While comparisons to Bruce Willis' action franchise are apt, the simple
truth is that White House Down is more Die Hard than Die Hard
has been in years. It has nothing to do with making Tatum into an invincible
superhero as Die Hard's John McClane is now, but making him a believable
character we can relate to. His character, a struggling war veteran/single dad
John Cale isn't perfect, whether he's trying to bond with his daughter (Joey
King), interviewing for a job in the Secret Service, or dodging terrorist
gunfire. He's a regular guy, and despite his Adonis good looks, Tatum knows his
way around playing blue collar. Another thing working in his favor? He seems to
be having fun. When was the last time Willis seemed remotely interested in
anything?
Tatum throws himself into the role of Cale, a DC Capital Police Officer
protecting the Speaker of the House (Richard Jenkins), while simultaneously
hoping to land a job on the presidential detail. His relationship with his
daughter is on the skids, but since she's a total dork for current President
James Sawyer (Jamie Foxx channeling Barack Obama), Cale thinks protecting her
hero will get him back in her good graces. Failing to land the job because he's
just too darn reckless (aren't they all?) for the Secret Service, he at least
manages to use his charm to get a White House tour for his daughter. Of course
that's when the terrorists strike, and it's a more surgical precision strike
than Olympus Has Fallen's ten-minute bonanza of bombs and bloodshed. They're
led by a comical tech geek (Jimmi Simpson) who pumps opera while he hacks into
the system, and a stone-faced mercenary (Jason Clarke, in the opposite of his Zero
Dark Thirty role) who has a habit of killing ineffectual politicians.“You just killed the Secretary of Defense!”
“Well, he wasn’t doing a very good job.”
So of course it's up to Cale to quiet those who underestimate him, including
Secret Service agents played by Maggie Gyllenhaal and James Woods, rescue the
President and his daughter, and save freedom as we know it or something like
that. Not exactly weighty stuff, but the script by James Vanderbilt is smarter
than one would think. While a cautionary message about the military industrial
complex is overly simplistic, Emmerich and Vanderbilt are smart enough to know
exactly how absurd the whole situation is. Emmerich throws in an Independence
Day joke basically because he's can, and has a limo doing doughnuts on the
White House lawn during a car chase. Any film that has the President as a
geeky sidekick, wielding a rocket launcher no less, knows not to take itself
too seriously. 
Tatum and Foxx trade witty, spirited banter like a couple of old buddy
comedy professionals, and it's kind of hilarious to watch bad ass Django as a
geeky politician who doesn't like anybody touching his Air Jordans. Tatum is
simply a star, there's no other way to put it. He has a quality that makes him
tough to dislike but easy to cheer on, which makes him a darn effective action
hero. He's young, physical, and every now and then you catch a hint that he's
in on the joke of this film as well. The rest of the cast is solid if
unspectacular, but Nicolas Wright is perfect as the sort of bizarre character
you only see in a movie like this. He plays an obsessive White House tour guide
who occasionally tempts fate by complaining about the priceless artifacts the
terrorists are ruining, and how dare they put their feet up on the table! James
Woods is a lot like Ray Liotta now. As soon as you see him it's obvious right
away what kind of character he is, and he's the type to refuse a slice of
retirement cake. Who in their right mind would turn down cake??? James
Woods would. 
Since he can't pull off his iconic move and just blow up the White House
outright, Emmerich ruins every other DC monument like a kid blowing up his
action figures, and it all looks spectacular. He's made some pretty awful
movies in the past....ok, practically everything he's done is terrible, but
Emmerich knows big action carefully orchestrated destruction. The scale of it
makes Olympus Has Fallen look like a pale imitator. You'd never know the
film wasn't shot in the Nation's Capital, and the layout inside the White House
is far more accurate than it has any need to be. Everything's going to be
destroyed anyway, right?
