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White House Down is an appallingly
sentimental Die Hard knock-off that
would have John McClane scoffing at its weak action sequences and
undying love
for its commander-in-chief. Evidently, the US public was not feeling
the same
love during the American summer. White
House Down was a box office dud that failed to break even on its
$150
million dollar budget. Earlier this year, the soul crushingly bad Olympus Has Fallen was released, which
was also a film about the White House being under attack by Asian
terrorists.
It proved to be an undeservingly huge box office ticket and showed that
Americans aren't tired of flag-waving or witch hunts for the good of
national
security.
The star
and producer of White House Down is
Channing Tatum, who recently attracted great box office numbers with Magic Mike, so he isn't to blame either.
Did people avoid the film because it reminds them of Obama's waning
popularity? Olympus had a clean-cut white
President. To appear modern and politically correct, White
House Down casts Jamie Foxx as the President. Given recent
developments
in Syria it's difficult not to wince in disbelief when hearing how
liberal and
progressive the policies of his character are, including a bid to
remove all
American troops from the Middle East and how the pen is mightier than
the sword.
Furthermore,
the film could also have failed because audiences know how to sniff out
a bad
imitation of Die Hard. Very few
action films understand why that first movie was such a success. Die Hard's greatest asset was its
airtight setup and exposition, establishing McClane as a believable,
ordinary
cop with an edgy personality and failing marriage. The humanity
filtered into the
action sequences so audiences felt the rough and tumble and the
bruises. The
physicality in the stunts and Bruce Willis' iconic performance is what
makes Die Hard one of the finest action films
ever made and why it has rarely been equalled.
The setup
here is long and embarrassingly cliché. Cale (Tatum) is a police offer
who
escorts a politician Eli Raphelson (Richard Jenkins) to work. Cale is
also the
father of Emily (Joey King) who he doesn't spend enough time with. To
make up
for missing her show, he arranges for himself and Emily to take a long
tour of
the White House where they meet President Sawyer (Foxx). Cale also has
a job
interview with Finnerty (Maggie Gyllenhaal) for a position with the
Secret Service.
She already knows him from college and doubts his ability, despite the
fact he
had three tours of Afghanistan as a soldier. When a bomb is detonated
in the
Capitol Building the White House is evacuated and Cale and Emily are
separated.
Walker (James Woods), a politician on his last day, has joined forces
with a
military type named Stenz (Jason Clarke) to try and kidnap the President.
Cale and
Sawyer team up to take down these terrorist thugs and rescue Emily.
The
director was Roland Emmerich who specialises in large scale end of the
world
films (The Day After Tomorrow). This
is his second effort to destroy the White House following Independence
Day. The only bright spot that Emmerich brings to the
tired, derivative material is that it isn't racist like Olympus
nor is it as self-serious. One of the lighter moments
is when a wimpy tour guide finally
arms himself with a shotgun. In spite of its occasionally jokey tone,
the film
is still a boring cocktail of aimless shootouts and male brutes
wrestling with
each other. It even resorts to the good old red countdown timer. If
that
doesn't drain every ounce of sincerity from the father and daughter
schmaltz,
wait till you see a laughable end scene that bring new meaning to
flag-waving.
The
action scenes are disappointing and lack Die
Hard's physical heft. Tatum is too clean in the role. He doesn't
have the
grit of Bruce Willis so the fights aren't particularly convincing, nor
does he
have the actor's hilarious tongue in cheek snark either. Action films
don't
have to be deep but they need to be punchy. The plot is bloated by
setpieces
but also over-stacked with too many side characters, including a
computer hack
I'm sure is meant to be Julian Assange. The pace grows sluggish,
running out of
gas well before the end, and Emmerich does a terrible job keeping the
traitors
a secret thanks to glaring close-ups and intrusive music cues. That's
presumably why the film really failed: we're tired of this setup
because we
know how it begins and ends. Why would you pay to watch something
you've
already seen and done better?
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