Movie Review – White House Down

[Movie]

Official Synopsis

Capitol Policeman John Cale (Channing Tatum) has just been denied his dream job with the Secret Service of protecting President James Sawyer (Jamie Foxx). Not wanting to let down his little girl with the news, he takes her on a tour of the White House, when the complex is overtaken by a heavily armed paramilitary group. Now, with the nation’s government falling into chaos and time running out, it’s up to Cale to save the president, his daughter, and the country.

Tomcat says – Now I know why Channing Tatum’s character in G.I. JOE 2 (Duke) was killed of at the start of the movie. It’s clearly because he had this one in the pipeline and having him act in two (2) movies involving a terrorist takeover of the White House in one calendar year would have been too much.

In any case back to White House Down, it’s a story of a father’s devotion to his daughter in an action movie that involves (again!) the taking of the White House. I liked the action sequences though I was not too thrilled about some innaccuracies of military hardware use. The movie brought back memories of the Die Hard (starring Bruce Willis also running around in a white singlet) movies which also tacked the issue of terrorism in the late 80’s.

But I’m a sucker for action movies so I thought White House Down was a decent enough watch although (sadly) there was no female eye-candy. Ladies though should be more than happy watching Channing Tatum runs around with buldging muscles.

Spoilers:

The Javelin* missile was used in the movie to bring down helicopters. Now American Javelin missiles are anti-tank missiles and should have been used to attack the US tanks advancing on the White House instead (they used an RPG against the tank which spectacularly blew it up while in real life would probably would not have happened).

While it would have been really handly to have Javelin missiles to thwart enemy tanks, they should also have some Stinger anti-aircraft missiles to thwart incoming air units.

*If the Javelin in the movie was supposed to be the British/ Canadian type, well those have been retired from service many years ago.

The anti-aircraft missile launch against Air Force One looked like an ICBM being launch from a missile silo! Come on! If you’re going to bring down an aircraft you would probably use a Patriot missile.