John Cale (Channing Tatum) is Capitol Policeman who has had good intentions in the past, but has always maintained a messy unorganized ethic. Usually late to events, never finished what he initiates, you name it. Cale hopes to reconcile with his daughter (Joey King) by taking her to the White House in the hopes to earn a position at Secret Service. Cale gets rejected and lies to his daughter’s face in the hopes to not disappoint her again. To make matters worse, paramilitary invaders led by Emil Stenz (Jason Clarke) infiltrate the White House, Cale must step up to his inevitable John McClane archetype and rescue President James Sawyer (Jaime Foxx) and protect his daughter from eventual harm.
When it comes to Roland Emmerich’s films, I tend to go in and watch them with the mentality of knowing that the film will be nothing more than a mindless over-the-top blockbuster. As shown with Independence Day, The Day After Tomorrow, and 2012, these large-scale popcorn disaster flicks have given him a “winning” formula to bring audiences to the megaplex. Despite of commercial successes, he never really was a “Kubrickian” director and going into this film, I was hoping to enjoy myself with what could be an entertaining flick. Unfortunately, White House Down ends up collapsing on itself and unfortunately fails in more levels than you can even comprehend.
Channing Tatum poses as a likable action star. Despite of his obvious John McClane-esque outlook right down to his character’s name being John, and the white-beater shirt, he remains a charismatic, entertaining lead. Tatum and Foxx share a terrific chemistry with eachother throughout, even though Foxx does not seem to fit the “presidential” figure. But while their camaraderie remains entertaining throughout, as for the rest of the ensemble cast, each performance levels around average-to-poor. Maggie Gyllenhaal gives a serviceable, but disposable nonetheless performance as does Richard Jenkins, Jason Clarke, and James Woods. Joey King as Cale’s daughter, Emily definitely shows signs of needing more assistance with her acting chops and Nicolas Wright as a White House tour guide is legitimately awful in his role.
White House Down is riddled with a sloppy direction by Emmerich. This is mainly evident through the film’s tonal inconsistencies throughout. There are many scenes in which the film goes for a light-hearted action feel while there are also sequences that attempt to have the film be taken as serious and tension-filled. Those two different tones when put together mesh into a poorly balanced film overall, also being devoid of any tension, as well as having a few instances of unintentionally funny scenes.
James Vanderbilt’s script is almost a marvel in terms of how outrageously goofy it is. Embarrassing dialogue is heard throughout, leading me to have a double-take with a few of these quips due to their absurdities. The film is also riddled with cliche after cliche after cliche, right down to the character archetypes and what you expect to see with films possessing the Die Hard formula. Also, the motivation that drives James Woods’ character proves to be pretty offensive in a political and moral standpoint, that it almost left me infuriated at both Emmerich and Vanderbilt to even have the guts to give Woods’ character such an absurd ambition.
I wish I could be more generous to this film other than to say that it’s nice to see a lack of shaky-cam action and that sometimes the over-the-top absurdities can sometimes be mildly entertaining, but that’s all that can really be said in terms of anything White House Down can positively offer. Despite Tatum and Foxx’s chemistry, the film falls apart just as the White House does with average-to-poor performances, sloppy direction, tone inconsistency, lack of tension, absurd script, and offensive character motivation. White House Down was far too stupid for me to enjoy and at an overlong running time of 137 minutes, it felt as if the credits would never start rolling soon enough. Save your money or go see something else. Definitely one of the worst movies of 2013 as of late.
White House Down earns a 1/5.
Green Ark Reviews 