Olympus Has Fallen is an action thriller in which disgraced former Secret Service agent Mike Banning (Butler) finds himself trapped in the White House (Secret Service codename: Olympus) when terrorists attack and kidnap a group of people – including the President (Eckhart). With the rest of America’s national security team stuck on the outside, they’re forced to rely on Banning to enact the plan to retake the White House and save the leader of the free world.

Yes, it’s pretty much Die Hard in the White House, with a talented support cast including Angela Bassett, Morgan Freeman and Ashley Judd. The plot rolls along quickly and keeps the audience guessing as Banning moves from one perilous situation to another.

The film is directed by Antoine Fuqua, best known for directing Denzel Washington in his Oscar-winning role in Training Day. If you’re in the mood for some thrills, some gunplay and some iconic scenery getting blown to hell come along and watch Olympus fall!

Arbitrage is a dramatic thriller starring Richard Gere, Susan Sarandon, Tim Roth and Brit Marling. It is written and directed by first-time director Nicholas Jarecki, whose previous work includes the screenplay for the adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis’s novel “The Informers”.

Gere’s role as the protagonist Robert Miller, a multi-millionaire hedge fund manager, whose life is turned upside down in an effort to cover up his secret indiscretions, is his best performance in years. Gere once again displays the ability to play a character whose sunny exterior contradicts his dark interior. Despite not necessarily being a likeable character, due to his highly immoral and unethical behaviour, we are left feeling sorry for the fate that is thrust upon him. In many films, the story revolves around the concept of an innocent man being wrongly accused – in this case, it is a guilty man being correctly accused.

The acting from the rest of the ensemble cast is of high quality. Sarandon, Roth and Marling each give their characters more than the requisite depth and emotion to give the story a deep emotional impact. Each of them is a potential victim for the protagonist and his self-centred view of the world.

The tension builds gradually during the course of the film right to the climax, leaving us contemplating whether, as the saying goes, the love of money is the root of all evil.