{"id":5240,"date":"2013-06-28T06:29:29","date_gmt":"2013-06-28T13:29:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cinemastance.com\/?p=5240"},"modified":"2013-06-28T06:29:29","modified_gmt":"2013-06-28T13:29:29","slug":"white-house-down-a-slice-of-cinematic-cheese","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/?p=5240","title":{"rendered":"WHITE HOUSE DOWN: A Slice of Cinematic Cheese"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\nSometimes it can be difficult to rate a movie when the absurdity of it approaches a borderline camp level. Yes, \u201cWhite House Down\u201d is so silly that, in comparison, the earlier Oval Office hostage drama \u201cOlympus Has Fallen\u201d appears like a model of subtlety and restraint.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0Cale (Channing Tatum) is a divorced father trying to mend his relationship with his surly daughter Emily (Joey King). After landing a big job interview with the Secret Service at The White House, he decides to bring Emily along so that they can also take a tour. Things look bad for Cale when he discovers his ex-girlfriend from college (played by Maggie Gyllenhaal) is the agent reviewing his application. And things get considerably worse when an international crew of the world\u2019s most terrifying mercenaries arrive. Disguised as technicians installing a new sound system in The White House movie theater, they seize the property in an effort to take President Sawyer (Jamie Foxx) hostage. Separated from his daughter and the tour group, Cale teams with the Commander-in-Chief to not only find a way out, but save Emily and the hostages.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0However, that\u2019s not all. There\u2019s also a subplot involving the head mercenary Stenz (Jason Clarke). He becomes obsessed with killing Cale early on when his \u201cbest man\u201d is killed (presumably Stenz\u2019s best soldier and not a member of his wedding party). There are also back stories involving the Vice President (Michael Murphy), Speaker of the House (Richard Jennings) and a gruff Head of Security (James Woods) who harbors a tragic past. As events progress, staff members are linked to various policies that could implicate them in the evil scheme.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0In total, there are enough strange back stories to fill up two disaster films and a good chunk of the opening hour. This silliness eventually gives way to a series of increasingly preposterous action scenes. Essentially, Cale moves from room to room, fighting soldiers in close quarters and avoiding machine gun fire with slow-motion leaps behind pieces of furniture (most viewers will balk at the inability of any of the world\u2019s greatest mercs to hit a target ten feet in front of them). Also increasingly hilarious is just how easily distracted these antagonists are. In scene after scene, a character is mere seconds away from execution only to have their assassins leave to investigate a mysterious noise outside the room.<\/strong>
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\n\u00a0The film\u2019s performances are all over the map, with many of the characters coming off in an exaggerated manner, while others attempt a serious and grounded tone. Jenkins is so understated that he appears to be acting in a different film. At the other end of the spectrum is Woods; while over-the-top, is at least entertaining. Tatum and Foxx are likable enough and do the best they can with the clich\u00e9d script, even managing a couple of passable buddy movie one-liners. Still, Foxx ends up without much more to do than get repeatedly rescued by Tatum\u2019s character. And the repartee between the heroes and villains sound more like schoolyard taunts than witty banter.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0Frankly, by the time a helicopter crashes into the building (via surprisingly unconvincing visual effects), our heroes fire rocket launchers while in the middle of a car chase on the White House lawn, and character after character is prematurely sworn in as Chief Executive after the President is presumed dead, the histrionics have gotten so out of control that one starts to feel as if they\u2019re watching a parody of an action movie instead of the genuine article.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0Truthfully, I found the camp factor of the final forty minutes amusing. It actually made me wonder if this all wasn\u2019t supposed to be a big joke. However, the drawn-out first half of the film and frequent tonal shifts suggest that director Roland Emmerich (\u201cGodzilla,\u201d \u201cThe Day After Tomorrow,\u201d \u201c2012,\u201d \u201cIndependence Day\u201d) might have been taking things at least half-seriously. Ultimately, \u201cWhite House Down\u201d has more appeal as a slice of cinematic cheese than it does as an adrenaline pumping action film.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sometimes it can be difficult to rate a movie when the absurdity of it approaches a borderline camp level. Yes, \u201cWhite House Down\u201d is so silly that, in comparison, the earlier Oval Office hostage drama \u201cOlympus Has Fallen\u201d appears like a model of subtlety and restraint. \u00a0Cale (Channing Tatum) is a divorced father trying to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":5241,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[4103,10273,17290,19309,24206],"class_list":["post-5240","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-movie-reviews","tag-channing-tatum","tag-jamie-foxx","tag-roland-emmerich","tag-summer-movies","tag-white-house-down"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5240","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5240"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5240\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5240"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5240"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5240"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}