Skip to content
The film is also hampered by the constraints of a 12-certificate. As such, the baddies shoot people in very 12-certificate-friendly ways, so you never actually witness a bullet going into a body. Either you see them get hit when the camera’s behind, or the bullet hits them just off-screen. In addition, the action and fight scenes look choppy and badly-choreographed. It’s unclear whether they were filmed in full, as if they were going for a 15-cert* and let the blood and violence fly (as with Olympus Has Fallen) or film all the small elements of each scene which they were left with. Either way, it looks a mess.
(*rarely will such a film garner an 18 these days, and even the full uncut versions of the first two Die Hard films have been re-rated as 15)
And because it’s a 12, no-one swears realistically. Or at all.
The only incredible thing about White House Down is not the special effects, but how overlong and boring it is. In fact, compared to 2012, the effects here are utterly terrible. Then there’s so much dull dialogue, such as when Jamie Foxx is talking to his wife, being all lovey-dovey while enthusing about Lincoln because of some crappy watch he’s apparently got. In fact, the only amusing thing about this film is that the music is performed, in part, by a Thomas Wanker.
And the only cast member worth watching is comparatively brief turn by Jimmi Simpson (below) as terrorist Tyler, who heads down to the President’s underground bunker to do all the cyber whatnot to crack codes and extract money. There’s humour in his character and the actor was also in Breakout Kings, a series only shown in the U.S. – and which only lasted for two seasons, about a trio of convicts with decades of sentences to complete. For each prison escapee they help recapture, they get a month of their sentence. As well as Jimmi Simpson, the show’s other cast highlights were Serinda Swan (because she’s brunette and hot), Brooke Nevin (because she’s blonde and hot) and Domenick Lombardozzi (here, The Wire‘s Herc was playing the FBI guy in charge of them, and he had all the one-liners down to a tee)
So, basically, don’t watch White House Down. Watch Olympus Has Fallen. And then watch Breakout Kings. Both seasons.
Cert: 
Running time: 131 minutes
Year: 2013
Released: September 13th 2013
Widescreen: 2.35:1 (ARRIRAW (2.8K))
Rating: 2/10
Director: Roland Emmerich
Producers: Roland Emmerich, Brad Fischer, Larry J. Franco, Laeta Kalogridis, Harald Kloser and James Vanderbilt
Screenplay: James Vanderbilt
Music: Harald Kloser and Thomas Wanker
Cast:
Cale: Channing Tatum
President Sawyer: Jamie Foxx
Carol Finnerty: Maggie Gyllenhaal
Stenz: Jason Clarke
Raphelson: Richard Jenkins
Emily: Joey King
Walker: James Woods
Donnie the Guide: Nicolas Wright
Tyler: Jimmi Simpson
Vice President Hammond: Michael Murphy
Melanie: Rachelle Lefevre
General Caulfield: Lance Reddick
Agent Kellerman: Matt Craven
Agent Hope: Jake Weber
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.