White House Down (2013) Movie Review

WHITE HOUSE DOWN (2013) MOVIE REVIEW

Was Channing Tatum a better Gerald Butler? Was Jamie Foxx a better Aaron Eckhart? Was Maggie Gyllenhaal? Let's find out in this review for the second movie to come out this year revolving around the destruction of the White House.

Attempting to be the father that her daughter always wanted, Cale (Channing Tatum) attempts to win back his daughter Emily's love by enlisting in the secret service. While being questioned by Finnerty (Maggie Gyllenhaal), she explains to Cale how he has untapped potential, which happens to be the one thing that Cale needs for the job of protecting the President. On their way out, Emily and Cale go on a tour of the White House. While on this tour however, things start going south as the White House begins being attacked by terrorists who manage to take control of the entire building. Now the only hope for the safety of the President, Cale and President Sawyer (Jamie Foxx) must now get to safety and rescue the hostages in the building, which include Cale's daughter Emily. Since this is a Roland Emmerich film (Director of Independence Day, Godzilla and 2012), the plot is not supposed to be the leading thing in the movie however in this movie, he really attempts at making a solid and deep story. In my eyes, the plot did not manage to stick out one bit as there were only so few characters I cared about (these being Sawyer, Emily and maybe Finnerty) but that's about it. Overall, the plot was fairly decent though wasn't what made the film for me. 

Still of Channing Tatum, Joey King
and Jamie Foxx

One of the biggest reasons I enjoyed this movie was because while it did try to engage the audience with it's deep plot, I took it as a mindless action movie. And I'm glad I did as when you don't think about whats going on and just accept it, the film instantly picks up a couple of points. Even with that, the film did have some problems. One of the biggest for me was the ludicrously long running time of 2 hours. This isn't necessarily the films fault as with all of the movies made this guy, they all seem really bloated and it seems that at least two or maybe even three scenes could have been erased from the movie and it would have been perfect. Speaking of this, this brings me to another problem with the movie. That is that there are some points in the movie that seem unnecessary and are only there for character development. A perfect example of this is the inclusion of Emily's mum as she is only in the movie at the start and end. If she was just taken out at the start, it would have been a shorter and to be frank, a better film in my opinion. These problems are by no means the actors faults as in my opinion, that was the films best aspect. These problems managed to come about due to a poor script at times and just poor directing. 

Still of James Woods in Presidential Office

Like I previously stated, the best thing I thought came out of this movie was the acting shown by basically everyone in this film. Channing Tatum and Jamie Foxx managed to steal the show as their chemistry was really good and funny in the movie. For someone as old as James Woods, I was actually surprised by his acting in this movie as it is still as good as it ever was in Once Upon A Time in America (though nowhere near as good). Easily my favourite actor in this movie was actually an actor that is rapidlly becoming one of my favourite actors, and that is the actor that Stenz aka Jason Clarke. Ever since I watched him in Lawless and The Great Gatsby, he's become one of my favourite actors and since he was born in Winton, that just makes everything that much better. When going into the movie, I thought it was going to have a few funny moments and just balls to the walls action. However, they actually take a more comedic route which to be honest, I rolled with as with these funny actors in the movie, it would seem weird for them to be in a dramatic role (Excluding...well..everyone in the movie, but you get the idea). Overall, the acting I feel was the best thing about this movie and really showed off some surprising performances.

Still of Jason Clarke 

Overall, White House Down was an enjoyable enough film and managed to keep entertained. While many people may compare this to Olympus Has Fallen, White House Down manages to hold its own just fine due to good acting, fun and entertaining action and hilarious dialogue. Since I have not seen Olympus Has Fallen yet, I cannot say which one is better, though even if I had seen it, I think it would be hard to decide on which is superior.

OVERALL: 6.7/10