If you want to see an example of good escapist filmmakers taking a cliched, predictable script of the lowest order and executing it at a decent level (creating something out of nothing basically) WHITE HOUSE DOWN is textbook.
I knew ten minutes in exactly what the last 15 minutes of the film would be and I was very, very close.
Channing Tatum (an expert at turning nothing into something) has just failed to become a Secret Service agent after displaying a track record of disregard for authority, reckless behavior (see you can already fill in the blanks yourself!).
Tatum finds himself in the White House with his daughter on a tour as a heavily armed group of folks take over the White House.
Jamie Foxx is very likeable and fun as President Sawyer and has most of the best moments in the movie. Foxx blows Tatum off the screen talent-wise in every scene they are in, with Channing fading into the Oval Office wallpaper in the presence of a real movie star.
The action scenes are first-rate, the effects are spectacular, the music score by Harald Kloser and Thomas Wanker is effective and James Woods is very good, but MAN is this predictable.
There are moments I really enjoyed, some moments too dumb to appreciate on any level and plenty of explosions, bullets and patriotism.
So why did this cant miss summer blockbuster BOMB at the box-office?
For me, it just wastes so many great actors like Richard Jenkins, Maggie Gyllenhall, Lance Reddick and Michael Murphy in cardboard roles, the film just sinks under its own weight.
As an action film, it's a A, on the believability scale its a D. Tatum is one-note and in WAY over his head and Jamie Foxx overachieves against all odds.
Mindless but fun in spots, White House Down lands a middling C. If you want to see a great movie about the White House in peril with a BELIEVABLE actor in the lead role, check out Gerard Butler in Olympus Has Fallen, it's twice the movie at half the budget!
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