Review of White House Down (2013) by Jason R — 05 Jun 2014

While loaded with action and big explosions, the film suffers under the weight of an almost incomprehensible narrative, cliches bouncing around left and right, and a feel that it has drawn from almost every big-budget action flick in the last thirty years, most notably the two Under Seige films. This isn't to say that Tatum and Foxx aren't a great team and don't push their characters' interactions beyond the wooden, but the film just doesn't reach the heights it aspires to. And the notion of the entire enemy cadre being white guys in this day and age just seems like somebody forgot to pay attention. Yes, there's a white supremacist in the group, but even when they break it down and identify the participants, the fact that they didn't go beyond the white, ex-army and whatnot people misses the mark. Even The Rock, whose team was similarly built from special forces and whatnot, had diversity. If the film was trying to make a point with this, it failed.

There are a few funny points, but the cluster of running a minimum of four scenes at a time and keeping them congruent causes an immense strain on the story, and leaves us pretty well waiting for the final piece of betrayal that we are sure is coming.