White House Down and the also recently released Olympus Has Fallen both cover the same subject. It is something which we see happening often. In this case both movies are about an attack on the White House. I thought Olympus Has Fallen, starring Gerard Butler was a very entertaining movie and wondered if White House Down, starring Jamie Foxx as the American president and Channing Tatum as the guy who has to save him would be just as entertaining. The movie has been directed by Roland Emmerich, who is known to offer great spectacle (just think of 2012, 10000 B.C., The Day After Tomorrow and Independence Day). My expectations therefore were quite high.
Cale (Channing Tatum) is a police officer who desperately wants to work for the secret service. When doing a tour of the White House together with his daughter the building is attacked. He is separated from his daughter and with his training he tries to save his child. Along the way it also becomes his task to save and protect the president of the United States.
If Olympus Has Fallen was the straight-faced, raw action movie, then this movie is the one with the clown makeup, the rollercoaster interpretation of it with some pretty crazy scenes. In this movie you have the presidential limousine driving on the lawn of the White House, with the president hanging out the window holding a bazooka to blow up the gate. It can not get crazier then that. If you can imagine that then you will know exactly what type of mood the movie is aiming for: having fun and it delivers on that. Both Foxx and Tatum inject the movie with a lot of energy and comedy. The action is good, although I did think that the CG work looked a bit off. It felt cheap compared to other Emmerich movies. With a ridiculous story and some fun set pieces though that’s easily forgiven and I enjoyed the movie as much as I did Olympus Has Fallen. It is up to you which of the two movies to pick if you only want to see one, but both offer enough thrills to keep you entertained.
Yeah, I pretty much agree with you here. It’s ridiculous and a lot of fun. Now I didn’t really care for Olympus Has Fallen though, it took itself way too seriously and tried to be so edgy and it failed on every level. This one, it’s a silly action movie and they just went with that and it worked for me.
I liked Olympus Has Fallen a bit more just because it took itself more seriously. I liked the raw edge it gave it. But like I said I enjoyed this one as well.
Sounds like fun — and wait until it comes to cable.
Yeah, that would be a perfect situation to watch it in Marilyn 🙂
“this movie is the one with the clown makeup”
HA HA!!!! Nice. I thought WHD was terrific fun, a lot like OHF, in many ways. Neither to be taken seriously, but both to be taken with a fair old handful of salt.
Yeah, it really was compared to OHF 🙂 They were both fun, agree with that.
Surprisingly enough, I liked Olympus Has Fallen a bit better, even if it did take itself seriously. This one was fun, don’t get me wrong, but it’s jokey-approach just began to be so over-bearing at times that I don’t know what this movie actually wanted to be, a an action-comedy, or action-drama, with some comedy spliced in there for good measure. Good review Nostra.
Yeah, the tone wasn’t consistent, agree with you on that. If I had to rewatch one of the two I’d pick Olympus Has Fallen.
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