We go through the same “Olympus has Fallen” hyper-professional mercenary assault on the various security agencies that allows bad guys to crash into the White House. There’s “on-the-nose” casting, and then there’s casting Woods as a potentially volatile villain – TOO on the nose.
Then we see who Emmerich cast as the head of the White House Secret Service detail: James Woods. Cale has to content himself with guarding the speaker of the House (Richard Jenkins) and calling in favors to get his daughter (Joey King) a White House tour. cop who can’t convince Maggie Gyllenhaal to let him in the Secret Service. If you see just one terrorists-take-over-the- White-House thriller this year, make it “White House Down.” Even if you saw the dour and bloody “Olympus Has Fallen,” which has a LOT in common with “White House Down,” you owe it to yourself to check out Roland “2012” Emmerich’s preachy, goofy, over-the-top take on “ ‘Die Hard’ at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.”įrom the earnest but earnestly funny president in jeopardy (Jamie Foxx) who doesn’t like bad guys yanking on his sneakers (“Take your hands OFF my Jordans!”) to the eye-rolling image of a child having a “Les Miz” big-flag-on-the-barricades moment, “White House Down” is a corker, real competition for “Fast & Furious 6” as the dumbest fun you’ll have at the movies this summer.Ĭhanning Tatum is Cale, the war vet/D.C.