White House Down - 3 1/2 smiles

Implausible? Definitely.  Far fetched? To be sure. Entertaining? Without a doubt. This is mindless summer action fun, a certain popcorn pleasure. With a script written by James Vanderbilt, “White House Down” borrows from solid actioners that have come before, like Die Hard, where you have the lone blue-collar cop in a white sleeveless T-shirt fighting against an overwhelming force of heavily armed terrorists. And under the masterful direction of Roland Emmerich, everything comes together and it’s a fun ride. Plus you have Channing Tatum bringing just the right amount of charm, muscle and humor to the hero’s role and Jamie Foxx being just tough enough and human enough as the President. If there’s a criticism, the movie, at 137 minutes, is too long. Emmerich could have cut Tatum’s final fight with bad guy Stenz (Jason Clarke) in half.

Tatum is Cale, a Capitol cop who dreams of becoming a Secret Service agent. To further this end he brings his White House-obsessed daughter Emily (Joey King) on a tour of the building, which is to also double as a job interview for him. He meets Secret Service agent Finnerty (Maggie Gyllenhaal), who interviews him and promptly turns him down for the job. When he joins Emily on the tour, terrorists attack. It’s an inside job and they quickly gun down all of the security guards and take over the White House. Of course, Emily is in the bathroom at the time of the attack, so she and Cale are separated. He must not only save her, but save the president and in the process, save the world!! “White House Down” is utterly ridiculous, completely derivative and relentlessly violent. And, of course, the good guy wins. What’s not to like? 6/28/13