On top of Butler, the first-rate ensemble cast includes Piper Perabo, Morgan Freeman, Nick Nolte, Jada Pinkett Smith, Lance Reddick, Tim Blake Nelson, Danny Huston, and many others. Butler and Freeman are the only two actors to feature in all 3 films. Released by Lionsgate, you can catch “Angel Has Fallen” on August 23.

“Angel Has Fallen” picks up after the previous film’s events. Gerard Butler reprises his role as Mike Banning, framed for an assassination attempt on the President. In a do-or-die bid to clear his name, the dogged U.S. Secret Service agent must evade his own employers and the FBI to track down those responsible. Will he find the terrorist threat whose sights are set on Air Force One?

Some movies should never be graced with a sequel. Inexcusable in almost every way, Antione Fuqua’s 2013 action-thriller “Olympus Has Fallen” is one of them (read our review here). Sadly, Babak Najafi’s equally crummy “London Has Fallen” tread on its heels 3 years later (read our review here). And it seems the end isn’t quite nigh for the series. Following a similar recess, Ric Roman Waugh now sees fit to craft a full-blown trilogy with a script by Creighton Rothenberger and Katrin Benedikt. Let’s pray the director has learned from his predecessors’ mistakes.

It all sounds like exciting, high-octane stuff, doesn’t it? Action flicks oftentimes fall desperately short of their marketing though, withholding the sort of balls-to-the-wall thrills audiences hope for. But here we have a director with an ample track record, Waugh’s last two features “Shot Caller” and “Snitch” receiving generally favorable reviews. That said, Fuqua’s best-known effort “Training Day” picked up an Oscar. Make of that what you will. Waugh is also working with the same screenwriters as the last two films, so they’d better bring their A-game.