White House Down

A watchable compensation for the fifth Die Hard. I had significantly more fun than with the thematically similar Olympus Has Fallen. (12/16/2013)

This was great! Vanderbilt's script is directed by Emmerich with such gusto and punch that I was bouncing in my seat with excitement. The concept of The Rock and Die Hard is distilled into an ideal mix that isn't afraid to weave in action and healthy exaggeration that is ideally put together. Emmerich loves America, but at the same time, he carries in his heart a piece of a sneering European who knows how to sarcastically poke this idol. The acting is top-notch, especially Tatum dispelling the slight awkwardness, and the white tank top at the end is well deserved. Also, the little girl is the best child element in action since Iron Man 3. In a way, it’s a precise hit in every genre discipline. 4 ½. (10/04/2014)

It’s a movie by Roland Emmerich, so what else could I have really expected? I mean, yeah, I could have expected something else because he already blew the White House into pieces once in Independence Day. Here, he just looted the president’s quarters, ruined the president’s lawn, his pond and so on. It was nice to see. I was almost wondering if this movie replica was really close to the actual White House. Because if it was really accurate and I was a terrorist, I would have considered this movie an educational tutorial. The movie is sort of a well-done action classic which is something Roland’s simply good at. You can’t deny that and I had a good movie to chill with. (08/24/2014)

Democrats have also filmed their action blockbuster after Republicans did so. There is less blood, more conscious 12- bloggers, more peace, right-wing radicals, black presidents who are cool and vulgar, more corrupt arms lobbyists, and a less bipolar worldview (but it does not relate to the domestic political situation). Emmerich continues his world-saving mission started by the eco-agitation film The Day After Tomorrow. However, this soft and politically correct derivative of Die Hard shows that Roland's hand is shaking and the film thus reminds us of a joint afternoon of South Bohemian Mothers and Children of the Earth. Everyone here does what they like, and the result is the sunny confusion, to which Tatum and Foxx give some sort of order. If I have to choose between the swollen milksop Butler or the sleek Tatum... I give up my right to vote. PS: Sorry, in the end I vote for Roland the day after. (07/16/2013)

Who would have thought that Emmerich’s classic approach to the action movie genre would suit Roland’s “turn on the computers and generate me destruction of world monuments" approach so well? If you took the best from White House Down (that being Butler with Eckhart and R`s uncompromising nature) and got rid of occasional infantility and family escapades, it would be enough for the local John to say “Yippy-ki-yay motherfucker" and it could make a dignified Die Hard sequel. (10/11/2013)

The hardest job interview ever. Emmerich is a destroyer, but doesn’t let the smaller scale restrict him, in fact he enjoys the destruction even more this way. White House Down is on a par with erm... Olympus Has Fallen, in fact both are more or less equally enjoyable. Butler relies on bloody inevitability, while Tatum relies on hamfistedness and frivolous fun that to entertain the whole family. His loquacious sidekick is the president (entertainingly ham-fisted Foxx) and wears red and white Jordans (he’s got what it takes). Vanderbilt’s screenplay contains lots of refreshing elements, absurd lines and unexpected twists (credit card not working at the end) and it’s not the president, but the main protagonist’s daughter who gets saved. It was good to see the unusually eccentric Jason Clarke. Simply another variation on Die Hard (yep, the hero talks to himself, as well into his walkie-talkie/cellphone and sneers at the baddies’ dead bodies), but this time Emmerich-style. An ideal, relaxing family movie with a happy ending that leaves you with that great feeling that everything ended happily (even though the whole government and a load of other people died). P.S.: Probably the most entertaining tour of the White House and surroundings. (08/20/2013)

I wouldn't exaggerate it with those superlatives, the only thing that White House Down has over Olympus Has Fallen is lightness, detachment, and less pathos, everything else falls behind heavily. Old-school action? Where? Maybe one or two fights and high-quality "physical sounds", the clarity is minimal, the rating is lethal, and the overall editing composition is heavily off. In action scenes, it is mainly the editor who can get the necessary pace into the sequences, and it didn't go very well here. Gerard Butler is better than Channing Tatum, no matter what anyone says, though, surprisingly, the latter excels in comedic and light moments rather than in action ones. And so the film's reins must be taken over by James Woods and his gang, who are constantly showing a barrage of looks and emotions. Perhaps Ronald Emmerich's work is genre-consistent and a tribute to the '90s, but in a direct battle with its older brother, it loses. (07/28/2013)

The most honest and entertaining action movie of recent years. Unlike other films winking at the action glory of years past, White House Down has one big advantage - it feels completely natural, unforced, not trying to tell us in every other minute: "Look, we borrowed this scene from here and this one from somewhere else. Laugh, please." And it was made by Roland Emmerich, who may be the last person from whom anyone would expect such excellent and imaginative shootouts (which this time play a bigger role than mammoth digital destruction)... But just think of his Universal Soldier and it becomes clear that the director is at home here too. But besides action, he brought out another important weapon - humor. Lots of humor. Perfectly timed gags (zombies in a limo), verbal shootouts, funny characters that aren't stupid (the White House tour guide). I don't even have a single complaint about the actors, starting with Channing Tatum (he earned McClane's undershirt) and ending with James Woods and the whole charismatic bad guy gang. Not to mention a cleverly written story that can surprise. I give it five stars, and I'd love it if Roland Emmerich made Tom Clancy's “Rainbow Six". (07/23/2013)

I don't know what Emmerich imagines by the presidency, but it certainly isn’t only boring paperwork and a sea of routine meetings. And it’s his unique approach, which allows a group of terrorists to completely take over the most guarded building in the world in ten minutes and make action heroes out of everyone involved, starting with the president and ending with an eleven-year-old girl, that once again makes the whole spectacle tremendously entertaining, leaving in the minds of genre fans such an apt sense of déjà vu, which in recent years has only been taken care of by a bunch of certain expendable dudes. What does it matter that the film is crammed as many clichés as The Rock is packed with steroids, when everything is deliberately handled with such flair and filmed so expertly and nicely? Moreover, the actors are visibly enjoying their roles and the director takes as much pleasure in each empty clip as if it were to be his last. I'm definitely amazed that the movie got bad review at Cinema magazine. That reviewer doesn’t seem to be a proper gourmand. :D 75% (12/29/2013)

Maybe if "White House Down" came out in theaters later and Gerard Butler didn't play in it, I would have liked the movie "Olympus Has Fallen". Having two identical movies in one year is just poor production. Couldn't they have moved the second one? Emmerich's bad luck. This is a financial mess and eventually a film mess as well. The occasional attempt at a cool joke definitely doesn't overshadow the patriotism that oozes from it in all directions. Just another American destruction of American values presented by a native German. (10/22/2013)

A big surprise for me. The Americans finally make fun of themselves too, and it has to be said that they do it very well. Emmerich has made an utterly easygoing action film that, while it has, as always, a dire plot in the background, is otherwise taken with a lightness I've never seen from him before. Thanks to this, even Jamie Foxx, whom I normally don't like very much, is really comical as the president together with his bodyguard Tatum. It's a pity about the somewhat uneven pace and the related contrasting transitions between genres, when sometimes the fun is lost. The plot then has to be handled by bad guys with nerves to spare, led by Jason Clarke. (07/18/2013)