Directed by: Roland Emmerich
Starring: Channing Tatum, Jamie Foxx, James Woods, Richard Jenkins, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Joey King, Jason Clarke
White House Down is a routine action film with good actors trapped inside it. What elevates it (or de-elevates it- if that is even a word) is the relentless CGI. Not only is most of the action CGI, but the exterior sets as well. It is not even CGI done well. It looks phony and it looks like the actors are clearly performing in front of a blue screen. This detracts from what little the movie has going for it. I recently watched Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow (2004) again and the all CGI backgrounds set the proper tone for an adventure film set in the 1930s. White House Down was released nine years later, but somehow the technology has regressed. Or was it simply not appropriate for a modern day action movie?
White House Down stars Channing Tatum as John Cale, a Washington DC cop who interviews for a coveted Secret Service job. The White House is abuzz with President Sawyer's (Foxx) promise to withdraw all troops from the Middle East in order to promote peace. This does not sit well with the military-industrial complex. Soon enough, the White House is under siege by well-armed mercenaries, the Capitol building is blown up, and the President is taken hostage by Secret Service chief Martin Walker (Woods) who has a personal beef. Cale, who accompanies his politics-loving daughter Emily (King) on the White House tour, soon finds himself battling the bad guys and trying to save the President and his daughter.
The baddies are led by Emil Stenz (Clarke), whose sneer will likely condemn him to a career of playing villains. He is sufficiently hateful. Woods, as Walker, is sufficiently slimy and full of motives of his own to kidnap the President. The plot unfolds and one layer after another of the crime is unearthed, but the villains could have truly made things easier on themselves by shooting the President during any one of the seemingly dozen opportunities they had to do so. Keeping him alive at any point would be detrimental, if you consider the scope of their objective, which I will not reveal. I am hardly of a criminal mindset, so I feel strange giving these guys pointers.
Tatum is a likable enough guy and looks the part of a hero. Foxx is a President with everyman appeal. I have no fault with the performances. They try their best to stay afloat as an increasingly silly plot tries to drag them down. However, despite the bullets flying everywhere, bombs detonating, and generals grimly ordering the White House to be annihilated (even though there are about 70 innocent tourists held hostage along with the others), White House Down doesn't build any tension. We have seen five Die Hards and Die Hard imitators enough to know White House Down does not stand a chance to be original, but there is a lack of energy here regardless. We see it all going by rote. Its goals aren't lofty. It wants to be an action thriller. There is nothing wrong with that. But it seems oddly deflated and the CGI White House exterior shots look ridiculous.
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