My girlfriend decided she wanted to see a film starring Channing Tatum and she went with White House Down, having seen this one before just after it came out seven years ago, I thought it might be a nice idea to watch it again.

I remember the last time I watched White House Down I didn't care much for it. I thought it was boring, too much by the numbers, hitting every box and just being dull. But I decided to go in blank this rewatch and just simply try to enjoy it, not overthink it and you know what? It is entertaining but a 30 minutes too long. Channing Tatum just carries the film, I love the charm he has, I wish he did more of these kind of films. Jamie Foxx is always decent and Maggie Gyllenhaal is always a treat to see! And James Woods kicks ass as the main baddie. However I am still wondering why Roland Emmerich thought 130 minutes was a good idea. It surely is too long. But if you want to shut down your mind and just watch some action from the 2010's, this could be your lets bring down the White House movie!

Anyway, never touch the president's Jordans!

Ps. I just love directors name dropping their own movies!

I have to say, or in this case write, that this was a fairly disappointing movie. It is pretty much a Die Hard wannabee with a daughter-dislikes-father sub-plot. I do not mind the reusing of the Die Hard concept if the film is good. This one is not really. The script is a stupid, unintelligent political script.

It starts off badly with some nonsensical crap about a controversial (that is putting it mildly) political deal with the Middle East about pulling out troops from all the bases in the Middle East. To add to this the entire situation have come about because the president just left several people to hang out and dry when he decided to pull the plug on operations in the Middle East. By hanging out and dry we mean get killed or spend some quality time in the regional prisons. That put the president on the bad guy list instead of the good guy as far as I am concerned. I do not know if the writer was trying to make a political statement, which I never like in my movies, or is just plain stupid. Given the rest of the script I would go for stupid or both.

The good thing with the movie is that there is quite a lot of action and some of it is rather okay to watch. There are a few funny moments as well. I quite liked the tour guide for example.

Unfortunately, even if you try to forget about the political nonsense, the rest of the script is just full of utter stupidity. It starts of not too bad with the diversion at the Capitol and the initial take over of the White House even though a whole bunch of armed, obviously unscreened, guys getting into the White House to work on the president’s home theatre like that is not very believable.

After that it gradually degrades though. Cale is nowhere as charismatic, nor as professional, as McClane and there are lots of silly and stupid moments. For example, the car chase starts of not too bad but then Cale get’s into some bloody dream mode and gets shot up. Just dumb. During the same episode the tank scene is just ridiculous. Would they only have one tank? Not very likely. It takes forever for it to move. It is also highly improbable that it could be taken out like that by a hand-held launcher by a front hit. Rear or side maybe but not a front hit. The writer is obviously clueless about military matters. The fumbled chopper attack is embarrassingly bad. The worst is probably when Cale’s daughter stops and air-strike by waving a flag outside the White House. I almost turned off the movie at that point.

It is too bad because the movie had the budget and some nice actors to be a good action movie but was just ruined by a louse script with a totally unnecessary bunch of political nonsense in it. The next time I see a movie were the script is written by James Vanderbilt I am going to be very cautious.

_"Get this trash off my lawn."_

I dread films longer than an hour. Even films closer to two hours than in the middle or less are a bit iffy to me. It could be one of the best films ever or a film I'll consider one of the best films I've watched, in the end, but that initial dread will remain.

I watch films spontaneously. I've already decided on the film I'll be watching after this one. I wouldn't know how long it is until I start watching, and seeing the runtime being past the halfway point of an hour or over two hours is a big punch in the gut.

So, I said all that to pretty much say: this film was too long. There are probably plenty of films that exist where once I get past the initial dread of the runtime, it won't be such a big thing to me anymore once I've watched it. And that could be because I'm so entertained and don't want it to end. Or that the narrative didn't suffer from it. But _this_ film was too long. With the narrative it had, there was no _need._

Regardless of that, this film had good entertainment. If I were to compare it with the previous movie I watched, this one was way more entertaining. Both are similar, narratives that aren't as important as the action. Pretty much everything was better and more exciting. So, that's good.

The first 30 minutes or so were pretty good. Everything was being established and brought forth to the table: the pacing was _right._ After that, at least much further into the film, things started getting a little hectic. A little _too_ hectic. That wasn't a big deal for me, but it was noticeable.

For me, two aspects stood out the most. Those two aspects were the production design and the action sequences. Concerning action films, you'd probably want the action to be super action-y, and I think this film has to be _up there_ regarding that. A lot was going on. Not only that, the execution of it all was sublime. Okay, maybe not _that_ great; _up there._ I doubt most people would consider this film a super good one, but they should consider it a decent enough action film.

There was also a surprising element of comedy and comedic moments/lines. I guess I wasn't expecting that, but I'm not complaining. They added to the enjoyment. And Channing Tatum seems to be made, specifically, for stuff like that, by the way. That's only based on hardly anything since most of the comedic moments/lines didn't involve him: he gives off that vibe. I'm probably late to the party; everyone else reading this likely knows that about him already.

And the performances by specific members of the cast were captivating: Channing Tatum, Jamie Foxx, Joey King, James Woods, and Jason Clarke. The acting, in general, was pretty decent. But those specific people were the highlights regarding the acting side of things.

Overall, this film was somewhat entertaining. But that's pretty much it. If you'd, for some reason, rather watch an action film than a comedy film for entertainment that doesn't require much thinking, I guess this film should do the trick. There are probably plenty of other films better than this one for that, though.