Angel Has Fallen Review: 6 Ups & 4 Downs

2. Gerard Butler Gives His Best Performance Of The Series

Trashy action films are Gerard Butler's bread and butter these days, but this threequel gives him his greatest opportunity in the series to actually deliver something approaching a well-rounded performance.

It'd be a stretch to call his portrayal of Banning nuanced, but thanks to a script that actually stops to consider how his action hero has been worn down by his duty to the President, Butler actually gets time to emote and, you know, act.

Butler brings a haggard heft to the table that sells how much Mike is suffering, and it makes his role in the movie decidedly more interesting than if he was just indiscriminately butchering hundreds of anonymous, ethnically ambiguous goons.

But that's not to say the actor doesn't nail the action, because he absolutely does, his world-weary gaze imbuing all the shooting with a little more weight than usual.

It's not a performance for the ages by any means, but you really can't accuse Butler of just phoning it in for a paycheck here.