One of the action films that throws anything and everything into its playbook, White House Down is crazy. Nonetheless, it manages to be entertaining.
White House Down (2013) Film Review
Ready to prove he is responsible, John Cale (Channing Tatum) pulls a favor to interview for the presidential secret service detail. A soldier who has an impressive career and is now working as a capitol police officer, all John wants is to impress his daughter Emily (Joey King); to be her hero again. Despite this, his interview with Carol Finnerty (Maggie Gyllenhaal), a woman he once knew, doesn’t go to plan. Despite this, John and Emily, who happens to be obsessed with all things presidential, stay for a White House tour.
The media is busy covering the presidential plans amidst policy disagreement between the speaker of the house (Richard Jenkins), whom John works for, and President Sawyer (Jamie Foxx). But everything goes wrong when the capital is attacked and eventually the White House, too. Before the chaos, John gets separated from his daughter, and determines to find her only to end up being the only man standing between the President of the United States and danger.
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White House Down is, without question, one of the movies that packs everything it possibly can into its action sequences. It’s both hilarious and impressive. The lawn sequence especially is hysterical but on the same coin, I can also appreciate it just because it kind of demands this. What makes the scene most ridiculous is the idea that the press and bystanders are as close to “the action” as they are. That just seems extremely implausible, and because of this, the film does make you recognize its flaws more readily. Same goes for obvious green screen filming and the finale which brings the president straight into a danger zone.
Still… I cannot bash this too much. The film is one of those popcorn flicks that’s just fun to watch. The cast is solid and actually impressive. Plus it’s fun to see now-popular-star Joey King in one of her earlier roles. There’s some touching moments between the characters and this allows the film to have more serious and genuine scenes going for it. It’s in these scenes the script gives connection between father and daughter, too.
Bottom line, White House Down is entertaining. It’s not award winning but a good time. If viewer ratings are anything to go by, they also seem to agree completely.
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Content: there is a lot of violence in this PG-13 film. Men with machine guns fire everywhere hitting multi people including police and soldiers. Additionally there is heavier weaponry including bringing down helicopters full of people. Others are shot or receive stab wounds. There is some hand to hand combat as well. There is profanity including uses of sh*t, GD and a single use of the f-word.
Photos: Columbia Pictures