Review of White House Down (2013) by Foxgrove — 08 Jan 2014

'Oh my god, there are U S special forces flying over us' states an incredulous news reporter. This is just one example of how unintentionally funny, but risibly bad, the dialogue is in this ludicrously awful action adventure opus. It actually seems keen to copy all the worst aspects of the (far superior) 70's disaster movies. Scene after scene just lie there and die there as Channing Tatum heroically endeavours to save President Jamie Foxx from the clutches of evil inside aide, James Woods.

The film is full of stock characters and cliched, not to mention ridiculously unbelievable, situations and it's not even exciting. Despite having set pieces involving explosion after explosion the movie ignites not one jot of palpable tension. The actress playing Tatum's daughter is just horrible and adds credence to the saying 'Never work with animals or children'. In this instance, though, it's because the actress concerned demonstrates to the adults just how inept she is. Ultimately, this cannot even be considered a good bad film. It is with indifference that I pronounce it a resounding dud.