White House Down

"America will not be destroyed

From the outside.

If we falter

And lose our freedom,

It will be because

We destroy ourselves"

- Abraham Lincoln

So who would have thought that those words, uttered by the 16th president of the United States, would be prominent in a movie shot in 2013. America's war on terrorism is as surreal as it is gripping, but when the war occurs on American soil, both America and the rest of the world surely sits up and takes notice.

White House Down is just that, the war on terror brought home in stunning detail and riveting action, by Award winning director Roland Emmerich. And he's no stranger to chaos on a national level: who could forget his jaw-dropping work on Independence Day? Only this time he's ditched the aliens for a group of home-spun dissidents, the nation owes its survival to a single dad, who happens to be a street cop and the President reflects current trends, so to speak. Add in some mind-blowing visual effects (pardon the pun; a lot of minds are gonna be blown), a fairly solid storyline, dialogue that can be better and a thrill ride that at times forgets the 'thrill' part.

Channing Tatum plays John Cale, average working-class dad and Capitol officer who so desperately wants to join the exclusive Secret Service. He's inspired, brave and determined...but he also scores poorly in the tests and draws the wrath of recruiting officer Finnerty (Maggie Gyllenhall), who thinks that he should just enjoy his job and his daughter Emily, played by a sprightly Joey King. But, he doesn't want his daughter to think less of him, so he endures the insults and the scorn by Finnerty. And since his daughter shares his patriotic passion for the single-most important symbol of American freedom, he decides to take his daughter to the White House for a tour and gets more than he bargained if he really gets the job.

Just as Cale begins to enjoy the day with his daughter, the Whie House security is suddenly and woefully overwhelmed by heavily armed men, lead by 'Walker', who thinks he can run the nation better than the current Head of State. Played in fine style by James Wood, Walker plan is fairly simple: remove the President, declare himself leader of the free world and reshape the global politics of the day. Only factor he didn't incorporate was a fairly determined Cale and a less than agreeable President Sawyer, done quite nicely by Jamie Foxx. Between Cale and Sawyer, they endure everything from slugfests in the Oval Office to dodging attack helicopters; racing the Presidential limo across the front lawn to staring down tanks along the Reflective Pool. But hey, it’s Emmerich, so all this feels quite like home.

Now this being an action movie, the action rolls out in spades. The drawback: sometimes the action 'stops' for no major reason to incorporate the dialogue. It comes across as forced or simply a 'filler' between the fight sceens and the humor between the two main protagonists doesn't always flow as naturally as it should. Then the scale of conviction is about as believable as Bush's reasons for war: the White House goes down really easily to thugs who barely shoot straight and for God's sake, where are the video cameras and security checkpoints? Yeah, feel free to just waltz in, the doors basically unlocked....

All in all, WHD isn't the WMD that producers thought it could have been, in light of the other survival successes that hit the big screen earlier this year. But, it isn't as bad as the Syrian crisis either. Depends on what your reason for seeing this blockbuster, you're sure to leave with two things, some degree of fulfillment and the burning question of "Can that REALLY happen?"