White House Down (2013)

"Whatever happened to the pen being mightier than the sword?"- Head of Presidential Security detail, Martin Walker

A Buddy cop film?

From the disaster loving director and filmmaker, Roland Emmerich, that brought you 2012, The Day after Tomorrow, Godzilla and Independence Day, comes an action film like one other (Olympus Has Fallen). White House Down tells of a story of a struggling father, U.S Capitol Police Officer John Cale (Channing Tatum) who tries to patch his relationship with his America-loving, patriotic daughter Emily Cale (Joey King), by taking her to the White House for his job application into the secret service, giving her chance to take a tour inside the Presidential residence. Things begin to go awry during their time there when a group of paramilitary terrorist decides to seize the White House and go after the U.S President James Sawyer (Jamie Foxx). When help failed to come from the outside, Officer John Cale has to not only spring into action to save his daughter but to team up with the U.S President to stop the terrorist plans from succeeding.

 Roland Emmerich has destroyed the White House so many times in his disaster films,

that it's about time he made a film solely on the destruction of the White House.

...Spoilers from here on out...

Apart from the much Americana theme and American patriotism, this film has plenty of action and entertaining moments. A less serious film compared to Olympus Has Fallen which had a similar plot, and certainly has a much higher budget. Roland Emmerich is known for causing destruction and mayhem in his films. Well, he certainly had fun blowing up, demolishing and destroying much of the White House in this film. It was certainly good entertainment threat. There were even few good surprises that caught me off guard. When I think this sort of story you only can have gun fights or hand to hand combat, I had no idea you can even put in a car chase scene on the lawn of the White House. And just when you think all the explosion and destruction will be concentrated on the White House, BOOM! there goes the Air Force One in the sky. John Cale even surprised me and made me laugh when he decides to light up the Presidential bedroom on fire to get the enemy's attention.

"Detective John McClane?"

He's busy in Russia. What can I do for you, President L Jackson?

Our hero John Cale actually feels more like Die Hard's John McClane here compared to Gerald Butler's Mike Banning from Olympus. I mean he even does all his thing in a singlet much like our Die Hard hero. He not only feels like your kind of guy who's in the wrong place and at the wrong time but I do feel that he's got a lot more vulnerability than Olympus' Mike Banning. This is especially so when his daughter's life is at stake (Die Hard 4 anyone?). So his character is a lot more engaging and fun to watch. As for President Sawyer, he is played brilliantly by Jamie Foxx. You can tell he picked up certain characteristics from President Obama, but I found it really fun to watch him fumbling with his presidential habits in a time and crisis like this. President Sawyer and John Cale make a good dynamic duo, their chemistry is fun to watch and actually gave a feel like a good buddy cop movie. (Die Hard 3 anyone?) So, creativity wise... that's a plus point. Just think about it, how cool is that if President Obama had to do something like that. I'm guessing that's probably how they pitched the idea to the studio to green lit this movie.

 I have my peace treaty right here!

I find the story takes some time to build up. Nearly bored me in the beginning. It did introduce a little too many characters for me to follow. I'm guessing that's because there's going to be a lot of people involve when a crisis like that were to occur. But ultimately, they are quickly dealt with and we follow more of our heroes and the baddies in the White House. There's certainly a good character arc and development written for our hero John Cale, but it's a little too cliche and has been done quite a lot of times, as mentioned to my reference above, Die Hard 4. You just know that they purposely set up his bad relationship with his daughter so that they will reconcile in the end after he does his hero business. But what surprises me more was the back story of our villain, the head of presidential security detail, Martin Walker. While the motive of the villain in Olympus Has Fallen has something to do with the conflict between the North and South Korea, this one had a more personal motive and vendetta. So, it got me quite engage to the story as the real villain motive slowly unfolds. I was particularly surprised that even the President proposal of withdrawing the troops from the Middle East plays a small part in the villain's motive. Kudos also to the writer to how the take over scene was written. I thought it was interesting to have the head of president's security detail, Martin Walker to mastermind the whole attack. It always someone within. How he meets his end too, was rather... a little overkill but still WOW!

 Don't worry, honey... we'll be in good terms once I kill all the bad guys, save the President and America.

A little long for the story to build up and a little too many characters to follow, otherwise it's a fun action movie to watch. I enjoyed the performance of Channing Tatum and Jamie Foxx, and the story, although similar to Olympus Has Fallen, is a lot more fun and engaging at times. Entertaining and cool. Then again, Olympus has a much different direction and take, more gritty and serious in tone, a thriller film. White House Down is more of a summer action flick with bits of light heartedness and humor in it. I give a 6.5 out of 10 pairs of President's Jordan Sneakers. Comment below, which did you prefer: Olympus Has Fallen or White House Down?