White House Down

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. (16/07/2013)

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. (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)

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. (29/07/2013)