Olympus Has Fallen

 Released Year: 2013

Directed by Antoine Fuqua

Casted by:

Gerard Butler as Mike Banning

Aaron Eckhart as Benjamin Asher

Morgan Freeman as Allan Trumbull

Rick Yune as Kang Yeonsak

Angela Bassett as Lynne Jacobs

Dylan McDermott as Dave Forbes

Finley Jacobsen as Connor Asher

Melissa Leo as Ruth McMillan

Ashley Judd as Margaret Asher

Radha Mitchell as Leah Banning

 Story: 

Former Army Ranger Mike Banning is the lead U.S. Secret Service agent assigned to head the U.S. Presidential detail. Banning maintains a personal, friendly relationship with President Benjamin Asher, First Lady Margaret and their son Connor. During a snowy Christmas evening drive from Camp David to a campaign fundraiser, the car transporting the First Family spins out of control on a bridge; Banning pulls Asher from the vehicle, but Margaret falls to her death while inside the car.

Eighteen months later, having been removed from the presidential detail, Banning works at Treasury headquarters. During a meeting between Asher and South Korean Prime Minister Lee Tae-Woo (Keong Sim), terrorists led by Kang Yeonsak, a North Korean terrorist driven to reunify Korea, mount an air and ground assault that results in the capture of the White House. The group is aided by treasonous members of the prime minister's own detail, including Dave Forbes, a former Secret Service agent. Asher and several top officials are held hostage in the White House bunker; South Korean Prime Minister Lee is executed on live video. Before his own death, detail agent Roma alerts the Director of the Secret Service Lynne Jacobs that "Olympus has fallen".

Kang seeks to use Asher's hostage status as leverage to force U.S. officials to withdraw the Seventh Fleet and U.S. forces from the Korean Peninsula, removing American opposition to a North Korean invasion of South Korea. He also seeks to destroy the American nuclear weapons stockpile by detonating them in their respective silos across the country, turning the U.S. into an irradiated wasteland as revenge for the death of his family. To accomplish this, he requires the access codes to a system in the bunker called Cerberus, which are held by three top government officials within the bunker, including the President. Asher orders the other two officials to reveal their codes to save their lives, certain that he will not give up his code.

During the initial assault by Kang's forces, Banning joins the White House's combatants. He falls back into the White House, disabling the internal surveillance and gaining access to Asher's satellite ear phone, which he uses to maintain contact with Jacobs and Allan Trumbull, the Speaker of the House, now the Acting President. Authorized to proceed, Banning’s first act is to save Connor, whom Kang plans to use to force Asher to reveal his Cerberus code. Banning finds Connor hiding in the walls, thanks to the training Banning had given him, and sneaks the boy to safety. Banning begins reconnaissance and reduces the terrorists' numbers. Banning kills Forbes, first convincing the traitor to report to Kang that Banning is dead. Meanwhile, Army Chief of Staff General Edward Clegg convinces Trumbull to order an aerial SEAL assault on the White House. Kang deploys an advanced anti-aircraft gun system in his possession. Discovering the system, Banning advises Trumbull and Clegg to abort the mission, but the new weapon system annihilates the assault force before Banning can stop it. Kang retaliates for the infiltration by killing Vice President Charlie Rodriguez.

After Banning disables Kang’s communications, Kang tries to execute Secretary of Defense Ruth McMillan outside the White House in front of the media, but Banning rescues her, taking out several of Kang's men in the process. With his forces dwindling, Kang fakes both his own death and Asher's by sacrificing several of his men and the remaining hostages. However, Banning believes that Kang has faked his death and will attempt to sneak away. Kang eventually cracks Asher’s code using brute-force attack and activates Cerberus. As Kang attempts to escape, Banning kills the remaining terrorists, but Kang shoots Asher in the abdomen when the President tries to resist. Banning and Kang confront each other and a climactic fight breaks out, in which Kang quickly maintains the upper hand. Eventually, Banning kills Kang by stabbing him in the head with a knife and then disables Cerberus with the assistance of Trumbull, with only seconds to spare. During daybreak that day, Banning walks out with Asher and is received by the soldiers posted to await their arrival. After the events, the U.S. begins to heal from the attack, while Banning once again heads the president's security detail. President Asher addresses the public while Banning, Jacobs, Clegg, and Connor observe.

 L² Scored: 8.5/10

L² Comment:

There's really not much fate between me & this movie actually. I remember the first time when I bought the movie ticket to watch this movie, within the first half an hour, a friend called me and say he needs help due to an accident, i ditched the movie and went for rescue. The friend whom i offered my help treat me to cinema to watch this movie on the following week, but i was forced to cancel it because i got high fever at that time...

When i wanted to watch this movie with my friends after a year through blu-ray, when we open the DVD, we realize it was not "Olympus Has Fallen" in it, instead it was a thriller movie that time lol~ Finally when i was alone in a quiet night, i managed to finish this movie :p

It was nice, very exciting as well. But of course i understand this is just a movie, but the attack of the terrorist is too powerful and it make me scared ~ Gosh... who can protect us if the US white house is down too? Lol~ i'm just being a bit too drama myself haha...

P.S. I Love You

 Released Year: 2007

Directed by Richard LaGravenese

Casted by:

Hilary Swank as Holly Reilly-Kennedy

Gerard Butler as Gerry Kennedy

Lisa Kudrow as Denise Hennessey

Gina Gershon as Sharon McCarthy

James Marsters as John McCarthy

Harry Connick, Jr. as Daniel Connelly

Jeffrey Dean Morgan as William Gallagher

Nellie McKay as Ciara Reilly

Kathy Bates as Patricia Reilly

Story: 

Holly and Gerry are a married couple who live on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. They are deeply in love, but they fight occasionally. By winter that year, Gerry suddenly dies of a brain tumor and Holly realizes how much he means to her as well as how insignificant their arguments were.

Deeply distraught, Holly withdraws from her family and friends out of grief until they descend upon her on her 30th birthday. They are determined to prod the young widow to face the future and explore what her life choices should be. As they rally around Holly and help organize her apartment, a cake is delivered, and with it is a message from Gerry. It proves to be the first of several meaningful messages — all ending with "P.S. I Love You" — which he had arranged to have delivered to her after his death. As the seasons pass, each new message fills her with encouragement and sends her on a new adventure. Holly's mother believes that Gerry's letters are keeping Holly tied to the past. But they are, in fact, pushing her into the future. With Gerry's words as her guide, Holly slowly embarks on a journey of rediscovery.

Gerry arranged for Holly and her friends Denise and Sharon to travel to his homeland of Ireland. They arrive at their destination, a house in the beautiful Irish countryside where they find letters from Gerry for Sharon & Denise, one asking Denise to take Holly to his favorite pub. While there, they meet William, a singer who strongly reminds Holly of her deceased husband. He asks her to stay to see him after his last song which he dedicates to her. Upon hearing it, she is overcome with emotion and walks out because it was the song Gerry sang to her shortly after they first met. During the vacation, while on a fishing trip they lose the boat's oars leaving the three women stranded in the middle of a lake. During their wait for help, Sharon announces that she is pregnant and Denise reveals she is getting married. This news causes Holly to relapse emotionally and again withdraw into herself. They are eventually rescued by William, whom Sharon and Denise invite to stay the night because of the pouring rain. Unable to deny their feelings for each other, they kiss, and William and Holly become intimate. They begin a conversation about her deceased husband and Holly asks William to drive her to visit her in-laws. Upon Holly revealing their names, William realizes she is the widow of his childhood best friend. Revealing this to Holly causes her to panic, but William calms her down and starts to tell stories about his and Gerry's childhood. The next day, Holly visits Gerry's parents and while there, she also receives a letter from Gerry reminding her of their first meeting.

Arriving home, Holly again withdraws from family and friends. As she continues to become more and more lost, she is inspired by Gerry after finding one his suspender clips next to one of her shoes and realizes she has a flair for designing women's shoes and enrolls in a class that teaches how to actually make the shoes she has designed. A new found self-confidence allows her to emerge from her solitude and embrace her friends' happiness. While on a walk with her mother, she learns that her mother was the one whom Gerry asked to deliver his letters after his death and receives the last letter. As the film ends with Holly taking her mother on a trip to Ireland, we see that Holly has opened herself up to the journey beginning with the next chapter of her life, and wherever it takes her she has the hope of falling in love again.

 L² Scored: 8/10 

L² Comment: 

The movie is based on Cecilia Ahern's same name novel in 2004; though many negative critics were received back in 2007 mainly on Swank's performance, but for me this doesn't affect my scoring, i still think its a good movie :) 

Love the storyline and it really touch me some parts especially the way the dead husband arrange a one year letter to be send to the wife daily and arrange her life perfectly... Lisa Kudrow and Kathy Bates are perfect no doubt; too bad Gerard Butler is not showing us his nice ass instead of Jeffrey Dean Morgan; Swank is not tat bad, but of coz not persuasive enough when she acted like a college student coz her look is a bit too mature for that~

How to Train Your Dragon 2

Released Year: 2014

Directed by Dean DeBlois

Casted by:

 Jay Baruchel as Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III

Cate Blanchett as Valka

Gerard Butler as Stoick

America Ferrera as Astrid Hofferson

Djimon Hounsou as Drago Bludvist

Story: 

 Five years after the Viking village of Berk has made peace with the dragons, dragons now live amongst the villagers as working animals and companions, and even take part in racing sport. Hiccup goes on adventures with his dragon, Toothless, as they discover and map unexplored lands and territories. Having come of age, he is being pressed by his father, Stoick the Vast, to succeed him as chieftain, although Hiccup remains unsure if he is ready for this responsibility.

While investigating a wildfire, Hiccup and Astrid discover the remains of a fort encased in a colossal ice formation and encounter a dragon trapper named Eret, who blames them for the destruction of his fort and attempts to capture their dragons for an insane conqueror called Drago Bludvist. The two riders return to Berk to warn Stoick about the dragon army that Drago is amassing, and Stoick orders the villagers to fortify the island and prepare for battle. Against Stoick's orders, Hiccup flies off with Astrid and they surrender themselves and their dragons to Eret so as to be taken to Drago in order to reason with him. However, Stoick, Gobber, and Berk's other dragon riders pursue and find them.

Stoick explains that he once met Drago and found him to be an unreasonable madman, but Hiccup refuses to believe that war is inevitable and flies off with Toothless. They are captured by a dragon rider named Valka, who is revealed to be Hiccup's long lost mother. She explains that she spent twenty years rescuing dragons from Drago's traps and bringing them to an island haven created out of ice by a colossal Alpha dragon called a Bewilderbeast, to whom all dragons answer. Stoick tracks Hiccup to the island where he discovers that his wife is still alive. Simultaneously, Astrid and the other riders kidnap Eret to find Drago, but they are also captured and Drago learns of Berk's dragons.

Drago and his army lay siege to Valka's sanctuary, where he reveals that he has his own Bewilderbeast to challenge the Alpha. A titanic battle ensues between the two Bewilderbeasts in a fight for control over all dragons on the island. Drago's Bewilderbeast emerges victorious and seizes control of all the dragons, including Toothless. Hiccup tries to persuade Drago to end the violence, but Drago orders him killed as well. Toothless, under the influence of the new Alpha, approaches Hiccup and fires a plasma blast. At the last instant, Stoick pushes Hiccup out of the way, and is hit instead, killing him instantly. Drago leaves Hiccup to his fate and, riding Toothless, leads his now larger army to destroy Berk. Stoick is given a ship burial and Hiccup, now filled with regret at the loss of his father, decides that he will fly back to Berk to defend his people and live up to his father's legacy.

The dragon riders ride baby dragons, which are immune to the Bewilderbeast's control, and arrive at Berk after the Alpha had already attacked the village and taken control of the dragons there. Hiccup confronts Drago and a brainwashed Toothless while the other riders work to distract the Bewilderbeast. Drago again orders Toothless to kill Hiccup, but Hiccup succeeds in disenchanting Toothless. Drago then orders the Alpha to shoot the pair, and the Bewilderbeast successfully encases them in a large blast of ice, seemingly killing them. His victory is short-lived, as Toothless, now glowing with plasma, blasts away the ice, revealing that both he and Hiccup are unharmed. Toothless challenges the Alpha and repeatedly fires plasma blasts at the Bewilderbeast. This frees the other dragons from the Bewilderbeast's control and all fire at it, severely injuring the colossal dragon until Toothless fires a final massive blast, breaking its left tusk.

Defeated, Drago and his Bewilderbeast retreat into the ocean as the villagers celebrate their victory. All the dragons acknowledge Toothless as the new Alpha dragon, and Hiccup is made chief of Berk by the village elder. The film ends with Berk being rebuilt with a statue of Stoick erected in his honor, and Hiccup doing his duties as chief, proudly declaring that while others may have armies and armadas, Berk has its own dragons.

 L² Scored: 9/10

L² Comment:

After 4 years, this nice animation is back for the sequence~ the character has grow big and so are the dragons. The graphic and story are much more better than the first movie and apparently there are more characters involved as well. Feel kinda excited when i see the dragon king appeared but more shock and exciting to see night fury has got its special power~ Hope there will be a 3rd movie coming up soon~

300

 Released Year: 2006

Directed by Zack Synder

Casted by:

 Gerard Butler as King Leonidas

Rodrigo Santoro as King Xerxes

Lena Headey as Queen Gorgo

 Story:

Dilios, a Spartan soldier, narrates the story of Leonidas from his boyhood to becoming a king of Sparta. Years later, a Persian messenger arrives at the gates of Sparta, demanding the submission of Sparta to King Xerxes. In response to this demand, Leonidas kicks the messenger into a large well. Knowing this will prompt a Persian attack, Leonidas visits the Ephors—ancient leprosy-ridden priests whose blessing he needs before the Spartan council will authorize going to war. He proposes they repel the numerically superior Persians by using the terrain of Thermopylae (the Hot Gates) and funneling the Persians into a narrow pass between the rocks and the sea. The Ephors consult the Oracle, who decrees that Sparta must not go to war during their religious festival Carnea. As Leonidas departs, two agents of Xerxes appear—one of them, Theron, a Spartan—who bribe the Ephors with concubines and money.

Leonidas follows his plan anyway, setting out with only 300 soldiers, whom he calls his personal guards to avoid needing the council's permission. Though he regards the mission as certain suicide, he hopes the sacrifice will spur the council to unite against Persia. On the way to Thermopylae, Arcadians join the Spartans. At Thermopylae they construct a wall to contain the approaching Persians. As construction goes on, Leonidas meets Ephialtes, a hunchbacked Spartan in exile whose parents fled Sparta to spare him certain infanticide. Wanting to redeem his father's name, Ephialtes asks to join the fight; he warns Leonidas of a secret path the Persians could use to outflank and surround them. Though Leonidas sympathizes with Ephialtes's will to fight, he turns him down, as Ephialtes cannot properly hold a shield: this would compromise the Spartans' phalanx formation.

Before the battle, the Persian Captain demands that the Spartans lay down their weapons. Leonidas refuses, and with their tightly-knit phalanx formation, the Spartans use the narrow terrain to repeatedly rebuff the advancing Persian army. Xerxes personally parleys with Leonidas, offering him wealth and power in exchange for his loyalty and surrender. Leonidas declines, and Xerxes sends his elite guard, the formidable Immortals, to attack, but the Spartans successfully dispatch them, suffering a few casualties of their own. Xerxes then sends a number of exotic weapons at the Spartans, including black powder bombs and war elephants, but all of these attacks fail. During these attacks, Astinos is killed, which drives his father Captain Artemis into a fit of rage.

Angered by Leonidas's rejection, Ephialtes defects to the Persians and informs them of the secret path. When they realize Ephialtes's treachery, the Arcadians retreat, and Leonidas orders Dilios to return to Sparta to tell the Council of their sacrifice. Though Dilios had recently injured his left eye in combat, he is still fit for battle, but Leonidas decides to use Dilios's gift for storytelling to appeal to the Spartan council. Though reluctant to leave his brothers behind, Dilios leaves with the Arcadians.

In Sparta, Queen Gorgo (Leonidas' wife) agrees to a sexual encounter with Theron, before which he promises his help in persuading the Spartan council to send reinforcements to Leonidas. However, following her address to the Council, Theron publicly betrays the Queen by accusing her of adultery, prompting the councilmen to cry out in outrage and Gorgo to kill him in a fit of anger. The xiphē that Gorgo uses to kill Theron pierces his purse, spilling Persian coins from his robe, revealing his role as traitor, and the Council agrees to unite against Persia.

At Thermopylae, the Persians use the goat path to outflank the Spartans. Xerxes's general demands their surrender, again offering Leonidas titles and prestige. Leonidas seemingly bows in submission, allowing Stelios to leap over him and kill the general instead. Furious, Xerxes orders his troops to attack. Leonidas rises and hurls his spear at Xerxes, cutting the King on the cheek, thus fulfilling an earlier promise to "make the God-King bleed". Visibly disturbed by this reminder of his mortality, Xerxes watches as a massive barrage of arrows kills all the Spartans. Moments before his death, Leonidas pledges his undying love to Gorgo.

Concluding his tale before an audience of Spartans on the edge of the battlefield a year after Thermopylae, Dilios relates how the Persian army has suffered desertions, out of fear and the heavy casualties they suffered at the hands of a mere 300 Spartans. Word of their valiant resistance spread across Greece, inspiring the different city-states to unite against the Persians. Now, the Persians face 10,000 Spartans leading 30,000 free Greeks. Although still outnumbered three to one, Dilios declares that the Greeks shall be victorious and praises the sacrifice of the 300. He then leads the Greeks in a charge against the Persian army at the Battle of Plataea, the battle that would end Persia's invasion of Greece.

 L² Scored: 5/10

L² Comment:

For me, a good movie is when i watch it, it makes me WOW, and when i watch it again, or perhaps few years later, i can still WOW... For this movie, of course i was WOW in 2006/2077.. but rewatching it again, i feel its kinda stupid and the graphic is a bit too much~ but however, this movie has make Gerard Butler a hit in the hollywood~

How To Train Your Dragon

Released Year: 2010

Directed by Chris Sanders & Dean Deblois

Vocal by:
Jay Baruchel as Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III
America Ferrera as Astrid Hofferson
Gerard Butler as Stoick the Vast
Craig Ferguson as Gobber the Belch
Story:

In the Berk Island, Stoick the Vast, chief of the Viking is leading his villagers to fight against the dragon who came and attack; while his son, Hiccup is an apprentice and work for Gobber the Belch. During the war of Viking and dragons, Hiccup shot down a rare dragon called Night Furry with a bolas cannon that he made.

Skinny Hiccup has always wanted to become like others to catch dragon, so he went to look for the dragon he caught on the next day but he didn't kill the dragon and just set it free. When the dragon is free, it did not kill Hiccup but just flew away. Stoick appointed Gobber to train the youngster of how to attack different types of dragon. In the camp, Hiccup met up with Astrid whom he likes a lot, but too bad, she's a rough and tough girl and she has no interest in boy but killing dragon. Gobber mentioned that dragon will kill human whenever they have chance, this make Hiccup confuse of why the Night Furry did not kill him.

Hiccup went back to the valley and brought a fish for the dragon. By touching each other, Hiccup slowly bond a friendship with the dragon and name him as Toothless. Toothless is fun and taught Hiccup a lot of knowledge/habbit about dragon. Hiccup later use all the tactics he learned to tame all dragon during his training. Everyone praise Hiccup and he started to get popular. Astrid doubts about Hiccup sudden improvement and went to trace down Hiccup.

Astrid discover that Hiccup has been taking care of Toothless including making a fake tail for Toothless. Hiccup beg Astrid not to tell others and took her for a ride on Toothless. While flying, Toothless followed a gang of dragon and fly into a cave. Seems like every dragon caught a fish to feed a gigantic dragon or else they will be killed. On the next day of battling, Hiccup did not kill the dragon and announced to everyone about the truth. Stoick get dissapointed and lead the team to catch Toothless. The vikings also went all their way to the gigantic dragon nest to kill him.

Hiccup teached other kids how to tame the dragon and they went riding on the dragon's back to the dragon nest. In the meanwhile, Stoick and gang can't defeat the gigantic dragon and everything is in the mess. Finally the kids reach on top of the dragon and faught with the gigantic dragon. Hiccup free Toothless and both of them used their new tactics to kill the gigantic dragon. But they also falled from sky. While Stoick thought he lost his son, but Toothless protected him with wings. Hiccup lost one leg and replace with a wooden leg. Every Viking is fancy with dragon and live peacefully with them now.

L² Scored: 8/10

L² Comment:

I missed this great movie in the cinema :( This is based on the children's story book from Canada. Heard that dreamwork production is gonna make a sequal of this film and its gonna be in a tv series in the year of 2013.

Overall its a very nice and cute movie, especially those different species of dragon... they make me laugh~ hahaha

The Bounty Hunter

Released Year: 2010
Directed by Andy Tennant

Casted by:
Gerard Butler as Milo Boyd
Jennifer Aniston as Nicole Hurley
Story:

Milo Boyd is a bounty hunter who arrest criminal so that he can claims rewards for his work. Nicole Hurley is a reporter who gets her 1st hand secret news from Stewart. As Nicole was on her way to court for her case, she got a call from Stewart and she just skip off her court case to meet up with Stewart. But later on Stewart was kidnap by Sid who wanna murder Nicole for exploring her news. Sid wanna use Stewart as bait to get Nicole.

Due to Nicole's absent, Milo got a job of arresting his ex-wife, who is Nicole for a 5 thousand dollar. Milo went high & low to find Nicole and finally found her in the gambling place. He caught her and trapped her inside the car booth. But on the half way, Nicole release gas smoke and Milo forced to stop the car and check on it. Running out from the booth, Milo finally get caught of Nicole again after some chasing.

They later on found out their car was followed by Sid, and they were escaping on the highway and Sid's car loose control and crash. The couples finally got themselves away and stay at "Cupid Cabin" which they have went during their honeymoon. They have all their sweet memories back, but Nicole was pissed off when Milo mentioned about the money again. During Milo's sleep, Nicole cuffed him at the bed and drove away with car.

Nicole found out where Sid kept Stewart and went for rescue. Of course Sid found out and chase after them. But luckily Milo came and get them out of trouble. On the end, Nicole forgive Milo but Milo still got her to the police station. In the end, they know that promises for love, honor and obey were tough; but staying alive is tougher.

L² Scored: 4/10

L² Comment:

How would i say? The movie did not go smooth and it makes me a bit confuse about the relationship between Nicole & Stewart on the 1st place. The storyline too is a bit confuse and predictable. Should i say boring?

Jennifer still being the pretty Rachel that i love in , but i found that her voice did change a bit, not as cute as she used to be :( Gerard also being hot... Beside watching both of these 2 beautiful creatures acting in this movie, i dont find any reason which will ever make me re-watch this movie.