Mercenaries take over the White House and try to kidnap the President.
It's difficult to imagine anything beating this as the most over-the-top Die Hard clone. It's loud, absurd, and stupid, but its winking self-awareness blunts much of that criticism. For a time, at least. It's a Roland Emmerich movie that has been taken to its logical extreme.
It seems to take place in a parallel universe that looks exactly like ours but human behavior is often quite different. It's hard to say how much this will distract people because I think it's a personal thing. We each have our own breaking point when it comes to suspension of disbelief.
It certainly helps if you look at White House Down as parody. It does seem to be making a bit of fun of ultra-cheesy 1990s action films, many of which Emmerich himself was responsible for. But it's also a celebration of them, so this isn't really for you if you disliked them.
By this point, you likely already know whether you like (or least can stand) Emmerich's movies, much like how writing a review for a Jason Statham movie seems kind of superfluous. I walked into this without remembering it was a Emmerich movie, but I had time to adjust my expectations once the credits revealed the director.
White House Down's sincere attempts to become my new favorite guilty pleasure partially worked. It's got an ultra-cheesy charm working for it that can make you forgive some of the insanity that you see, especially if you watch it late at night when you're more suggestible and less demanding. I doubt it works at all during daylight hours.
It's difficult to imagine anything beating this as the most over-the-top Die Hard clone. It's loud, absurd, and stupid, but its winking self-awareness blunts much of that criticism. For a time, at least. It's a Roland Emmerich movie that has been taken to its logical extreme.
It seems to take place in a parallel universe that looks exactly like ours but human behavior is often quite different. It's hard to say how much this will distract people because I think it's a personal thing. We each have our own breaking point when it comes to suspension of disbelief.
It certainly helps if you look at White House Down as parody. It does seem to be making a bit of fun of ultra-cheesy 1990s action films, many of which Emmerich himself was responsible for. But it's also a celebration of them, so this isn't really for you if you disliked them.
By this point, you likely already know whether you like (or least can stand) Emmerich's movies, much like how writing a review for a Jason Statham movie seems kind of superfluous. I walked into this without remembering it was a Emmerich movie, but I had time to adjust my expectations once the credits revealed the director.
White House Down's sincere attempts to become my new favorite guilty pleasure partially worked. It's got an ultra-cheesy charm working for it that can make you forgive some of the insanity that you see, especially if you watch it late at night when you're more suggestible and less demanding. I doubt it works at all during daylight hours.