One Minute Review: White House Down (2013)

White House Down

As much as “White House Down” resembles “Olympus Has Fallen” from this year, they do carry slight differences that make them both enjoyable. Tatum and Foxx have a much different chemistry than Butler and Eckhardt, plus Tatum has a much more enjoyable screen presence than Butler. However, having two films based around taking out the white house in one year is quite ill-advised and hurts this one for being far too familiar.

Channing Tatum has a gift for fitting these pseudo roles. He has the build to be a bad ass, the face to be a charmer, and the voice and execution to be comedic and slightly less masculine. These characteristics all work in favor for Roland Emmerich’s latest blast ’em up thriller. Searching for his daughter in the midst of a war on the white house, Tatum’s John Cale comes across the President (Jamie Foxx) and goes on to help him through the war zone that has begotten at his residence. Leading the pack of villains amongst some not-so-spoilery twists, Jason Clarke proves masterful in his role, becoming one of the only true chameleons in Hollywood today.

Although he never fails to wreck havoc on our national monuments, compared to “Th Day After Tomorrow” and “2012” Emmerich actually remains quite tame. However, where the most steam is lost is in the writing, with some haphazard reveals and late-in-the-game twists, by the end of the film, it becomes apparent exactly how cheesy the film actually is. But even despite this, “White House Down” looks great, is acted well enough, and sets itself slightly apart from its feature film twin released earlier this year.