davyd-02237 Theres a great cast in here for starters, with a father and daughter actually being the "hero" of the piece. The "villains" are full of "villainy" and quite believable, with a hint of overacting in some quarters. Maggie Ghyanhall is the only one who really doesn't come out of this too well... a department head who only wants to "talk to people"....sometimes that attitude doesn't work and certainly in this situation with the White House under attack from the "enemy within" is a great premise for an end to end all action movie. catch this if you can, a very entertaining 2 hours (approx.). shame about the bad language otherwise I would have scored higher

Tweekums Police Officer John Cale has applied for a job in the Secret Service at the White House. He takes his daughter, Emily, with him when he goes there for an interview. He is rejected but can't bring himself to tell Emily. Since they are there already he decides that they should tag along with one of the tours of the building. Emily is thrilled when she gets to meet the president but the joy is short-lived as a group of terrorists take control of the building. Separated from his daughter Cale manages to acquire a pistol and get away from the terrorists. He later gets to President James Sawyer and rescues him from the head terrorist... who is none other than his outgoing chief of security! Still trapped inside the White House Cale and the President struggle to get out while elsewhere people start discussing the transfer of power when it is assumed Sawyer is dead or captured.If you are looking for something serious or even something vaguely believable then this won't be the film for you; however if you want full-on, over-the-top action then this is probably the film for you. Once the terrorists first strike the action barely stops till the film ends; there are fights, numerous shootouts, exploding helicopters and even the president firing a rocket launcher from his car as it races over the White House lawn pursued by terrorists firing a minigun! It must be said that some of the special effects are a bit weak; some of the explosions are clearly CGI. The cast; led by Channing Tatum and Jamie Foxx as Cale and Sawyer; and supported by the likes of James Woods, as head bad guy; Joey King, as Emily; and Maggie Gyllenhaal as a senior Secret Service agent put in solid performances while never taking things too seriously. Overall I'd say this film is a lot of fun; put your brain in neutral, ignore the clichés and enjoy the mindless action!

cinemajesty The year 2013, three months after "Olympus Has Fallen" had been released, Director Roland Emmerich presents another 100+ Million U.S. Dollars production with "White House Down" after his low-budget-excursion with a surprisingly compelling "Anonymous" in 2011. "White House Down" has not the wit nor the hard-boiled consequence of Antoine Fuqua's "Olympus Has Fallen", nevertheless Emmerich's picture, teaming up once again with cinematographer Anna Foerster, creates some face-paced action scene editorials with slow-motion shot integration, having pushed the stunt coordinating department to the maximum with water falling from sprinkler security systems, splintering wood appliances, sparks flying and hand-to-hand combats.Director Roland Emmerich utilizes simply any weaponry from the property box. Knifes, pistols and rifles are all in to keep the action factor high enough to sit through a two-hour movie, which could have been entertainment of the highest level, if the main characters of President Sawyer and Agent Cale - a getting together match with potential deeply beating actors Jamie Foxx and Channing Tatum - would have received an edge of vulnerability and uncertainty in their introducing scenes instead of being unbeatable charming already. But the director falls in his old traps again, which happened frequently as in "10,000 BC" and "2012" produced between 2007 and 2009, where driving characters get reduced to puppets on a special-effects-plate.Director Antoine Fuqua handled the White House attack scenario with half the budget too a much grittier visuals and managed an electrified cast. Roland Emmerich decided to use an all over cleaned-up and polished digital look for his picture, which underlines the idealistic stereo-separated antagonist cast, bringing actors together as match-point up-playing actor James Woods, accompanied by a to an right-hand animalistic mercenary reduced Jason Clarke, who unfortunately have been left alone on set for too long and hardly come out of the comfort zone to act into a full-frontal psyche confrontation against the opposing team-mates Foxx & Tantum, which are split apart most of the time, not only in tension points as well as in a spacious White House sound stage location anyways.The uneven entertainment factor of "White House Down" points mainly to missed opportunities of screenwriter James Vanderbilt to be an active member of the production team, where eventually two or three re-written scenes would have done the trick for the movie to become a box office success and further could have make look director Roland Emmerich look better; does not make "Anonymous" (2011) being a lucky strike of directorial sophistication on acting subtleties.© 2017 Felix Alexander Dausend (Cinemajesty Entertainments LLC)

Memphistiger50 This movie was so god awful bad. So many have written about it, that I'll just hit the things that irked me the most. First let's start with the take over scene. I just watched it again, and maybe a dozen people take over the entire White House and NO ONE EVEN GETS ONE SHOT OFF defending it. The first shot is not until they enter the room Channing Tatum is in, and by then they already have the White House except for the president. The terrorist hit every shot they take. They never miss. Until of course they shoot at Channing or the president. And how many people are defending the White House, 15? 20? At least in Olympus there is almost an army in it and they take out a few bad guys. It seems a lot more reasonable. Maybe they didn't want to pay extras the money. But it seems so ridiculous that the White House can be taken by a few guys walking around with pistols, and then equally bad that these same expert marks men can't hit anyone else after they take it over. I know this is true in a lot of action movies, but it's so bad and ridiculous here it's mind blowing. OK after that, why do they have to have the annoying little girl in this? Olympus did it right with the kid. He knew his role and what he was supposed to do. This girl kept making the movie super annoying because you knew nothing would happen to her., and she kept getting in trouble. And the flag waving scene they stole from the Rock? Who thinks of this stuff and actually likes it? It's awful. Like makes you hate the movie awful.And last, the left wing agenda is sickening. The only reason to give this a score above 3 is if your politics brain washes to do that. Olympus has fallen is better acted, better plot, better bad guys, slightly more realistic, and way less of an annoying kid. I would give White House Down 2 stars if the kid was not in it. It's not like Olympus is a great movie, but compared to this garbage it's a masterpiece. Maybe WHD appeals to a small demographic, but overall it is just junk.