Movie Review: America Has Fallen

When it comes to low budget, indie, genre film making, you are really taking your life in your hands. Well, it may not exactly be that dire, but so far as what you get, the results will vary, wildly. A lot of what you will see will not be good, filled with half baked ideas, bad scripts, and terrible acting, and that doesn’t even get to the special effects. Of course, there will be the occasional gem, and hopefully more than a few that exhibit some sort of competence and while they may not good, per se, offer some sort of bright spot or hope. The one thing we should all be able to agree on, they were made by folks who had an idea and were able to get it made, that should always be respected.



America has Fallen, written, directed, and starring Tom Getty, is one of those movies that may be low budget, but it puts all of its meager budget on the screen. Getty made a movie that is inspired by the world today and attempts to be intelligent as it entertains. Now, it is not exactly successful, but it mostly held my attention throughout. The movie plays out like a season of 24 with a Batman villain. Seriously, the bad guy is clearly a riff on Bane from Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight Rises, complete with mask and similar voice.

The movie centers on Ryan Taylor (Getty), a seeming everyman who gets setup and implicated in a terrorist bombing of a major building in Pittsburgh. What follows are the FBI and CIA trying to run down Taylor. Of course, it turns out Taylor is a former Marine who has done secret government work before and decides to go after the terrorists on his own. The plot gets further complicated when the terrorists are also trying to get to Ryan, and the president gets wired to a bomb giving out hero a decision, save the president or save America.

America has Fallen keeps the pace going, never wanting to give you time to think about what exactly is going on. It really isn’t terrible, but it’s not all that special either. It feels like VOD actioner that might have come out 20-years ago, given extended life by the real world fight against terrorism. The movie has even gone through some title changes along the way, it had a release in the UK as The Patriot, and can be found on IMDb as Rising Fear, it is arriving on VOD platforms as America has Fallen.

Is it worth your time? Probably not. I will give Tom Getty credit for making a low budget film feel much larger in scope, even if the elements are derivative. He took his idea and executed it. America has Fallen is decent at best, maybe check it out if you have nothing else to do.

America has Fallen premieres on VOD on July 4, 2017.

Very Mildly Recommended.