Check your knowledge of civics and government at the door,
and go into White House Down purely for the action. Do it that way and once it
gets going, you’ll have a good time; otherwise, you’ll end up saying “WTF???”
over and over again.
Starring and executive produced by Channing Tatum, Channing
plays John Cale, a Capitol policeman who wants to be a Secret Service agent and
who won’t be winning Dad of the Year. His precocious 11-year old daughter Emily
(Joey King) calls him John. But he’s trying to win points with her by taking
her on a tour of the White House (she’s a political junkie and knows as much
about the White House as the obviously flustered tour guide). Meanwhile, head
of Secret Service Finnery (Maggie Gyllenhaal) is wishing her mentor Walker
(James Wood) a happy retirement. President Sawyer (Jamie Foxx) is brokering a
controversial Middle East peace plan. And then … well … and then all hell
breaks loose.
Led by homegrown terrorist Stenz (Jason Clarke) and uber-hacker
Tyler (Jimmi Simpson), first the Capitol and then the White House go under full
assault.
It took a while to get going. In fact, there was way too
much exposition. We got it five minutes in. The president is working on a
controversial peace plan. After looking at my watch (theoretically because I
don’t really own a watch and it is rude to do the phone thing in a dark
theater) several times, the action finally started rolling. And when it did, it
never really stopped.
I truly hope the people guarding the president and the
members of congress are more skilled than what we saw in this film. It is if
the baddies just walked in and killed EVERYONE on the president’s detail
without breaking a sweat. Seriously, they made it look easy. Not to mention,
there is one glaring plot hole at the end. And I usually get swept away in the
movie enough to gloss over a few plot holes so this one had to be major (and it
was).
Yet, Tatum and Foxx have great chemistry and little Joey
King held her own as the plucky, smart daughter. But the plot took itself way
too seriously and got increasingly over-the-top as it went on. The politics
were a little too obvious and easy. President Obama Sawyer … good,
anyone that doesn’t agree with him … bad. In this movie, not agreeing with the
president makes you an extreme right-winger hell bent on destroying the
country. It was just a little too pat for me.
I enjoyed it but that is because I saw it at an early matinee.
Not sure I would have enjoyed it as much if I had paid full price.