MOVIE REVIEW - White House Down

The second in a line of White House destroying movies is out this week.  Channing Tatum and Jamie Foxx star in White House Down. You might remember we had Gerard Butler starring in Olympus Has Fallen a couple months ago, and he saved the free world, now it's Tatum's turn.

This is a 2 hour and 17 minute action packed summer mindless movie.  With the emphasis being on action, and mindless.  There is no shortage of things blowing up, people getting shot and gigantic chase scenes and plenty of gun play.  You certainly don't get cheated on that.   Plus, Tatum is a very caring and sensitive young father of a remarkable young 11-year old daughter who is the darling of this movie.  Foxx is the ultra-cool young President that turns into action hero after the White House is under siege.  So there is plenty for many to grab onto.

And our movie makers do get basically right to it by  throwing you into the action, taking little if any time to really develop a meaningful story or plot line.  I mean, who has time for that?   We have to pack in about 2 hours of non top action into this movie. So on that front, your money laid down is paid back with tons of all of the action you could want.

But then there's the rest of this that is about 2 inches away from the corny propaganda movies that this country, and others used to make during the Cold War.   That is all this really is, just with big stars and and cooler special effects.   This movie is clearly but loosely based on actual people in our government today if you look at this is any real honest eye.  

In a nutshell, the President (Foxx)  announces he has a peace plan and is pulling all U.S. troops out of the Middles East.  So, then the Defense Contractors fund an overthrow of the Government complete with blowing up the Capital Building and White House, Killing the Vice-President, capturing the President, and installing the Speaker Of The House as President.  He of course is a horrible man, who is involved in a plan to nuke the entire Middle East and kill millions of people.  The man who is in charge of the actual mission is the head of the Secret Service who has gone wrong, and hires a bunch of mercenaries to carry out the mission.  They of course, are all ex-U.S. military, or government who have an ax to grind against the country.  Can Channing Tatum and his little girl save us?  You may laugh at the last line, but that's the reality of White House Down.

This movie attempts to tell it's story along the way, and that in itself is a bit insulting to us, as anyone with any level of sharpness who is watching this is way, and I mean way ahead of this movie. They think that they are dropping bombshells along the way, but you have this figured out well in advance.  This is one of those that is sort of action, with a bunch of humor and a large amount of camp along the way.  At times this takes itself not so serious and that is to its credit.  But in the end this is so agenda laden, so stereotypical, and at times so immensely silly, it's hard to take seriously.   But this is pure summer silliness, and it that's what you are looking for, this is your movie.

White House Down.  Effects - big.  Plot - small.