Gerard Butler’s motion movies have a loyal following right here at JoBlo, and listed below are a few of our favourite films he’s made.
Gerard Butler has had a different profession up to now, with him taking part in every part from motion results in rom-com love pursuits to a singing Phantom of the Opera for Joel Schumacher. However, it must be stated that his most persistently entertaining output falls squarely into the motion style, and so far as Gerard Butler films go, the motion movies will at all times be our favorites… so don’t anticipate to see The Ugly Reality on this listing, however the Jennifer Aniston journey The Bounty Hunter may scrape by. Or perhaps not. Let’s see the way it goes:
300 (2006)
Maybe THE movie that put Gerard Butler on the map for most individuals, notably the motion and comedian ebook crowds. Butler is in peak bodily type right here, exhibiting off his bod as the final word Spartan warrior and proving that he’s certainly fairly the main man. His efficiency right here is commanding, a bit in your face (in the precise method), and precisely what the movie wanted. Contemplating 300 continues to be well-remembered by most whereas its Butler-less sequel appears to have disappeared from the widespread consciousness says loads about how he embodies the character of King Leonidas and the way viewers related to him on this Zack Snyder adaptation of the Frank Miller and Lynn Varley graphic novel. The movie being shot mainly totally on inexperienced display with model new, on the time, know-how created a really specific search for the movie and from interviews with the solid and crew, it appears it required some adaptation and readiness to embrace the weird methods of capturing scenes. Butler’s efficiency right here works nice with all of the inexperienced display and CGI and exhibits a great evolution from his earlier action-fantasy roles in Beowulf & Grendel, Timeline, and (Finest Film You By no means Noticed fave) Reign of Fireplace. Plus it received an MTV Film Award for Finest Battle!
Aircraft (2023)
Launched proper at the moment of 12 months (January) when it looks as if nothing good will get to theaters, Aircraft was already working with the chances stacked in opposition to it. Past its less-than-ideal launch date, the movie had modified distributors just a few occasions earlier than lastly getting launched by Lionsgate. The trailer didn’t bode too nicely both, nevertheless it ended up getting some optimistic opinions that helped lead it to a $52 million field workplace. It’s even getting a sequel, albeit with out Butler because the lead. Right here, he performs an airline pilot who has fallen from grace and thus works away from his household with a house base in Asia. On this flight that begins the movie, issues go awry with the climate, and he’s pressured to land his few passengers and a felon (the good Mike Colter) being extradited to an unknown island the place issues go from unhealthy to worse. Butler does fairly nicely right here, exhibiting the general public that he’s nonetheless a go-to actor for motion thrillers. His massive struggle scene close to the center of the movie works nicely and he actually will get into the character of a person who has misplaced virtually every part however is greater than keen to struggle for what hs has left. Butler sells the half right here and actually works with the depressed lead and his points who finds himself again in a disaster. This can be a good Gerard Butler efficiency, one which works for his followers and for these keen to provide this shocking movie an opportunity.
Olympus Has Fallen (2013)
The primary in a trilogy, Olympus Has Fallen units up excessive stakes by making its story concerning the US President and his safety. Gerard Butler comes into this as a secret service agent who should rescue the President who was kidnapped after a terrorist assault. Usually talking, this one is a little more generic, however the work by Butler and Morgan Freeman right here helps rescue this from being simply one other late-night cable-bound motion movie. There’s a bit extra right here in fact and plenty of that “bit extra” comes right down to Butler’s work and the course by Antoine Fuqua who’s a professional at bringing motion movies and thrillers to the display. Within the case of Butler on this movie, he takes a component seen so many occasions earlier than, the lone protector who’s the one one capable of rescue the sufferer, and turns it into one thing extra attention-grabbing. Between his capacities as an actor, his ease in dealing with motion scenes, and his charisma, Butler pulls off the a part of Mike Banning very nicely. So nicely in truth, that he reprised this position in each sequels London Has Fallen (2016) and Angel Has Fallen (2019). Sadly, one other sequel appears unlikely, with Butler initially taking Millenium to court docket over unpaid income. Whereas the lawsuit was settled lately, I ponder if Butler can be desperate to get again in mattress with them anytime quickly.
Gamer (2009)
Written and directed by Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor (the Crank guys), this movie is a mixture of science-fiction, motion, and thriller set in a bleak, near-future the place players play utilizing loss of life row convicts as their avatars, pitting them in opposition to not possible odds. Butler performs Kable, a convict whose teenage participant is Simon (performed by Logan Lerman). Ought to this team-up survive thirty brutal gaming periods, Kable can be let out. After all, very like the current Loss of life Race movies, it’s not going to be that simple. Gerard Butler will get to be the person who has the carrot of survival dangled in entrance of him, making him a person able to do virtually something to outlive. His work right here is on the darker facet, taking part in a killer able to slay anybody in his method in order that he can survive and probably get again to his household. This results in a component stuffed with motion sequences, struggle scenes, and violence, with a little bit of background to make him extra human and likable. Butler does nicely right here with a component that might have simply been utterly one-dimensional. Ludacris additionally steals quite a lot of scenes on this one.
Greenland (2020)
With it coming pretty shut on the heels of Geostorm, many assumed Greenland would horrible. It’s one more climate catastrophe movie with a person, his estranged spouse, and their child in the midst of all of it. If it sounds acquainted, it’s as a result of it’s been accomplished a ton of occasions (San Andreas, any random Syfy catastrophe film, and many others) so it was simple to see the trailer for Greenland and assume, “Yeah, no…” And truthfully, the presence of Butler on this was in all probability the one motive some people noticed this film at first. Fortunately, the movie was made for a reasonably modest finances contemplating the topic and the way it was launched in theaters (like many pandemic-era films it went straight to streaming in North America). Its $35 million finances signifies that the field workplace for it being at $52.3 million was not an entire loss. It was a light hit and most of the people who dared to see it first have been a part of the explanation why because it constructed fairly a bit on phrase of mouth. The film, to everybody’s shock, was good, thanks maybe to the good director on the helm, Ric Roman Waugh (Shot Caller). At this level, extra folks have seen it and a sequel, Greenland: Migration, is within the works with Butler returning.
Copshop (2021)
Launched through the pandemic post-lockdown, this one was skipped by far too many individuals. The trailer had some panache and the truth that it’s from director Joe Carnahan, who beforehand did the loads-of-fun Smokin’ Aces, Narc, The Gray, and some extra movies, ought to have made it extra of an attraction for motion followers. But Copshop solely made a measly $6.9 million which mainly means the general public slept on this one and didn’t give the movie its due. Gerard Butler stars reverse Frank Grillo right here in a face-off set in a police station the place Butler is after Grillo to kill him attributable to a con he pulled. This one is plenty of enjoyable and the truth that different killers come into play makes this a dynamic film the place you by no means actually know the place it’s going precisely. Butler is having a ball right here, taking part in a person stuffed with evil and a kind of virtually glee about his job. His backwards and forwards with Grillo make this the sort of movie that’s simple to observe whereas the runtime flies by.
Geostorm (2017)
Okay, to be honest, that is NOT a great film. It’s fairly horrible, really, and was marred by a unending sequence of delays and reshoots with the credited author/ producer/ director Dean Devlin having been eliminated in favor of Jerry Bruckheimer and Choose Dredd director Danny Cannon. Ultimately, it misplaced someplace within the neighborhood of $70 million for Warner Bros and resulted in Butler shedding the large PG-13 four-quadrant films in an effort to do extra modest actioners. But, should you like tacky, enjoyable films, it could’t be denied that Geostorm matches the invoice fairly nicely. It’s unintentionally humorous (take a shot everybody says “Dutch boy”), nevertheless it’s curiously rewatchable.
So there you go, a bunch of ideas that you should utilize to assemble your individual Gerard Butler movie pageant.
What are your favourite Gerard Butler films? Lara Croft: Tomb Raider – The Cradle of Life? The biopic Machine Gun Preacher? Legislation Abiding Citizen? His cameo within the James Bond film Tomorrow By no means Dies (1997)? The horror journey Story of the Mummy? Tell us within the feedback.
