White House Down

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. (18/07/2013)

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% (29/12/2013)

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. (22/10/2013)

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. (24/08/2014)

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. (05/10/2014)