‘Angel Has Fallen' And So Has The Franchise

There is a certain mindless pleasure in the “Fallen” movies. Watching Gerard Butler muscle his way through increasingly preposterous obstacles as a Secret Service agent can be amusing and oddly transfixing at the same time.

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It’s mass entertainment that makes a courtesy stop in theaters before ascending to its true calling: Endless cable reruns.

But whatever this franchise got away within “Olympus Has Fallen” and then, miraculously, in the totally unnecessary and very unintentionally silly sequel “London Has Fallen,” it’s clear that the well has run dry on this idea and character. Butler and the filmmakers sleepwalk their way through ”Angel Has Fallen,” the third, and hopefully last, visit with agent Mike Banning. This time, the powers that be have decided to make Banning a fugitive. He’s on the run after being falsely accused of orchestrating an assassination attempt on U.S. President Trumbull (Morgan Freeman) that kills 18 Secret Service Agents and leaves the commander in chief in a coma.