Esther McCarthy reviews Angel has Fallen and Pain and Glory

Angel Has Fallen (15A) **

GERARD BUTLER kicks, smashes and shoots his way through another escapade in the latest instalment of the ‘Fallen’ series. It’s leaner and meaner than its predecessors, but the story is too preposterous to get on board with, even in a fun way.

Following the commercial success of London Has Fallen and Olympus Has Fallen, the Scottish actor returns as the tough, scowling secret service agent Mike Banning.

He’s the head of security for his boss and confidante Allan Trumbull (Morgan Freeman), who has now been voted in as US President.

A drone attack leaves the leader of the US in a coma and when it’s revealed that Banning is the sole other survivor of the attack, the FBI wants to have a word.

It’s a wildly over the top premise for a movie, and what follows is like a remake of The Fugitive as Butler’s character goes underground and on the run as he attempts to discover who’s trying to frame him and clear his name. For a by-numbers blockbuster this takes itself far too seriously, though action fans are serviced by bullets and bombs.

Pain and Glory (16) ****

Veteran Spanish filmmaker Padro Almodóvar returns to excellent form with his latest, the tale of a man with a crisis. He and leading man Antonio Banderas bring out the very best in each other in this moving and witty tale of a man whose life is at a crossroads.

He plays Salvador Mallo, a filmmaker struggling with a number of physical and emotional ailments, who fears his health will prevent him from making the movies he loves.

In reflective mode, he looks at three major times in his life - his childhood memories with his mother (Cruz), his first serious love affair, and the making of one of his most successful films thirty years later with an actor he no longer speaks to.