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It's unlikely anyone was expecting master disaster directorRoland Emmerich ("Independence Day," "2012") and action-comedy hunk Channing Tatum ("G.I. Joe," "21 Jump Street") to deliver a tense, realistic political thriller in "White House Down," the second movie this year about terrorists besieging the Oval Office while a lone hero tries to save the free world.
Indeed, film critics agree that "White House Down" is exceedingly implausible and cartoonishly action-packed. Whether or not that really matters depends on who you ask.
The Times' Kenneth Turan suggests it doesn't, writing, "'White House Down' is a hoot and a half, a shameless popcorn entertainment that is preposterous and diverting in just about equal measure." Emmerich, "a director with an instinct for the obvious," is aided by James Vanderbilt's script, which "has a fine pulp premise and keeps the cringe-worthy lines to a minimum," and by Tatum, "an actor who is ideally cast as the kind of regular guy you might not look at twice" — but who can kick butt with the best of them.
Granted, Turan says, the film "goes on for too long, and even by its own admittedly loose standards it has an ending that defies belief. But if this film had a sensible bone in its body, it wouldn't be the kind of fun it turns out to be."
The New York Times' Manohla Dargis agrees that the film "is as demented and entertaining as promised, and a little less idiotic than feared." Dargis calls the screenplay "amusingly topical" — it features a black president, played by Jamie Foxx, and a controversial Middle East peace plan — and says of Emmerich, "There’s a satisfying bluntness to his expediency that complements Mr. Tatum’s guileless on-screen persona as he assumes the mantle, or rather the sweat-stained white tank top, once worn by Bruce Willis" [in "Die Hard"].
Ann Hornaday of the Washington Post, however, says that "'White House Down' never quite seems to decide what kind of movie it wants to be." On the one hand, it has enough destruction to qualify as "this summer's most cartoonishly bombastic exercise in sensory overload (so far)"; on the other hand, it also "clearly wants to be a lighthearted comedy. At least that seems to be the aim in a film that, in the midst of sadistic violence, throws in jokes and bits of buddy humor as blithely as its protagonists toss those grenades."
Peter Keough of the Boston Globe also thinks the movie has an identity crisis. He writes, "Intentionally or not, Roland Emmerich's 'White House Down' is the comedy hit of the summer. No other film equals its comic sophistication. Each nutty scenario is surpassed by the next, ludicrous story lines coalesce with expert orchestration, and absurd details return with perfect timing to build to a crescendo of hilarity."
As far as the rest of the excitement, Keough says it "should be familiar to anyone who saw 'Olympus Has Fallen' a couple of months ago, let alone 'Die Hard' back in 1988."
The Wall Street Journal's Joe Morgenstern scathingly likens Emmerich's direction to "a cosmic shrug." He continues: "What does it matter if the absurdity is slovenly, the whimsy leaden, the extravagance squalid? Moviegoers' sensibilities, or so [Emmerich] seems to have concluded, are already deadened by a dying genre; stage this dopey stuff as a comedy of chaos and the audience will buy it." The only bright spot in the film, Morgenstern says, is Tatum.
Lastly, the Associated Press' Jake Coyle calls "White House Down" "staggeringly implausible," "cartoonishly comical" and "refreshingly dumb."
It's refreshing because "carefree action absurdity, once the province of the summer cinema, is on the outs," Coyle says. "But there's an inarguable, senseless pleasure in watching Jamie Foxx, as the president of the United States, kicking a terrorist and shouting: 'Get your hands off my Jordans!' Hail to the chief, indeed."
Credits:latimes
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