White House Down - Review

White House Down

Plot summary:

As the President of the United States pursues a peace treaty with the Arab nations, which would be followed by the withdrawal of military forces in those regions, John Cale, United States Capitol Police Officer picks up his daughter, Emily and heads to the White House, where he is due for an interview to join the Secret Service(SS). After his interview, Cale takes Emily on a tour of the White House. And at one point, heavily armed gunman overtake security and take everyone else hostage. And whilst this was taking place, Emily, was in the ladies room. Fearing for the well-being of his daughter, Cale escapes from the gunman and makes his way through the halls of the White House looking for Emily. And during his search, he stumbles across the US President, James Sawyer, and together, they fight to stay alive through all the chaos that unfolds.

Review:

So, considering characters, you have John Cale: a former US soldier who served in Afghanistan and then joined the Capitol Police. Cale is shown to be feeling less of a hero since he got back from Afghanistan, in his talk with President Sawyer. And to make up for that, his new goal became to become part of the SS – to protect the person who is a hero. And then you have President Sawyer, the noble and humble president who wants to not make history, but simply, make a difference. The main mercenaries introduced are shown to bear grudges towards the government, while a couple of them are just ridiculous and or insane. Not to mention the two main heads – who I will not mention due to spoilers – of the whole operation who have their own political and personal agendas.

Coming to the acting, I see no issues. Channing Tatum(John Cale) and Jamie Foxx(James Sawyer) were a good fit for these roles, both, individually, and as a team. And they managed to bring some comic relief during all the flying bullets and roaring explosions. Not to mention Nicholas Wright also contributed to some brief comic relief in his role as Donnie, the tour guide. Kevin Rankin really hit the psychopathic role as Killick, and Jimmi Simpson was pretty good too, in his role as the pretty weirdly insane Skip Tyler, and not forgetting Jason Clarke as Stenz, who has a personal vendetta to pursue. Joey King, Maggie Gyllenhaal, James Woods, Lance Reddick, and Richard Jenkins are some of the other noteworthy actors and actresses in this movie. This movie had a pretty strong cast, and they all delivered some convincing acting.

And talking about the action and other elements, you have some fast-paced shootouts and high-speed chases, albeit limited to a confined space, which were all suspenseful and entertaining to watch. And it had some pretty cool music to add to that. Plus the movie wasn’t lacking in explosions and destruction needed for its scenarios. But then again, this movie is from Roland Emmerich, and that is to be expected. The hand-to-hand combat wasn’t exactly fast-paced, but it wasn’t any less interesting. This is one good action-packed, explosive movie to catch. Have a blast. Pun intended this time. 

You can watch the trailer here:

WHITE HOUSE DOWN - Official Trailer

And you can get the movie here:

White House Down