[In Theaters: REVIEW] WHITE HOUSE DOWN (7/10)

More violent than it should be for its PG-13 rating (there’s only so much pointing a gun at a little girl’s head you can do without the “fun factor” being interrupted here) – White House Down is one of the more interesting summer blockbusters. Arriving months after Olympus Has Fallen – it has the same basic plot: terrorists who know the system have taken the white house and the president has been compromised. Here, Jamie Foxx plays the president and shares a few of Obama’s quirks (including playing basketball and popping nicotine gum). Tatum becomes the hero of he day as John Cale (hey isn’t that the name of a musician?) a capital police man sent in to interview for a position at the secret service, he takes his daughter Emily (Joey King) – a politics junky and video blogger, with him.

Richard Jenkins plays Raphleson, the speaker of the house, who doesn’t seem as teary eyed as John Bahner. James Woods plays a resigning secret service head; Walker whom we no know is evil just because he doesn’t don his flag lapel before leaving his house. The bad guys are mercenaries for hire including the baddest of the bad Stenz (Jason Clarke) – he’s switched sides from last time we’ve seen him – blasting heavy metal and water boarding in Zero Dark Thirty. Maggie Gyllenhall plays Wood's deputy - on the outside who provides radio assistance to Tatum.

Of interest the most is Emily – a teen blogger who’s fascinated by politics. With her phone and a few YouTube uploads she blows the whole siege – getting insider information out. Oh the allegory – but, you see, at least White House Down is about something – while at the same time playing it just safe enough not to alienate both sides. There’s also a conservative critic who stands up to the mercenaries when he needs to (he looks curiously like Rush Limbaugh).

White House Down is all in good fun, until it isn’t  - it’s silly enough to open with President Sawyer’s tradition of gliding down the mall and flying right past the Lincoln Memorial on his way back to the White House. It also features the president as an action hero (you remember all the talk of Obama as a super hero, I buy his ability to kick ass and take names). Where it goes wrong is really some dark moments – leave it to Emmerich to make fun out of terrorism. Perhaps he’s always been critical of our anxieties from Independence Day to The Day After Tomorrow to 2012 – no one does it quite like this guy.

What’s left is a slightly more fun and slightly more effective retelling of the story we had in Olympus Has Fallen: Emmerich knows what he’s doing and a few times he crosses that line. Olympus Has Fallen was an effectively directed yet flawed action movie that took itself more seriously. The allegories aren’t lost on me here; this is a B-Movie with an A-Movie budget.

Another thing I’ve noticed increasingly is the reliance on CGI and moving shots in DC – I wonder about this choice: is the city is so secure even a huge budget Hollywood movie you can’t stop traffic to shoot? Either way this aesthetic produces that uncanny valley effect – it’s so real that it isn’t (kind of like I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter). As far as summer movies go, this one is a bright spot because at least it’s about something without stopping to be boring. It’s got that on Man of Steel and World War Z.

7 out of 10.

Screening: Dipson Market Arcade, Regal Elmwood, Regal Walden Galleria, Dipson Flix, Regal Transit, Regal Hollywood 12, Transit Drive-In