It's the bomb---Channing Tatum as a man who must save the president (Jamie Foxx) from an attack in White House Down
Two months ago....the theaters at the cineplex were playing a Gerald Butler film called Olympus Has Fallen. For all of the hate that I give Butler (and I think deservedly so)...I really enjoyed that film. Now comes White House Down....a film that follows the same plot and still manages to be a bit better than its predecessor. The film stars Channing Tatum and Jamie Foxx...two men who have been moving up on my "they have a lot of charisma" list and is directed by Roland Emmerich who has been moving way down on my "he's a decent director" list. Granted...he's made some good films (The Patriot, Eight Legged Freaks, The Thirteenth Floor) but most of his work has been garbage (Trade, 10000 BC, 2012, Anonymous, The Day After Tomorrow.) Here...Emmerich reminds us that he can in fact be a good director. However, writer James Vanderbilt must also take a lot of credit in why this film is so entertaining. He's written action films that range from personal favorites of mine (The Rundown, The Amazing Spiderman, Zodiac) to ones that are very much guilty pleasures for me (Basic, The Losers.) White House Down would fall on the guilty pleasure side but it may just be the guiltiest pleasure of them all.
In the film...Tatum plays Cale...a policeman who takes his politically obsessed daughter, Emily (Joey King) to The White House. He takes her there not only to prove he's a good father but to get an interview with Finnerty (Maggie Gyllenhaal) for a job to be one of President Sawyer (Jamie Foxx)'s bodyguards. When the interview falls through....Cale finds himself stuck inside The White House when a group of hackers and criminals take it over. Cale then has to fight them off and sees this as a possible way to earn the job.
Tatum and Foxx work extremely well together here. Their banter is in turns very funny and intense and even during the funny bits...the film keeps you on the edge of your seat. The two main villains are Stenz (Jason Clarke) and Tyler (Jimmi Simpson.) Stenz is a thug who is assisting Tyler in getting his name cleared from The White House's most wanted list. Clarke and Simpson are perfect as the villains. Clarke plays a tough guy very well as many people saw in last year's Zero Dark Thirty and Simpson always never seems to play a true villain. Sure...he's creepy on "It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia" and he's a convict on "Breakout Kings" but I don't think I've ever seen him in a truly villainous role. The closest I've come to that is him in Date Night. Anyway...Richard Jenkins and James Woods are quite good as fellow politicians and the film is very suspenseful although you know exactly what's going to happen.
Anyone can compare this to Olympus Has Fallen as much as they want...I'm not stopping them. However, by doing so...they would be missing out on two very entertaining films and yes...I'm sticking to my guns that White House Down is one star better. There may be smarter films with more life lessons to come out this year but as far as plain dumb fun goes...you won't get a better film than White House Down.
(4 and 1/2 out of 5 Stars, The film is rated PG-13 for prolonged sequences of action and violence including intense gunfire and explosions, some language and a brief sexual image)
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