As he did with 2012, filmmaker Emmerich has injected this huge action romp with a generous dose of tongue-in-cheek humour while never sacrificing the overwrought spectacle. Bolstered by a strong supporting cast of interesting character actors (Maggie Gyllenhaal, Richard Jenkins and Jason Clarke among them) and a blessed reluctance to fully embrace the post-9/11 ‘seriousness’ that it occasionally seems to nudge toward, White House Down is far more enjoyable than it honestly has any right to be, a reminder that modern Hollywood doesn’t always have to be so damn heavy.This may look exactly like Gerard Butler's over-serious Olympus Has Fallen, but it's actually that film's smarter, sillier younger brother: the one you like even though you really shouldn't. White House Down is not a ‘good movie’ in any shape or form, but it does work as a confidently absurd antidote to the angst-ridden histrionics of most recent summer fare. (Tatum handing him a rocket launcher to fire at gun-toting nutcases with the line, “I know you’re into peace and everything…”) It’s actually one of the script’s strongest gambits, constantly winking at its own cliches and strained action set-pieces, from the repeated shots of Tatum flying through the air in slow-motion to a messy car chase on the white house lawn in front of an array of frazzled reporters. He and Tatum share a winning cameradarie only helped by the film’s knowing awareness of its own implausibility.
WHITE HOUSE DOWN REVIEW MOVIE
With his increasingly grubby white shirt and the fact that their names even sound similar, Cale is straight from the John McClane playbook: fitting for a movie that effectively transports Die Hard into the oval office.Īs the battleworn president, Jamie Foxx has fun occupying a genderbending variation on the ‘damsel in distress’ role.
It’s clear from that logline alone that this will be a very silly two hours, but director Roland Emmerich is such a dab hand at this type of thing that White House Down constantly resembles a wild joyride, unnecessary and overblown but secretly, blissfully entertaining.Ĭhanning Tatum has never been an on-screen presence with, in the nicest possible way, “a whole lot there”, but this is another smart career move on his part, his John Cale heroic and unflinchingly noble, a character tailor-made for Tatum’s unusual blend of every-man charm and lunk-headed blankness. Considering the pulpy actioner White House Down ranks among this past summer’s numerous high-profile box office flops, it’s not a trend that seems likely to catch on, but there’s an enjoyable quaintness to much of what’s on offer here.Īrriving like a forgotten Schwarzenegger vehicle from the 1980’s, White House Down sees Channing Tatum’s aspirational political bodyguard forced to save the day when a rogues gallery of terrorists, Nazis and mercenaries seize control of the White House and his precocious pre-teen daughter – one of the group’s numerous hostages.
In a blockbuster climate that seems to favour the motto ‘depressed is best’, it’s rewarding to find instances of old-school frivolity in big-budget filmmaking, event pictures not bogged down by gloomy origin stories or blaring intensity.