Thursday, June 27, 2013

Movie Review: "White House Down"

White House Down is what Summer movies are all about -- fun.  Does it feature the greatest script ever written?  Not in the slightest, but it has so much over-the-top action and ridiculously awesome one-liners, how can you really complain?

Channing Tatum plays John Cale, a man interviewing for a job with the secret service just as bad guys take over the White House.  Coincidence?  I think not.  After all, the script said so.  What follows is a buddy cop movie between a wanna be-secret service agent and the President of the United States, played by Jamie Foxx.

To cut to the chase, White House Down is not the next Die Hard, it's not going to be a classic of cinema fifty years from now, but it does exactly what it intends to do, which is entertain.  White House Down is just fun, you like the heroes, you hate the bad guys, and you're laughing at one liners whilst biting your nails all the way to the finale.  It's the kind of movie that I would gladly watch again and again, the same way I keep eating that bad-for-you popcorn whilst watching.  It satisfies that cinematic desire that only a movie like this can, and when it's clear that everyone in the cast was having this much fun while making it, it's infectious.  Everyone from Tatum to James Woods, to nearly every character actor in Hollywood, they all were seemingly having a blast doing this movie and I had a blast watching them.  Sure, it's got plot holes, and the first act takes a bit too long to get to the action, but these are things that can be easily overlooked if you just know how to actually have fun.

I give White House Down a B+!

1 comment:

  1. Good review Christian. You can't really hate a movie for being dumb, when that's all it knows it is. This is the perfect example of what I'm talking about.

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