What is wrong with these guys? They make an action movie where there is a coup d’etat against a black President because he supports a peace treaty with Iran? Wow, talk about shitty fantasies.
“White House Down” is an action movie fantasy with Channing Tatum as a Presidential Guard wannabe and Jamie Foxx as Prez Obama fighting off wonky White Supremacists and blowing up the White House while they’re at it so a Head Of Security James Wood can start a nuclear showdown in the Middle East for moral reasons or for the money or to help the industrial arms industry. Let’s just say war is always a good idea.
Director Roland Emmerich was the brains behind “Independence Day”, a smart dumb action flick about Yankee supremacy. But “White House Down” is a dumb action flick that thinks it has a brain. I once dated a girl and I told her I came to the States because of the Civil War and she said, “Yeah, we studied it in school.” She thought I meant the American civil war. That kind of stupid.
I don’t doubt the weapons industry is nearly omnipotent, indeed, I assume it. But nobody would want a coup d’etat. For one thing, it is a one party nation (the right and the extreme right just about does it. nd for another, the Chinese wouldn’t let the US Government be overthrown, they are owed too much money to allow a recession.
There been three Presidents removed from office by force, Lincoln, Kennedy and Nixon, and in all cases it was due to a POLITICAL CONSENSUS. “White House Down”‘s completely ridiculous Democratic daydream is so stupid it is uncomfortable to watch and the ending is, with a little girl waving a flag. If the army’s response occured in real life, everybody would be court martialed and put to death.
Channing Tatum takes his daughter to a job interview at the White House, is turned down for a job on the security team, takes his daughter on a tour through the Whitehouse, and is separated from, then a bomb goes off. The rest of the movie is extremely well staged mayhem in the Whitehouse as Channing attempts to take the Prez to safety and save his daughter. Both of the leads are good, all three if you include Woods, four if you include the daughter and five if you include the villainous Stenz, played by Jason Clark who was great in “Zero Dark Thirty”.
So the acting is great, the action just fabulous, and the movie is destroyed with an completely and truly nasty and unbelievable script. That’s why it stiffed at the Box Office.
Music? Here’s a first, a movie whose stupidity is defined by a song. “The Rolling Stones” ode to civil unrest in sleepy London back in the 1960s, “Street Fighting Man” could not be less appropriate for the end of this moment. Jagger’s confusion and really siding with the street protesters makes no sense at the end here. It is beyond stupid, it is an insult.
1. Spanish Flea Performed by Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass
2. Chevy Knights Performed by He Met Her
3. For He’s A Jolly Good Fellow
4. Symphony No. 5 in C minor Op. 67 Performed by Richard Edlinger and Zagreb Philharmonic Orchestra
5. Symphony No. 7 in A major Op. 92 Performed by Helmut Müller-Brühl and Cologne Philharmonic Orchestra
6. Piano Concerto No. 3 in C minor Op. 37 Performed by Henri Sigfridsson, Helmut Müller-Brühl and Cologne Philharmonic Orchestra
7. Street Fighting Man Performed by The Rolling Stones
Movie: B-
Music: F