Movie Review: White House Down

If I were only going to see one White House-taken-over-by-terrorists movie this year, it would be this one. It is better than G.I. Joe 2 and Olympus Has Fallen but I realize that’s not saying much and may be the definition of “back-handed compliment.” And, naturally, it’s the least commercially successful of the three…

What Works: G.I. Joe 2 is mostly a cartoon (complete with The Rock who I’m pretty sure is legally a cartoon character) and Olympus Has Fallen had a ridiculous plot where North Koreans took over the White House with only a giant ass bomber plane no one seemed to notice until it was blasting through D.C. By contrast, White House Down actually looks semi-believable even if it really isn’t. The villains are never properly identified in the trailers (the marketing for this movie really sucks) but they’re actually a paramilitary group organized by some defense contractors who don’t like that Jamie Foxx’s president wants to sign a peace treaty with the Middle East. To them, wars in the Middle East are big business and they have the congressmen they buy and pay for (the movie never identifies political parties but it’s pretty obvious who’s who) keep spinning it as “it’s making America look weak.” Whereas Olympus Has Fallen keeps trying to scare us with some imagined North Korean menace, this film actually takes on that thinking. The result is a smarter, more thoughtful blockbuster. And the cast is certainly much better: Jamie Foxx as the president instead of a wooden Aaron Eckhart, Richard Jennings doing his sly-dog best over a phoning-it-in Morgan Freeman as Speaker of the House, James Woods as the villain, and Channing Tatum as a more human, funny ass kicker than Gerard Butler (who looks like he’s chewing red meat when he’s just talking) could ever be.

What Doesn’t Work: There are long stretches where I wasn’t particularly moved one way or the other by anything on screen. Jason Clarke’s head goon is a hot-headed Die Hard cliche, and most of the supporting villains seem like holdovers from an 80’s movie. The comedy pops more than the action sequences do, most of which are generic and clumsily staged.

What I Would Have Done Differently: People are calling this film a flop, but Sony should have never spent 150 million to make it (it’s not obvious on-screen that the thing cost more than 60 or 70 million). They also should have pushed the release date back once it was obvious Olympus Has Fallen was such a hit. This thing could have done solid business in the Fall, and feels more like that kind of movie anyway than it should be competing with Super or Iron Men.