DIRECTOR: Roland Emmerich
CAST: Channing Tatum, Jamie Foxx, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Jason Clarke, Richard Jenkins, Joey King, James Woods, Michael Murphy, Rachelle Feverre
RUNNING TIME: 131 mins
CERTIFICATE: 12A
BASICALLY…: When the White House is taken over by paramilitary forces, only Capitol Police Officer John Cale (Tatum) can save his daughter (King), the President (Foxx) and stop the bad guys before more collateral damage is done…
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NOW FOR THE REVIEW…
The only way to describe Roland Emmerich’s newest gift to mainstream cinema White House Down is with the newly-coined term “America-bation”. In case you haven’t already picked up as to what that might mean, it’s where a film such as this one takes US liberties and ideologies and exaggerates them to a point where it all seems incredible and wonderful, and it pleasures itself with how much of a good thing it makes the country look like. Just imagine a giant hand violently jerking the Statue of Liberty and you have the basic visual image.
It may seem odd to think that the German-born filmmaker who blew up the White House in Independence Day, had Godzilla wreak havoc on New York, flooded that same city in The Day After Tomorrow and then virtually wiped out the entire nation in 2012 along with the rest of the world would possibly have an agenda to make what is probably the most patriotic action film to come out for some time.
That’s not even an exaggeration. The opening scenes see young Emily Cale (Joey King, a fine young actress but paired with an obnoxious character here) in her room filled with White House snow-globes smiling as she watches a White House helicopter fly over her window. From there on, it’s clear that literally everything in this movie, from the setting to the heroes to the side-characters to even the villains, is purely American. In fact, thinking about it, there probably isn’t one character who isn’t a citizen of the United States in Emmerich’s completely bonkers vision of the US. To an international audience such as the UK, all of this must all seem rather baffling in how they’re really pushing it. There’s a later scene where she runs to the front of the White House and – seriously – starts waving a flag with the eagle and E Pluribus Unum phrase on it. To this kind of audience, it seems like a laughable attempt to create a US version of Les Miserables. It’s probably even laughable to American audiences, perhaps that’s why it bombed at the box office over there. Bottom line, the move takes its patriotism WAY too damn seriously till it starts becoming unintentional comedic material.
But of course, there’s other stuff to the movie too. In one of many similarities to Die Hard, Channing Tatum does an excellent Bruce Willis hero archetype here and Jamie Foxx also has his moments as the President, but both aren’t given strong enough characters to hold their respective on-screen charismas. Others character actors like Jason Clarke, Richard Jenkins, James Woods and particularly a disinterested Maggie Gyllenhaal either feel wasted or not used to their full potential as talented individuals.
The action scenes, as you might expect from any Emmerich movie, are a ton of fun to watch even if they are completely insane and making up for lack of brain-cells with sub-par visual effects that always look obviously fake. A mini-car-chase across the White House garden is just one example of this, complete with CG explosions and the President packing a rocket launcher (once again putting that whole America-bation notion into effect, as Emmerich also did by putting the Commander in Chief in a fighter jet to fight aliens in Independence Day).
As ever, the plot doesn’t really make sense, then again when do you go to these films expecting plot? James Vanderbilt’s screenplay has moments of wit but also creates some cheesy and cringe-worthy moments, including an early encounter between Emily Cale and the President. But as long as that giant hand keeps on going at that Statue of Liberty, it’s all the more instrumental in White House Down’s aggressive and patriotic sense of self-worth.
SO, TO SUM UP…
White House Down is your typical Roland Emmerich film; enjoyably over-the-top action with his traditional goofy characters and clichés. But its undeniable American patriotism ranges from uncomfortably aggressive at times to unintentionally hilarious at others. Just remember, “America-bation” is copyright Film Feeder, circa 2013.
