White House Down is just that kind of mindless “let’s blow everything up in sight” summer popcorn film that you really need to just throw logic, plausibility and opportunity for edgy action out the window. I admit that’s typically perfectly fine for me as someone who has sung the praises of that very moviegoing experience on many many occasions, so I should be one of the last people to expect the latest flick from bombastic big screen disaster king (and Independence Day and 2012 director) Roland Emmerich, to reach any cinema verite high bar standards.
Following extremely violent and edgy (and far superior) Olympus Has Fallen starring Gerard Butler, White House Down is the second film in 2013 out of the gate with the premise of one man burdened with battling his way through a fallen White House to save A) the President B) a child in danger and C) the fate of the world from terrorists’ ultimate plans to do very evil things on a global scale. While both films follow a painfully similar outline, they wisely differ in their tones and executions of big set pieces. Since my taste for action sequences leans more towards R than PG or PG-13, the victory in my book goes to the intense and dark Antoine Fuqua-helmed Olympus over the play it both safe and by-the-numbers White House Down.
If you can handle the cooky caper antics of terrorists infiltrating the White House by disguising themselves as maintenance workers and A/V techs, big explosions, lots of bloodless gunfire, thin cliched characters blessed with delivering catch phrases, and follow to a tee the “one man against the world Die Hard in…” formula (it here being Die Hard in the White House), you are in for a real treat.
Channing Tatum plays John Cale, a U.S. Capitol police officer with aspirations to secure a position with the U.S. Secret Service. While applying for the job Cale also has his estranged brainy daughter Emily (Joey King) in tow, doing double duty and his damnedest to connect with during a tour of the White House.
Terrorists who have snuck into the White House (in plain sight) also have plans that day, which involves laying siege to the building, making a captive of President James Sawyer (Jamie Foxx) and other dastardly things. After Cale is separated from Emily on the tour, he ventures out on a rescue mission and in the process manages to rescue the President and begin the room-by-room battle to get our Cammander-In-Cheif to safety. Cue the action, explosions and catch phrases. And that kinda sums it up. Ok, sure there are some plot twist subplots and revealed ulterior motives that attempt to add depth to a screenplay that’s best summed up in the poster one-liner, but overall you know what you are getting into with this.
Tatum, who has managed to enchant big screen audiences the past few years and is fast approaching bonafide box office super stardom (WHD may be the one that just solidifies that), does a serviceable job in this role as a struggling divorced dad trying to make the grade to pass the paperwork and education requirements for the Secret Service job. This despite that his combat service, training and proficiency with various powerful firearms that are probably protected under the 2nd Amendment are above and beyond the call of duty. As the reluctant one man army sporting the classic John McClane action hero tank top look, he has the right stuff for this outing. But as written, casting the lead could have been easily interchangeable.
Foxx’s flat President Sawyer isn’t written with any big tough guy heroics or inherent diplomatic charisma as previous big screen presidents have been. Most of Sawyer’s charm comes solely courtesy of Foxx, and it’s noted that he has not served a day in the military, further necessitating his need to rely on a trained aid to escape further harm. Sawer and Cale provide a fine buddy film one-two punch, and Foxx plays up this U.S. President suited solely for this wham bam popcorn type of romp, which of course requires him at one point fire a rocket launcher from a moving car accompanied by the expected wacky beats. It’s sequences like this that make you appreciate all the more well balanced action movie Presidents like former Air Force pilot James Whitmore (in Emmerich’s Independence Day) and Harrison Ford’s James Marshall (Air Force One), or the traditional and impeccable statesmen presence provided by Morgan Freeman’s Tom Beck in Deep Impact. Though cross referencing the strengths and weakness of big screen Presidents is a whole other thing to fill up a post.
But overall, little imagination went into the WHD‘s casting process, keeping to actors playing parts effortlessly and squarely within their safety zone. As Secret Service head honcho, James Woods does his best Jamea Woods, ditto for Maggie Gyllenhaal as the no non-sense agent Finnerty. The Speaker of the House played within expectations by the reliable Richard Jenkins and Lance Reddick pulls his out best Fringe tough-as-nails drama card for General Caulfield.
Let’s face it, we’ll never have another Hans Gruber, but the field villains here led by Jason Clarke (Zero Dark Thirty) are all boring action movie archetypes that spiral into stereotypes who manage to further caricature those tired roles. They’re all here, the computer hacker who works his keyboards like a maestro, blasts classical music, sips wine and always has a clever quip at the top of his tongue for every misstep the grand plan takes. Throw in the wild card biker terrorist sporting crazy hair a handlebar mustache. How about the insider turncoat pulling all the strings and has ulterior motives that ultimately fail to make him sympathetic in relation to his ultimate revenge scheme? Check, check and check.
I felt a scant sense of danger throughout the film, whether it involved the execution of the big action set pieces or the threat of actual harm whether it involved the innocent hostages, the young Emily Cale with a gun pointed to her head, or much less any situation involved with President Sawyer or John Cale. Plus quickly shooting characters before establishing a connection to the audience is not the way to build sufficient sudden death tension on behalf of the villains. That’s where in the same scenario Olympus Has Fallen successfully established a relentless tense atmosphere where at any moment, any one could be sentenced to meet their maker.
While I do applaud seeing Cale capitalizing on using fallen terrorist’s weapons as he advances through their body count, it was equally as frustrating to think that not one piece of their body armor was utilized to protect the President or Cale himself. While I undertand you market this film around Channing Tatum sweating and running all about in the tight white tee so all his hard time in the gym is not rendered useless by outfitting him in bulky kevlar, but in the least does it not make any sense have the President take one of the dead villains freely available bullet proof vests?
By the time you have car chases on the White House lawn, witness strategic decisions made by government security strategists that are so incompetent you have only God to thank that this is a work of fiction, and that such scenarios are beyong what our taxpayer dollars pay for in terms of defending 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, you have either drank the Kool Aid or given up hope. But I will say both Olympus and WHD bank on exploiting the plot point of the frighteningly long time it takes to mobilize any formidable military anti-terrorist opposition when the White House has been assaulted and captured by enemy forces.
The blue screen for exteriors in painfully apparent. Granted the actual White House is not freely issuing film permits to shoot crowds and explosive action sequences at the front gates, but much of the faked scenery looks surprisingly distracting. The CGI was also disappointing for a Roland Emmerich film. Years after destroying the White House and other world famous landmarks in ID4, 2012 and The Day After Tomorrow, the FX here somehow manage to look less believable in the shadow of today’s better technology, which is unfortunate.
I am admittedly over analyzing this movie as one who typically appreciates the explosive big screen experience Roland Emmerich can be counted on to deliver. But overstaying its welcome at over two hours, White House Down for me plays it far to deep into a paint-by-numbers formula and features a cast of tired run-of-the mill action film cookie cutter characters.
Sure it’s a big harmless summer popcorn action romp, and the legions of Channing Tatum fans will get what exactly they want. He and Foxx play off each other well, but deserve a better forum to really show off their potential on-screen chemistry. Check your brain plot filmgoers will enjoy the night out. If you like your explosions and gunfights to stick to safe bloodless cartoonish PG-13 guide lines, here you go. While the disappointing FX will stick out to fellow nitpickers like me, they are not a make or break point to the film, which has other issues that take it down. But even I sometimes hold summer tentpoles whose sole intention is to provide an entertaining night out to reach higher marks when it comes to the sum of its parts. White House Down mangages to overall come up short on too many of the easy levels to pass the grade for me.
White House Down opens in theaters on June 28th.
REVIEW RATING: ★½ ★★★★
Director: Roland Emmerich
Starring: Channing Tatum, Jamie Foxx, Maggie Gylennhaal, James Woods, Jason Clarke, Joey King
Screenwriter: James Vanderbilt
Studio: Sony Pictures
Rated: PG-13
Running Time: 137 minutes
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