Review of White House Down (2013) by Allan C — 09 Aug 2014

I'm a sucker for Roland Emmerich blockbuster trash. As opposed to Michael Bay's Hollywood garbage, I find Emmerich's films unpretentious and quite entertaining of popcorn movies (i.e. "Independence Day," "Stargate," "The Patriot" or even the likes of "2012" or "Universal Soldier").

There's really zero originality in this Die-Hard/Under-Siege-in-the-White-House action flick, but it has a strong cast with Jamie Foxx as the president, Maggie Gyllenhaal and James Woods as secret service agents, the great Richard Jenkins as a congressman and Channing Tatum as the Bruce Willis/Steven Segal figure.

It's a film that's slavishly formulaic ( rooftop shootout, failed rescue attempts by anyone not the Willis/Segal/Channing Tatum figure, progressively dirty of t-shirts, falling through skylights (and then breaking a table), classical music played over action and just about any othe cliché you can think of), but despite the fact that I should be insulted as a viewer by the lack of originality, it's a formula that's executed reasonable well and with a strong cast, which is enough to carry the film.