The Movie Diorama You get yourself a hot young lead actor, a musician turned Oscar winner, a director who essentially ejaculates shoddy visual effects that reek of mediocrity and top it off with a story that feels reminiscent to 'Die Hard'...however feels more like 'Die Soft'. Put them all together and you get White House Down, a film so unnecessary and unfortunate with the timing of its release (the same year as 'Olympus Has Fallen') that you start to question its existence. The White House is under attack, the president and government officials are held hostage as terrorists cause havoc and seek demands. John McClane was busy in Moscow, so they got Channing Tatum instead...honestly, I've already forgotten his character's name. Right, so here's the problem. There are unrealistic films that are fun, and then there are fun films that are unrealistic. This falls into the former category. Why? Well alright, here we go! One scene in particular: the president and a "secret service agent" are driving around the front lawn in an armoured limousine being chased down by three SUVs with machine guns, rocket launchers and assault rifles. The president, and I kid you not, gets a rocket launcher as he peers out of the passenger window and fires it. Seriously? Could you imagine Trump doing that? Sweet lord his hair would be all over the place. To conclude, this film is a visual effects mess weighed down by a "comedic" screenplay that hosts an uninspired plot and derivative action. Foxx and Tatum have good chemistry sure, and Clarke still remains decent (although always chooses poor films). And yes, you could say some parts are enjoyable. But Emmerich is so stuck in the past, that the film immediately feels outdated. It's not 1996 anymore, come on! His excessive patriotism is just too much for me. Don't even get me started on the comedic relief that constantly missed, much like the mercenaries who can't fire their weapons for toffee! Just go watch 'Olympus Has Fallen' instead, as this White House is staying down.

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.

Nadine Salakov "White House Down" is the perfect action flick, it is fast-paced and has a decent plot. Performances, directing, editing, e.c.t is brilliant, but the film score is generic, the competitor "Olympus Has Fallen" is nowhere near as good as this movie, however the film score from "Olympus Has Fallen" is the only thing that is better.Apparently Channing Tatum's character is a homage to Bruce Willis's character from the "Die Hard" movies hence the white vest (or "wife beater" as Americans call it, although it is a very inappropriate and strange name for a piece of clothing) "White House Down" is actually better than all of the "Die Hard" films combined, there's always too many things going on in the "Die Hard" flicks (apart from "Die Hard 4.0" which is very watchable) "White House Down" keeps the movie plot simple.There's a scene where a secret service agent laughs mockingly at "John Cale"'s (Channing Tatum) job description, that secret service agent is just weird! "John" is part of the Capitol Police and is on the protection detail of the Vice President - that's a massive achievement, it isn't like "John" is a janitor and even if he was that is still a hard working job.The father/daughter relationship is clichéd, he's never there so she resents him until there's a life and death scenario and he goes out of his way to save her and she loves him all over again.This motion picture is guns, guns and more guns. Action packed.White House Down = Brilliant, 10 out of 10.

stephen-317 Up against 'Olympus Has Fallen' in a bizarre year that has two films with identical subjects, this film falls foul of the 5.0 threshold rule. Whilst being an enjoyable romp that get's it edging over the IMDb 5 score, it then enters the zone of 'could this film have been better ?'. Humour around 5, love interest around 4 (after some heavy editing), action around 7 but very unconnected. Channing Tatum's film (he produced it as well) deserves a strong 6 but was looking at a 7 if the points all connected.