghanistan border. His local guide and interpreter is Mohammad Doud (Navid Negahban), who is looking for a step-sister missing in the chaos of Taliban rule. But Tom's cover is blown and along with Mohammad flees towards Kandahar, chased by Farzad (Bahador Foladi) of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards and Nasir (Ali Fazal) of the Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence. Tom's CIA colleague Roman Chalmers (Travis Fimmel) attempts to provide assistance.

What Works Well: This is a textured action thriller, filled with character definitions and drawing deep inspiration from the complex geopolitics of a dangerous global neighbourhood. Here spy agents are worth more alive than dead except when they are not, borders are porous, allegiances are bought and sold, and the enemy of my enemy is my friend is governing policy. Tom and Mohammad find themselves at the collision point of competing interests drawing in Iran, Pakistan, the Taliban, and ISIS-K, and screenwriter Mitchell LaFortune deserves credit for investing in multiple perspectives and humanizing most characters. And when it's time for the big explosions, shootouts, and chase scenes, Gerard Butler navigates the action with practiced gruffness. 

What Does Not Work As Well: Cell phones work in the middle of every Afghani desert, vehicles never run out of fuel, the cavalry arrives in the middle of nowhere but just in time (often for all sides), and these are just a few of the suspension-of-disbelief drivers. Some scenes are annoyingly obscured by a shroud of darkness.

Conclusion: Refreshingly broad in scope and immersed in motivational complexity.



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Movie Review: Last Seen Alive (2022)

Genre: Action Mystery Thriller  

Director: Brian Goodman  

Starring: Gerard Butler, Jaimie Alexander, Russell Hornsby  

Running Time: 95 minutes  

Synopsis: New England married couple Will and Lisa (Gerard Butler and Jaimie Alexander) are navigating relationship troubles while driving to her parents' house in Emerson, New Jersey. At a gas stop, Lisa goes into the store then disappears. A frantic Will calls the police and Detective Paterson (Russell Hornsby) responds. The gas station clerk Oscar appears to have something to hide, and surveillance video reveals Lisa was lured towards a car. Despite the scarcity of clues, Will is determined to find his missing wife.

What Works Well: This is a straightforward action-packed but still engaging thriller, with enough quality to overcome the obvious plotting. Gerard Butler effortlessly carries the acting load and springs into the necessary heroics on cue. The bad guys consist of riffraff coagulating at an edge-of-town compound modeled upon zombie encampments, the perfect setting for a husband to vent his mid-life frustrations and deploy big explosions to stop a marriage's sideways drift.

What Does Not Work As Well: There is almost nothing here that has not been seen before in other movies. The master villains are barely defined and the crime motivations remain abstract. A couple of scenes with Lisa's parents (including Bruce Altman as her father) are almost comically inept.

Conclusion: This Butler is bold, brash, and basic.



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Movie Review: Plane (2023)

Genre: Thriller

Director: Jean-François Richet

Starring: Gerard Butler, Mike Colter

Running Time: 107 minutes

Synopsis: Captain Brodie Torrance (Gerard Butler) is in charge of a Trailblazer Airlines New Year's Eve flight from Singapore to Tokyo. The light passenger load includes handcuffed prisoner Louis Gaspare (Mike Colter), an ex-French Foreign Legion soldier being extradited to Canada. A lightning strike forces Torrance to land the damaged plane on a small Phillipino island dominated by violent militants. Torrance and Gaspare have to collaborate to keep the passengers safe, as the airline hires a mercenary group to improvise a rescue.

What Works Well: The raucous thrill-every-ten-minutes attitude ensures a consistent level of basic enjoyment, and Gerard Butler and Mike Colter create an effective pair of protagonists with just enough background to register as interesting characters. The cinematography (filmed in Puerto Rico) captures lush beauty and the chaos of rule-by-militia lawlessness. 

What Does Not Work As Well: In a shallow script that barely rises above rudimentary levels, Gerard Butler's central role is sidelined, prisoner Gaspare and mercenary squad leader Shellback both emerging as more intriguing - and impactful - characters. The violence-loving separatist rebels are cartoon villains, most of the plane passengers register as glorified extras, and the CGI work is far from the required standards 

Conclusion: A low altitude, low budget flight sets and meets no-frills expectations.



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Movie Review: 300 (2006)

Genre: Historical War Action

Director: Zack Snyder

Starring: Gerard Butler, Lena Headey, Michael Fassbender, Rodrigo Santoro

Running Time: 117 minutes

Synopsis: Like all males born in Sparta, King Leonidas I (Gerard Butler) was raised to be a ferocious warrior. Married to Queen Gorgo (Lena Headey), his rule is threatened by the massive invading army of Persian King Xerxes (Rodrigo Santoro). The Sparta elders rule out an all-out war, so Leonidas gathers 300 Spartans and marches north to mount a defence by funneling the invaders into a narrow gorge. Leonidas' vastly outnumbered warriors are helped by other Greeks, but still face impossible odds in a battle that lasts for days.

What Works Well: Using historical events and a Frank Miller comic series as a canvass, director Zack Snyder paints a stunningly extravagant amalgamation of Sin City and Gladiator. Larry Fong's cinematography, a copper-toned colour palette, seamless special effects, a parade of near-naked torsos, historically self-conscious dialogue, and Tyler Bates' eternal music score combine to recreate an epic meat grinder of a final stand. Gerard Butler bites into a peak machismo role with enthusiasm and spouts his suitably corny one-liners with unbridled conviction. Lena Headey fights the homefront battle as Queen Gorgo dives into the arena of dirty politics to plead support for her husband's quest.

What Does Not Work As Well: The persistent narration unnecessarily amplifies the self-imposed grandeur, while all the characters good and bad are trapped in static archetypes.

Conclusion: Gruesome artistry, constructed with intentional campiness upon rousing themes of militaristic honour and freedom.

King Leonidas: Spartans! Ready your breakfast and eat hearty... FOR TONIGHT, WE DINE, IN HELL!

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Movie Review: Angel Has Fallen (2019)

An action thriller, Angel Has Fallen provides enough of a plot to sustain the requisite good quality action at breakneck speed. 

Secret Service Agent Mike Banning (Gerard Butler) is in line for a promotion to Director, although his body is starting to ail. He nevertheless springs into action and saves the life of President Trumbull (Morgan Freeman) when he is attacked by bomb-carrying drones while on a fishing trip. Trumbull is left in a coma, and because Banning is the only agent who survived, he is suspected of involvement in the attack.

Vice President Kirby (Tim Blake Nelson) is sworn in, and evidence emerges that Banning received large payments from Russian-linked sources. He is forced to go on the run to clear his name, with the FBI's Helen Thompson (Jada Pinkett Smith) in pursuit. Banning suspects a private military contracting firm led by his old friend Wade Jennings (Danny Huston) was behind the attack, and turns to his outcast father Clay Benning (Nick Nolte) for help.

The second sequel to 2013's Olympus Has Fallen finds Gerard Butler, at 50 years old, huffing and puffing his way through the role. At least the character's physical decline is consistent with the actor, and the movie places his ragged health at the forefront. Within this category of wild action flicks, the story is not bad: the antagonist Jennings is introduced in the first sequence, with an army of private contractors at his disposal and a reason to go to war (Trumbull opposes the use of military contractors). This time Banning is forced to worry about his family, confront his health, then fight back when all evidence points to his involvement in an act of treason.

Nick Nolte is another plus. The veteran actor brings a voice more gravelly than an old pickup truck on a dirt road, and an attitude to match. Most of what Clay Benning is up to is played for chuckles, and it's good for the series to poke fun at itself while still demonstrating the apple does not fall far from the tree. In addition to Nolte, Morgan Freeman, Danny Huston, and Piper Perabo (as Banning's wife) ensure a strong supporting cast.

Director Ric Roman Waugh knows enough to fast-forward through most of the static scenes, then delivers far-fetched yet polished set-pieces with gritted-teeth intensity. The opening attack on the President and the climactic storm-the-building finale are particularly well staged, and all the chases, gun battles, explosions, and infiltrations arrive at the necessary breathless clip. This angel makes a racket when falling down, but is even louder standing back up.

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Movie Review: Law Abiding Citizen (2009)

An action thriller, Law Abiding Citizen poses tough questions about the justice system then wades into a murky puddle of muddled loyalties.

In Philadelphia, government employee Clyde Shelton (Gerard Butler) witnesses the murder of his wife and daughter in a violent home invasion by criminals Ames and Darby. The assailants are arrested and charged; Ames is sentenced to death, but as a result of a plea bargain approved by prosecuting attorney Nick Rice (Jamie Foxx), Darby escapes with nothing more than a five year prison sentence.

Ten years later, Ames suffers a painful death in a botched execution by lethal injection. Darby is kidnaped and tortured to death by Clyde, who then surrenders. Nick and his boss District Attorney Jonas Cantrell (Bruce McGill) try to extract a confession, but Clyde is just starting an elaborate revenge plot targeting Nick and the entire flawed justice system. 

Half of an entertaining vigilante thriller, Law Abiding Citizen starts with a bang. Director F. Gary Gray and writer Kurt Wimmer create an unflinching nightmare as, in short order, Clyde loses everything then suffers again at the hands of a misfiring judicial process. The 10-year zip forward is effective, and the uncompromising revenge extracted upon the home invaders sets up what should have been a hard-hitting second half.

But towards the middle of the film Gray loses control. Law Abiding Citizen stalls in a series of increasingly far-fetched murders and atrocities veering well away from any rational vendetta. Clyde psychologically drifts from likeable victim seeking elaborate but morally justified revenge towards a mayhem-loving psychopath, while an awkward and ultimately unsuccessful U-turn attempts to place Nick at the plot's sympathetic centre. The unsatisfying climax short-changes both men and challenges time and space logic.

Despite the notable fade, many memorable moments are on offer, including a gotcha courtroom meltdown, a bloody jail cell episode, and a dangerous phone call in a judge's office. Gerard Butler and Jamie Foxx contribute plenty of presence without needing to stretch. They are well supported by Leslie Bibb as an up-and-coming prosecutor, Regina Hall as Nick's wife, and Viola Davis as a Mayor increasingly concerned by the explosion of violence in her city.

Law Abiding Citizen is first a man with a plan, then pain without gain.



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Movie Review: Greenland (2020)

An end-of-the-world thriller, Greenland focuses on individual actions as societal order disintegrates.

In Atlanta, structural engineer John Garrity (Gerard Butler) is trying to mend his marriage to Allison (Morena Baccarin) and be a good dad to his diabetic young son Nathan. A newly discovered comet dubbed Clarke is expected to pass close to earth but not cause serious damage. But then a piece of the comet wipes out Tampa, and John receives a Presidential alert ordering him to report with his family to a military base for evacuation to a secret shelter.

It's soon apparent the comet represents an extinction-level event, and governments have concealed the impact severity to avoid mass hysteria. In the chaos to board the evacuation plane John, Allison and Nathan are separated, but John learns the planes are heading to Greenland. The Garritys have to overcome numerous challenges to reunite at the rural home of Allison's father Dale (Scott Glenn), before trying to plot a path to survival.

After trying to save the world in the awful Geostorm, Gerard Butler narrows his objectives to just saving his family as another calamity threatens planet Earth. The result is a much better doomsday thriller, with only judicious use of not-bad special effects, mostly confined to the background.

The Chris Sparling script resonates by ignoring political leaders and governmental machinations. Officialdom is only represented by overwhelmed army volunteers following orders and trying to organize evacuations. Greenland primarily exists at the level of everyday families and individuals abandoned to deal with cataclysmic events on their own, and director Ric Roman Waugh thrives in portraying the range of reactions. 

After a solid opening act to establish the premise and the Garrity family dynamic, the middle segment is exceptionally dark, both in setting and events. First John is separated from Allison and Nathan, then Allison and Nathan are separated after a series of harrowing encounters exposing how quickly seemingly normal people can lose their senses. Meanwhile John also has to fight for survival and discovers attributes about himself he would have preferred to never learn.

But as some people embrace crime and anarchy, others go above and beyond to help. Greenland seeks a balance and underlines the range of human capability, both John and Allison encountering predators and saviours. Waugh underlines some altruistic acts with sentimental excess, but also succeeds in coupling intensity with searing revelations. John and Allison have their problems as an imperfect couple, but the survival experience brings them together in an affecting, visceral conclusion. The end of the world is an experience like no other to strip away distractions and reveal the essence of what matters.



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Movie Review: Hunter Killer (2018)

A submarine action thriller, Hunter Killer is a slick throwback to the era of well-made, edge-of-your-seat military movies.

Two submarines, one Russian and one American, are attacked and sunk almost simultaneously in Arctic waters. The US Navy responds by deploying the USS Arkansas to the area, under the command of new and untested Commander Joe Glass (Gerard Butler). A Navy SEAL team led by Lieutenant Bill Beaman (Toby Stephens) is also dispatched to eavesdrop on Russia's Polyarno naval base, where an unusual meeting is scheduled between Russian President Zakarin (Alexander Diachenko) and his Defence Minister Durov (Mikhail Gorevoy). 

The Arkansas has to evade an attack before rescuing Captain Andropov (Michael Nyqvist) of the sunken Russian sub. In the meantime war hawk Durov seizes power, holding Zakarin prisoner and manoeuvring for a confrontation with NATO naval forces. US Chairman of the Joints Chief of Staff Charles Donnegan (Gary Oldman) immediately seeks to escalate, but Rear Admiral John Fisk (Common) and National Security Agency senior analyst Jayne Norquist (Linda Cardellini) improvise audacious missions for Glass and Beaman to try and avert a catastrophic war.

Recalling earlier eras from the 1990s (The Hunt For Red October and Crimson Tide) and 1950s (Run Silent, Run Deep and The Enemy Below), Hunter Killer rolls back the years and overachieves. Adapting a book by Don Keith and George Wallace, co-writers Arne Schmidt and Jamie Moss deliver a solid script for director Donovan Marsh to work with. Co-produced by star Gerard Butler, this is a well-crafted and coherent geopolitical thriller, generally plausible and grounded in real-world tensions and nationalistic agendas that can tip military posturing into shooting wars.

The special effects are immersive and enhance the familiar submarine drama beats of maintaining stealth, evading attacks, and hunting enemies. But the introduction of a parallel on-the-ground mission by the four-man SEAL team is a surprisingly effective enhancement. The gritty infiltration and surveillance objectives (which eventually expand into much more) provide relief from the naturally claustrophobic underwater environs.

With Butler in typically stoic form but also conveying the requisite smarts, Commander Joe Glass is introduced as an unconventional leader who earned his way to the top. Everyone else stays within narrow limits, making way for narrative spice in the form of earned trust between Glass and Andropov, natural rivals who will have to work together to try and pull the world back from the brink of disaster.

Given the ambitious scope, some clunky and cheesy moments do creep in, Gary Oldman particularly culpable with a dismissive display of hawkishness, and shortcuts in time and space help to keep the action compact. But the two hours of running time fly by with a series of well-executed and sequentially logical action highlights, before Hunter Killer sails its way to appetizing pivot points where hunting and killing are a valid response but thinking and trusting may be more judicious actions. And global calamities hang on the small margins where such under-pressure decisions are unavoidable.

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Movie Review: P.S. I Love You (2007)

A romantic drama with some humour, P.S. I Love You explores the depths of grief with a polished wink. The romance is heartfelt, but the movie suffers from bloat and some drudgerous pacing.

New Yorkers Holly and Gerry Kennedy (Hilary Swank and Gerard Butler) have been married for nine years. They bicker about money, jobs and when to have a baby, but they are still very much in love. When Gerry dies due to a brain tumour, Holly is devastated and left without her soul mate. Her mother Patricia (Kathy Bates) as well as best friends Denise (Lisa Kudrow) and Sharon (Gina Gershon) do their best to console her. Bartender Daniel (Harry Connick Jr.) also offers a shoulder to lean on.

On her 30th birthday Holly receives the first of 10 pre-arranged letters from Gerry, encouraging her to be adventurous and visit his home town in Ireland. While the letters keep her emotionally tied to her deceased husband, she also starts to emerge out of her depression, reuniting with Gerry's parents and meeting his hunky best friend William (Jeffrey Dean Morgan). But finding her new calling in life will be a challenge.

Demonstrating courage to introduce the central couple then kill off the guy within the first 10 minutes, P.S. I Love You immediately dares to be different. Director Richard LaGravenese co-wrote the script adaptation of Cecelia Ahern's book, and allows the love between Holly and Gerry to wash over the grieving widow through a series of flashbacks as she follows his advice in the mysteriously delivered letters.

Gerry's immense continued influence in Holly's life is also conveyed in his occasional post-death presence at their apartment and in her bed, her longing for his voice, touch and companionship emerging as palpable and painfully real.

But LaGravenese also overstates the strength and scope of the story. P.S. I Love You extend to a wholly unnecessary 125 minutes. The editing is flabby, and on several occasions songs are belted out almost in their entirety to pad the running time. The tired cliche of Ireland as a magically perfect place filled with nothing but rolling green hills and jolly salt-of-the-earth types is trotted out for another outing.

Hilary Swank and Gerard Butler try their hands at romance with mixed results. They convince as a committed couple, and Swank allows herself to drown in a sea of grief and seething anger at life's unfairness. But they are on much less secure ground in the flashbacks to their earliest meetings as 19 year olds. Both actors are well into their 30s and poor impersonators of footloose teens.

The supporting cast provides good touches of humour. Lisa Kudrow's Denise is on a single-minded mission to find a husband using a utilitarian checklist, and Harry Connick Jr.'s Daniel does not allow the missing filter between his brain and mouth to impede his confidence.

Mixing pathos with playfulness, P.S. I Love You is a poignant if somewhat ponderous postscript.



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Movie Review: Geostorm (2017)

A science fiction disaster thriller, Geostorm is laughably inept.

A few years into the future the world unites to create a satellite-based system, nicknamed Dutch Boy, to combat climate change. American Jake Lawson (Gerard Butler) leads the global effort to build the system from the expanded International Space Station, but is then summarily fired for frequent insubordination and replaced by his more politically savvy brother Max (Jim Sturgess).

Three years later Dutch Boy starts to malfunction, causing multiple weather catastrophes and the threat of a globe-threatening "geostorm". President Palma (Andy Garcia) and Secretary of State Dekkon (Ed Harris) turn to Max for answers, and he convinces Jake to go back to the ISS and investigate. Jake and commander Ute Fassbinder (Alexandra Maria Lara) uncover evidence of an elaborate sabotage, while back on earth Max teams up with his lover, Secret Service Agent Sarah Wilson (Abbie Cornish), to identify the conspirators.

While the placement of climate change at the center of a large-scale disaster film is a laudable exercise in awareness-raising, it is worrisome that the solution conjured up by director and co-writer Dean Devlin seems to have nothing to do with curtailing carbon emissions and instead imagines an ability to zap the natural consequences.

Everything else about Geostorm suitably crashes to earth in a mess of bad writing and worse special effects. Both the science and the fiction are ridiculous, as are the overblown and overwhelmingly bad disaster visuals. The script consists of thrice recycled components, the animosity between brothers one of many cringe-worthy elements as Gerard Butler and Jim Sturgess struggle to produce any emotional resonance.

As for the conspiracy, it consists of a barely coherent power grab and weaponization of science by the usual disgruntled suits, although here the scale of global death and destruction unleashed in the name of seizing control of geopolitical destiny is well beyond comprehension and weighed down by juvenile CGI run amok.

Meanwhile back at the ISS the really old "self destruct" cliche is dusted off and trotted out, complete with a countdown clock and robotic warning voice. As massive explosions and fires devour everything surrounding Jake and Ute, somehow enough technology still functions to give them a chance to input "kill codes" to stop the carnage. The system reboot also still works and takes a matter a seconds, much faster than the typical cell phone, proof positive that technology will come a long way even as some movies eject intellect into a vacuum.

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Movie Review: Den Of Thieves (2018)

A gritty heist movie, Den Of Thieves enjoys good moments with uncompromising characters but offers little that is new to the genre.

In Los Angeles, ex-convict Ray Merrimen (Pablo Schreiber) leads a gang of well-organized bank robbers, most of whom are ex-Marines. A hold-up of an armored truck goes wrong, resulting in a wild shootout and attracting the attention of county sheriff  "Big Nick" O'Brien (Gerard Butler) and his tough group of detectives. Nick's personal life is falling apart, which only spurs him to take more risks on the job.

Nick pressures Donnie Wilson (O'Shea Jackson Jr.), a bartender and getaway driver, into revealing group membership details, and the gang is placed under close surveillance. But Merriman vows to never again be captured, and along with his associate Levi (Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson) proceeds with planning an audacious robbery of the Federal Reserve bank, a seemingly impregnable target.

Following in the footsteps of Heat (1995), The Town (2010) and Triple 9 (2016), Den Of Thieves adopts a familiar formula. Hardened criminals with high powered weaponry, smart leadership and military training pull off brazen robberies and plan successively higher risk heists, the film connecting the dots between action scenes with the usual attempts at character depth, macho posturing and investigative procedures.

While the overall quality is adequate, writer and director Christian Gudegast creates an unnecessarily flabby 140 minute movie, awash in a sickly yellow and brown aesthetic derived from suburban blandness. The action scenes carry plenty of kinetic zing, but Gudegast stumbles trying to establish a human connection. Nick's disintegrating marriage and strained family situation is contrived to maximum yawn levels, but even worse is a single disconsonant and just bizarre scene at gang member Levi's home, as his daughter prepares for her first serious date.

Elsewhere the men on both sides of the law hiss at each other with medieval levels of decorum, Den Of Thieves emphasizing the thin line between good guys and bad guys. Big Nick is happy to at least threaten to break every rule in his quest to maintain law and order, while Merriman is a mostly honourable thief, favouring clean operations with no shots fired and no one getting hurt. But his foot soldiers carry enough armament to win most small country civil wars, just in case.

Gerard Butler perfects the frumpled slob cop routine, his unbathed stink jumping off the screen. Pablo Schreiber gives Merrimen enough thoughtful polish to create a worthwhile adversary. The rest of the predominantly male cast members sweat a lot while revealing an impressive range of body art.

The final heist is complicated beyond comprehension and Gudegast throws in a too-late twist that lands awkwardly. Den Of Thieves rides the momentum of decent content, but with mediocre artistry.

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Movie Review: The Bounty Hunter (2010)

A romantic action comedy, The Bounty Hunter is a flighty exercise in star power dimmed by lack of inspiration.

Milo (Gerard Butler) is an ex-cop, now scraping a living as a bounty hunter. His latest assignment is too delicious to turn own: he is asked to track down his ex-wife Nicole (Jennifer Aniston), a driven reporter who missed a court date to chase down a story. Nicole is trying to uncover the truth behind the suspicious suicide of a police evidence room attendant. Meanwhile, fellow reporter Stewart (Jason Sudeikis) is lusting after Nicole to try and get her into a relationship, but she is not interested.

With Stewart not far behind, Milo connects with his flamboyant ex-mother-in-law Kitty (Christine Baranski) and quickly tracks down Nicole in Atlantic City, but she proves to be a handful to control. Soon the bickering couple attract the attention of corrupt cop Earl (Peter Greene), as well as a group of thugs who work for loan shark Irene (Cathy Moriarty). Milo is determined to bring Nicole to justice and collect his bounty, and she is just as insistent on exposing a conspiracy that appears to involve Milo's old cop buddy Bobby (Dorian Missick).

Directed by Andy Tennant, The Bounty Hunter features a mix of harmless action, cartoonish villains, and a barely-there plot all set against a backdrop of a continuously quarrelsome couple. That it will all end with Milo and Nicole reaching some sort of reconciliation is never in doubt; that every possible detour will be deployed to prolong the inevitable is also a certainty.

The film drags on for 106 minutes, much of it registering as an Atlantic City infomercial, as somehow an utterly unnecessary casino gambling interlude is shoehorned into the script. A sojourn onto a swanky golf course is another set-piece, although at least some smiles are raised in a madcap race across the fairways.

The film has nothing if not some star charisma, and Jennifer Aniston and Gerard Butler do their best to drag proceedings towards a basic level of entertainment. Aniston is more comfortable with the lightweight material and the better moments tend to involve Nicole conniving to rescue bad situations to her advantage. Butler is more monotonal and less effective, his portrayal of the sloppy and boorish Milo presenting a compelling case as to why Nicole should keep her distance.

Not too funny, not too exciting and not too romantic, The Bounty Hunter is not much of anything.

All Ace Black Blog Movie Reviews are here.

Movie Review: London Has Fallen (2016)

A mindless action thriller, London Has Fallen is a disappointing sequel, going far beyond suspension of disbelief and into ridiculous territory.

American intelligence services destroy the desert hideout of international arms dealer Aamir Barkawi (Alon Moni Aboutboul) with a drone strike. Two years later the British Prime Minister dies suddenly. All the world's leader make plans to attend the funeral in London, including US President Ben Asher (Aaron Eckhart). His Secret Service Director Lynne Jacobs (Angela Bassett) is nervous about the lack of security planning time, and agent Mike Banning (Gerard Butler) is entrusted with keeping the President safe. With his wife Leah (Radha Mitchell) pregnant, Banning is contemplating resigning from active duty but accepts the London assignment.

Just before the funeral is set to start at St. Paul's Cathedral, a large number of heavily armed terrorists  disguised as police officers launch coordinated attacks throughout London, causing mass casualties. Banning is barely able to extract Asher from the main attack zone, and the two go on the run. The attack is funded by Barkawi, seeking revenge for the death of his family members. With London swarming with terrorists, Banning has to keep the President alive long enough for friendly backup forces to arrive.

While 2013's Olympus Has Fallen was a laudable riff on Die Hard, London Has Fallen chucks out all that was good about the original, and leaves only brain dead action behind. After just 15 minutes of rudimentary set-up, director Babak Najafi unleashes the noise and fury of a London overrun by terrorists, and the film does not take a breath for the remainder of its 99 minutes.

There is a fine line between a far-fetched premise and just a lazy idea. Olympus was a far-fetched premise very well executed. London lands with a thud on the wrong side of that boundary. The script requires a massive number of police officers -- even Buckingham Palace guards! -- to be secretly replaced with an army of bad guys armed to the teeth with machine guns and grenades in the run up to London's biggest ever security operation, without anyone noticing.

And after the initial attack things get worse, with hordes of terrorists on motorcycles, in cars and with stinger missiles having free run of the city, and no genuine enforcement types of any stripe even attempting any sort of intervention. Of course the same terrorist leaders who carefully planned this secret but massive operation consisting of thousands of undetected attackers will now be stupid enough to be defeated by a single secret service agent.

Despite all its faults and some cheap special effects, London Has Fallen occasionally captures the freewheeling spirit of a third-person shooter console game, Najafi at least staging his numerous action scenes with some panache. And in Gerard Butler he has an actor willing to grit his teeth and get on with all the killing necessary to save his President, while almost giving the impression that he is taking it all seriously.

In addition to Eckhart and Basset, the supporting cast also includes Morgan Freeman in another throwaway performance as the Vice President, while Melissa Leo and Robert Forster are utterly wasted in tiny roles.

London may have fallen, but the quality of this franchise fell faster and deeper.

All Ace Black Blog Movie Reviews are here.

Movie Review: The Ugly Truth (2009)

An undistinctive romantic comedy, The Ugly Truth offers decent star power but can't wriggle out of the genre's straightjacket.

Abby (Katherine Heigl) is an unattached television producer, a believer in romance and still looking for the perfect Mr. Right. With ratings in a slump, her station brings on outspoken shock jock Mike (Gerard Butler) to juice up the show. Mike believes only in lust and that women who are seeking an ideal romance are deluded.

Abby and Mike immediately clash, but he nevertheless helps her to develop a budding relationship with her new next door neighbour Colin (Eric Winter), an orthopedic surgeon who seems too good to be true. Mike tutors Abby in the art of seduction and Colin falls for her charms. But Mike and Abby also start to develop feelings for each other, despite having little in common.

There is nothing in The Ugly Truth that isn't totally predictable. Director Robert Luketic is unable to do anything unique or original with the feeble material, and indeed the television studio news show setting reeks of rom-com ideas about 20 years behind the times. In the late 1980s films like Broadcast News and Switching Channels played in this space for better or worse, and here Abby's workspace is a flashing sign warning of no new ideas.

It is left to stars Katherine Heigl and Gerard Butler to wring some laughs out of the dross, and they do on occasion deliver. Both Heigl and Butler are better than the movie, and thanks to a foul-mouthed script oriented at adults and full of say-what's-really-on-your-mind obscenities, The Ugly Truth at least allows Abby and Mike to fully have a go at each other with some spirited verbal sparring. It may be often juvenile and always low-brow, but there are laughs to be had in the clash between the idealistic romantic and the boorish chauvinist.

Along the way the film pokes some fun at both simplistic men and overcomplicated women, as the two protagonists inevitably push towards the middle. When Abby and Mike do finally emotionally connect on the dance floor and then in a hotel elevator, Luketic delivers a decent sequence where adults are rocked by the rush of unexpected feelings. And the latest attempt to mimic the fake orgasm scene from When Harry Met Sally is actually pretty funny.

Otherwise the pacing is clunky, the opposites attract theme too tired to even pretend to be convincing, and the supporting characters are straight out of cheap television sit-com territory. The truth is that despite two attractive stars, this film experience is mostly just ugly.

All Ace Black Blog Movie Reviews are here.

The Movies Of Gerard Butler

All movies starring Gerard Butler and reviewed on the Ace Black Movie Blog are linked below:

Tomorrow Never Dies (1997)

300 (2006)

Butterfly On A Wheel (2007)

P.S. I Love You (2007)

The Ugly Truth (2009)

Law Abiding Citizen (2009)

The Bounty Hunter (2010)

Movie 43 (2013)

Olympus Has Fallen (2013)

London Has Fallen (2016)

A Family Man (2016)

Geostorm (2017)

Den Of Thieves (2018)

Hunter Killer (2018)

Angel Has Fallen (2019)

Greenland (2020)

Last Seen Alive (2022)

Plane (2023)

Kandahar (2023)

Den Of Thieves 2: Pantera (2025)

Greenland 2: Migration (2026)

All Ace Black Movie Blog reviews are here.
The Movie Star Index is here.