WHITE HOUSE DOWN

Just like Olympus Has Fallen you need to check reality at the door and if you do that you will enjoy the action that takes place. I like OHF and it was a success but you stick two big name stars in the roles of the SS agent and the President like this film and it makes 130 or more. This film should be a big hit. It has a perfect mix of comedy and action imo and it's the comedy element that elevates this to an A for me. Jamie Fox kills it and has hilarious moments throughout the film. The audience I saw this with was so loud at times after a funny joke or line you couldn't hear the next line. It was a fun experience.

Grade - A

In general, I prefer this film to Olympus Has Fallen: it is more playful and features far superior (more ambitious, more focused, more intense) action sequences. It is a shame then this is second out of gate and will be punished for its often beat for beat resemblance to the Gerard Butler vehicle, but such is life when neither studio admits defeat and instead push forth with identical projects. Considered apart from its estranged springtime cousin, White House Down is a sound and satisfying, if unspectacular big-budget action film. It goes on 15 minutes and at least one plot twist too long, but the interaction of Channing Tatum in Bruce Willis mode and an Obama impersonating Jamie Foxx is charming, and there are several moments of legitimate spectacle and suspense. And as the main henchman and antagonistic physical threat, Jason Clarke of Lawless and Zero Dark Thirty is a wild eyed, magnetic, and menacing presence, even if he deserves far richer and more rewarding roles than this. He is a star.

B-

Ed Harris called and wants James Woods to return his character from The Rock promptly.

This was wonderful and belongs in the Goofy Action Movie Hall Of Fame. "Tours over"

*raise your hand if you remember Jason Clarke from KING KONG*

The bonkers second half is passable and competent.

And I've got a killer sequel pitch, White House Down Under

Based on the last week alone, the Down Under political scene offers up more mayhem and idiocy than any Hollywood disaster film can muster!

An abomination of stupidity. These dialogues! The utter ridiculousness of the plot! The pathos! I vomited several times inside my head. Gerard Butler's McClane is inept, but Channing Tatum's halfwit is not even a joke.

2/10.


You must confuse the two.

Nothing in Olympus Has Fallen is as much goofy fun as the chase scene on the White House lawn here.

I was talking about the highlighted part, obviously.

Did you expect it to not be stupid and ridiculous, Argos?

I expected it to be less stupid and ridiculous.

Was your heart unmoved when, despite large swaths of D.C. lying in ruin, the president decided to fly Marine One by the Lincoln Memorial to put a smile on one child's sweet face?

Yes. Instead, I was disgusted and amused. This attempt to move is just too clumsily done, too shallow and stale. I was also not pleased to find out that Maggie Gyllenhaal and her insufferable cozy delivery did not die in a fire after all.

I liked it, but OHF is still MILES better IMO.

White House Down is a great little action thriller - - and I guess ya gotta say, it's officially old school now - - you know, the fun and exciting kind (rather than the morose feculence that passes for it nowadays).

Chatum is great as always, Jamie is fine but underused, and there's heaps of great supporting actors.

And what do you know - - they even threw in a reasonably good story to boot!

One thing's for sure - - WWZ really shows how to get a thriller to hit the ground running. WHD has the dowdiest opening act that takes forever to set up the story, though once things finally get going, it proved pleasantly intense.


6 out of 5.

White House Down delivers exactly what's expected: it's dumb, yet it's also quite fun. I'm sure that the plot has more holes in it than Swiss cheese, but Roland Emmerich and crew do such a strong job of channeling the classic Die Hard formula that I was thoroughly entertained from the point the action got started onward. The brutality of the violence is understandably neutered (it seems a bit disingenuous to make a movie about terrorism and not have it be rated R), but the action sequences have a great deal of spectacle and are very exciting to watch, especially as they get more preposterous (e.g. the car chase on the White House grounds). It's not an actor's film by any stretch of the imagination, but Channing Tatum is more than adequate as the action hero lead; he could stand to be a bit more charismatic, but he's still come a long way from the cringeworthy work earlier in his career. Jamie Foxx is a solid choice for the presidential role, and he has enough chemistry with Tatum that the decision to play up the likeness to a buddy film in the middle portion works. James Woods isn't an ideal villain, but at least his involvement takes the film down a more interesting (but by no means original; see: The Rock) route than having the lead villain be an international terrorist. It could stand to be a bit leaner (especially in the first act; it takes a little too long to get to the attack) and have a more charismatic lead performance, but it's still a very sufficiently enjoyable popcorn flick. In the duel of "Die Hard in the White House" films, I'll take it easily over Olympus Has Fallen. Whereas I exited that film mostly unimpressed and not entertained, I had a really good time with White House Down.

B

Entertaining for most of its length but it's a mediocre movie with some spots of ridiculous & amusing stuff. I enjoyed this more than Olympus though. What would've elevated this is if Tatum and Foxx had more chemistry/bonded more.

White House Down

One of the worst movies of the year, and one of the most unambitious and lazy movies ever made. It's incredibly cheesy, ultra cliched, and just downright embarrassing for a director that can at least produce mid-level adventure movies, but White House Down is just a 100% copy of Die Hard. The movie is so completely unoriginal, and with Channing "I will never be able to act" Tatum as the 'Father that can do no right but will eventually be a fucking hero', and he just doesn't look old enough to be in that position of having a daughter.

The most embarrassing part was where the ultra-professional military bombers intent on blowing up the White House, having had orders from "The President" ... decided to not blow up the White House because they saw a little girl waving a flag. Fucking ridiculous.

F

Quelle surprise.

Yes, the flag waving bit is especially sugary, but it's not hard to imagine people disobeying orders. I know in your country probably not, but there are still some people who wouldn't want to blow up a child.

Last, Tatum easily looks the part of a guy with a child so I have no understanding of that thought.

I do not mind the character of the daughter because I believe the actress (who is also in The Conjuring) gives a very charming and spirited performance. She never lapses into overly cloying territory, even when forced to recite leaden lines ("Let me foreshadow later plot points and establish the geography of the White House BECAUSE I AM SUCH A HISTORY NERD, WOO-HOO!").

I s'pose this does lift from a lot of other films. The arbitrary positioning of the Maggie Gyllenhaal character as an old college flame gives it the Die Hard dynamic where the hero is proving his masculine nobility and value to a doubting woman as he saves the day, and, as I said above, James Woods' character is almost identical to Ed Harris' in The Rock, though with less gusto and to less convincing effect.

It's definitely very derivative of Die Hard, but at least it gets why the Die Hard formula works, which is where I thought Olympus Has Fallen really missed the mark. It keeps the proceedings relatively light-hearted amid what would be absolutely terrifying in real life, the hero is fairly down-to-earth, and it moves quickly. Of course, the cheese factor and the lack of ingenuity put it in a noticeably league than Die Hard, which is a genre classic, but White House Down still works as stupid fun.

I mean, it's Roland Emmerich. With him behind the camera, you know you're not getting yourself into Shakespeare. Well... most of the time, anyway.