White House Down

For some reason, in 2013 the big thing was making a Die Hard set in the White House. There were two big movies that came out with basically the same premise, down on his luck guy (the John McClane of the story) has to save the President when the White House is attacked by terrorists who have an inside man with the secret service. At the end of the film the John McClane and the President are buddies and the terrorists are foiled before the United States is plunged into chaos. White House Down and Olympus has Fallen were those two movies. They are pretty much exactly the same. The only difference is the tone. Olympus Has Fallen takes on more of a serious 80s action vibe to it, while White House Down is more of an action comedy.

I have already reviewed Olympus has Fallen. I even reviewed its sequel London Has Fallen. My biggest issues with that film were the over-the-topness of it and the predictability of the film. So how does White House Down compare?

White House Down follows the story of John Cale (played by Channing Tatum). He is on the security detail of the Speaker of the House but he would like to join the Secret Service and protect the President. He has a daughter that lives with his ex-wife and his daughter, Emily (played by Joey King) is not his biggest fan, mainly because he’s a little bit of a deadbeat father. Emily is really into politics and really into her Youtube channel and blogging about politics.

John is applying to join the Secret Service and he takes Emily with him when he goes to interview for the job. He is quickly rejected but before they leave, they go on a tour of the White House.

Meanwhile, the President James Sawyer (played by Jaimie Fox) is ready to unveil a new policy that proposes removing combat troops from the Middle East. His secret service detail includes his Head of the Detail, Martin Walker (played by James Woods) and another agent named Carol Finnerty

(played by Maggie Gyllenhal). Walker is on his way towards retirement when he facilitates a group of mercenaries to lead an assault on the White House and take everyone inside hostage.

John Cale and his daughter are separated before the assault and he breaks away from the hostage situation to find her. But he runs across the President and takes it upon himself to protect the President until the terrorists are stopped.

Outside the White House, The Vice President is rushed to Airforce One, Agent Finnerty (Gyllenhal) takes the Speaker of the House (played by Richard Jenkins) to a command center with all the security agencies of the United States trying to figure out a way to save the President and the hostages before they are all killed by the terrorists.

Right off the bat, this movie is hilarious. Roland Emmerich had to have known how ridiculous of a scenario this movie is set up as and instead of trying to normalize it, Emmerich leans into it, just making so many over the top action sequences and having the comedy to smooth the sense of

disbelief of the audience. Remember when I said in my Olympus Has Fallen review that I thought at times the movie was too over the top and ridiculous. While I think that worked for the film, it just worked in a different way. Olympus has Fallen took itself seriously the way and 80’s action movie would take itself way too seriously. It has its merits but if you’re not totally one hundred percent engaged in the film, you’re suspension of disbelief is only going to go so far. Now the same thing happens with White House Down, but the movie takes a little bit of a different approach. There still is the feeling of an 80’s Die Hard action movie when you watch this film, but it’s less a serious action movie and more a Rush Hour action comedy. This allows the movie to make more comedic moments, and up the ante with the stakes because you know there is going to be a funny reaction or a funny scenario that will keep the audience grounded and make it easier to digest. Now, it does at a certain point reach a point of diminishing returns and the action and plot do get a little bit over the top and ridiculous. However, Roland Emmerich doubled down on the over the top action, whereas Antoine Fuqua on the sappy over the top acting and patriotism factor. Personally for me, I prefer jumping the shark action over a movie taking itself way too seriously.

White House Down has just a likeable cast starting with Channing Tatum. Channing Tatum has really grown as an actor, and while I don’t think he’s on the fast track to winning an Oscar anytime soon, I get the feeling that I am going to like his stuff more and more once he gets in a groove of what he is good at and what his strengths are. The thing that I liked about the character of John Cale was that he is in essence John McClane. Not bald, bored out of his mind Bruce Willis, John McClane, he is John McClane from the first Die Hard movie. He’s a likeable down on his luck guy but at the same time you can imagine why he’s kind of a screw up. He wants to do best by the people he loves and yet he just can’t get it right. The other thing that I really liked about John Cale was the fact that he starts this journey with the one goal of finding his daughter and making sure she’s safe. He’s then wrangled into saving the President, something that immediately he is very good at. But all the while he manages to balance the desire to save his daughter with the duty to save the President.

And Jaimie Fox is a really good President James Sawyer. First off, there’s an obviously nudge to the audience that Jaimie Fox is supposed to be playing Barrack Obama. It’s done in a way that is both hilarious and respectful. And because its respectful, it makes the character a little bit more fun because there’s a piece of your mind that is imagining Obama in this exact situation and due to Fox’s comedic chops, it becomes even funnier with that mindset. Jaimie Fox also makes a contribution that not all Die Hard rip offs have been able to do, and that is make it a buddy comedy movie. Even the fourth Die Hard wasn’t that good because they decided to pair John McClane up with Justin Long (is Long still a thing? I haven’t seen him in a while). It takes the right pairing to make a Die Hard rip off work as a buddy comedy and Jaimie Fox does a great job being both a partner and a goal that Channing Tatum has to reach.

The rest of the cast is good. Jason Clarke is slowly becoming one of my favorite actors and I think everything he does, even if it’s bad, he still gives a pretty good performance. Maggie Gyllenhal actually did a good job, and freaking James Woods is the bad guy! That blew my mind when I first saw that. The last thing I saw James Woods in was a Family Guy episode and its great seeing him as the asshole bad guy.

The biggest issue I have with the ancillary characters is not so much about their performances but more the plans they have that drive the plot. The first thing I’ll talk about is the bad guy’s plot. The entire movie, the President surviving is necessary to the bad guy’s plot… except it isn’t but that’s a small side note. But furthermore, when you finally figure out what James Woods wants to do, it is the point where you actually see the plot jump the shark and go a little bit overboard. It reaches the point where your suspension of disbelief is reached and if you’re not totally loving the movie already, you might roll your eyes at the ridiculousness of the plot.

But the real problem with this movie is the incompetence of Gyllenhal and the government agencies trying to save the President and the hostages in the White House. These guys are kind of morons. Gyllenhal is a bit of a moron, the generals are morons, the Vice President is a moron, Richard Jenkins as the Speaker of the House is a little bit of a moron, they’re all just morons.

And I get it, it is a Die Hard-like movie, the John McClane character is supposed to be the smartest person in the room and the person who knows how to fix the situation the best, and there were parts in the original Die Hard where the police outside disagree and take matters into their own hands. In fact, White House Down basically rips off those exact scenes from Die Hard. But it does become a little worrying when you realize that the difference is that the police in Die Hard were local police. The officials on the outside were the military and the highest federal law enforcement agencies in the country. I get that the White House being under siege is an unprecedented situation, but there had to have been smarter decisions being made by the government and those decisions weren’t made for the convenience of the plot and the fact that Channing Tatum needed to take on these terrorists by himself.

And these decisions, like the over the top action, are acceptable for a certain amount of time, until they start jumping the shark and you just have to roll your eyes on how stupid these guys are.

And that is the one thing that I think Olympus has Fallen has over White House Down. The story just makes a little bit more sense. Emmerich really wanted to make this over the top action comedy that at a certain point, it reaches a point of diminishing returns and that’s where the story structure problems begin. In Olympus Has Fallen, you felt the power that the terrorists had over the government, and while Gerard Butler was still the smartest man in the room, you still felt like the government had a powerful role to play, they were just outmatched by the terrorists. In White House Down, Channing Tatum is the only one who is right the entire time and everything falls on him. That’s not necessarily a horrible thing, it’s just not the best story structure.

That being said, I don’t know why Olympus Has Fallen got a sequel and White House Down didn’t. I thought the action in this movie was great. I was laughing at this movie so many times. I thought the cast was really well done and I did care about the problems and trials of the hero in this story. I would love to see a sequel to White House Down and I could almost see it as the comedic pairing to the Olympus Has Fallen franchise.

Apparently there is going to be a third installment in the Olympus has Fallen franchise. Having watched both movies in that franchise and now having watched White House Down, I think the wrong franchise blossomed in the bizarre happening that was 2013’s obsession with the White House being assaulted. I like them both, but for different reasons, and neither of them are movies that I’m going to go out and buy. But White House Down has a lot of strong qualities that make it just a fun movie you can watch if it’s on cable. If this comes up when I’m watching TV, it will definitely be one I check out again.

But those are my thoughts on White House Down. I have finally seen both White House Die Hard films of 2013, which one do you prefer? Do you prefer an action comedy, or a cheesy 80’s action film? Comment and Discuss below! You can also send me your thoughts on Twitter @cmhaugen24 as well as send me your requests for films I should review in the future. If you follow me on Twitter you can get updates on future movie news and reviews coming out of this blog.

I’ll leave you with this. It won't be my next review but I am definitely going to do a quick reaction review on the new Beauty and the Beast trailer because it looks awesome. Enjoy!