Denied of his duty as the personal bodyguard to the president John must still fulfill his plan of taking his daughter on tour in the white house, unfortunately it was the same day the White House would be attacked.
It follows the Emmerich template: a spectacle-tinged, compelling setup; a dumb, disappointing midsection; and a cheese-topped denouement that veers so close to self-parody that one is tempted to call it funny.
Air Force One explodes! Black Hawks! Raptor fighter-jets going hot! Armored cars doing swan dives into the swimming pool! Sneaky plots and diversions! The Kitchen Sink!
The main flaw of White House Down is that it overstays its welcome, thanks in large part to a silly climax that seems to unfold in three laborious acts.
The Atlantic
June 28, 2013
Essentially a louder, sillier version of Die Hard, with John Cale standing in for John McClane, a precocious daughter standing in for the plucky wife, and, alas, no one even much trying to stand in for Alan Rickman's deliciously wicked Hans Gruber.
