White House Down (2013)

Pretty Good

A waste of 90 minutes of my life

After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

Blistering performances.

The film has great action and gripping story but may be a little too long

Not since President Harrison Ford battled terrorists aboard "Air Force One" has a U.S. movie president faced the peril that challenges President Jamie Foxx in "White House Down." An unidentified group detonates a bomb in the U.S. Capitol Building, then takes hostages in the White House and shoots up the historic mansion, destroying priceless artifacts and paintings to the chagrin of a tour guide. Audiences know what they want from a Roland Emmerich movie, and "White House Down" delivers the goods; rapid cutting, action, explosions, gun battles, cheering onlookers, wise-ass heroes and bad-ass villains.Clichés abound; from a troubled father-daughter relationship to an expository job interview that details the hero's past and a White House tour that fills in the history of the presidential mansion, the plot inches forward until the explosions literally begin. However, logic and plausibility also evaporate as the pace accelerates. While metal detectors screen visitors, the terrorists have an arsenal of automatic weapons already in the White House. While bullets fly and White House staff and visitors cower and flee, a young girl records everything on video for her on-line blog. Preposterous would come to mind, if the action allowed viewers to pause and think for a moment.The cast of professionals is capable for this type of film. Headed by Channing Tatum, who sports a fetching sleeveless tunic to highlight his biceps, is the negligent father, caught in the dire White House situation with his blogger daughter. Jamie Foxx is fine as the President, while Maggie Gyllenhaal and Richard Jenkins both try to rise above the trite material, which was written by James Vanderbilt. Always fun to watch, James Woods manages to chew on the government-issue scenery in a showy role. The current resident of the White House, who claims ignorance of the 25th Amendment, should catch this film as that amendment is cited several times.Audiences for a Roland Emmerich movie know what they want, and "White House Down" will deliver the goods for them. However, after two hours plus of mindless action, plot holes big enough to swallow a tank or a helicopter, and casual dialog between elected officials that propels the world towards Armageddon, some viewers may long for a slower paced film with a literate script and a plot based on logic. But then again, some may find Channing and his muscles more satisfying than either literacy or logic.

"White House Down" is the perfect action flick, it is fast-paced and has a decent plot. Performances, directing, editing, e.c.t is brilliant, but the film score is generic, the competitor "Olympus Has Fallen" is nowhere near as good as this movie, however the film score from "Olympus Has Fallen" is the only thing that is better.Apparently Channing Tatum's character is a homage to Bruce Willis's character from the "Die Hard" movies hence the white vest (or "wife beater" as Americans call it, although it is a very inappropriate and strange name for a piece of clothing) "White House Down" is actually better than all of the "Die Hard" films combined, there's always too many things going on in the "Die Hard" flicks (apart from "Die Hard 4.0" which is very watchable) "White House Down" keeps the movie plot simple.There's a scene where a secret service agent laughs mockingly at "John Cale"'s (Channing Tatum) job description, that secret service agent is just weird! "John" is part of the Capitol Police and is on the protection detail of the Vice President - that's a massive achievement, it isn't like "John" is a janitor and even if he was that is still a hard working job.The father/daughter relationship is clichéd, he's never there so she resents him until there's a life and death scenario and he goes out of his way to save her and she loves him all over again.This motion picture is guns, guns and more guns. Action packed.White House Down = Brilliant, 10 out of 10.

If you've ever, and I mean ever seen an action movie in the last 30 years than I can tell you this movie will be as predictable as the next marvel films rating. Its stupidly cliché, but then again whats to expect from Roland 'I was good in the 90s' Emmerich. I went into this expecting a quick dose of dumb action and nothing else but this doesn't even deliver on that. Its really lackluster action with not much other than a few explosions and of-screen deaths with GUNS. Oh so many bullets yet it felt really tamed, I guess that's what a PG rating gets ya.But getting into the nitty gritty of this demo, I call it that because really its a demo for a better movie. This 'movie' follows the day, night and partial morning of White Action Hero and his less than ordinary adventure. Blah blah blah he gets refused his dream job of doing something and he is at the white house and then terrorists attack, something like that. His daughter gets in danger, he has to save her, then she gets taken hostage because the plot requires her to and then something else happens. Typically Hero saves the day, why wouldn't he? The ending really stepped it up a bit on the schlock factor, Roland trying to be heartfelt but just presenting it so awfully. I don't recommend this at all and its one of the worst things I've ever seen. Even its doppelganger Olympus has fallen is a better picture, only because it got the MA15+ stamp of approval and the action is decent.Good work Roland you pasty f*ck.