White House Down

A refreshingly old-school actioner, White House Down follows aspiring Secret Service agent John Cale (Channing Tatum) as he’s forced to spring into action after the title locale is stormed by terrorists – with the movie primarily detailing Cale’s efforts at escorting the President (Jamie Foxx’s James Sawyer) to safety and, eventually, saving his young daughter (Joey King’s Emily) from the nefarious invaders. Filmmaker Roland Emmerich, working from James Vanderbilt’s screenplay, has infused White House Down with an almost classical sensibility that stands in sharp contrast to the grittiness of current big-budget fare, with the movie’s unapologetically larger-than-life atmosphere perpetuated by its proliferation of archetypal characters and emphasis on gleefully broad action sequences. (There is, in terms of the latter, an absolutely ridiculous car chase on the White House lawn that really must be seen to be believed.) Tatum does a solid job of stepping into the shoes of the movie’s (predictably) reluctant hero, with the actor’s charismatic turn matched by an unusually strong supporting cast that includes, among others, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Jason Clarke, and Richard Jenkins. And although the film’s overlong running time (131 minutes!) results in a palpably uneven midsection that’s rife with lulls, White House Down primarily (and ultimately) comes off as the rare summer blockbuster that provides exactly the sort of escapist fun that used to be part-and-parcel with the genre.

*** out of ****