White House Down

So, it has been a little while since I felt inspired to write something on here. Perhaps it's because it has been a little while since I saw a film I felt the need to write about?
Anyway. This week Boyfriend and I went to see White House Down. Or as I prefer to call it; Die Hard 3.5.
It's true you could easily substitute John and Emily Cale for John and Lucy MacLane. Although I suppose at this point Lucy would be older than twelve, bear with me, believe that Die Hard exists outside the time constraints of our universe.The father figure in this case, played by Channing Tatum, could be modeled on McClane's inept attempts at fatherhood. McClane is isolated from his children by time and distance, Cale is locked out of his daughters life by a lack of contact and her preoccupation with things he doesn't understand; politics, social media. They are trapped in a building being attacked by terrorists and there is someone important they need to protect (Holly, The President). Although no one initially believes that Cale/McClane can save the day, of course he manages to. Good guy hides from bad guy, good guy fights and wins against bad guy, destroying some part of the white house along the way, more bad guys come in, repeat. There is even a part where one of the terrorists loses his brother and swears to bring down the person who did this. It's hard not to draw parallels with Die Hard.
The movie is like a buddy cop situation for father and daughter and the story is entirely predictable but the beauty of this movie is in the execution. The casting of Jamie Foxx as the president draws an obvious parallel to the current administration, and the role makes the most of him as the "bad-ass leader of the free world". The developing relationship between Foxx and Cale is the central story here. The beginning sets up carefully that Cale is essentially a failure in everything he has ever attemped. His daughter has spent all morning on her phone, ignoring him. His marriage has fallen apart. He is unable to get a job as anything apart from a glorified taxi driver to a senator. Maggie Gyllenhaal runs through a list of his unsuccessful past in the first few minutes of the film. The president tells him to "stop lying to kids". His former wife is annoyed by him being late and missing out on his daughters life. Yet as soon as the guns come out the president places his full trust in Cale. Most of the action scenes are one on one combat and there are countless shots of Cale sliding over tables, chairs, small walls... well anything really... It's clear that the director is trying to keep the frame 'busy' and keep movement going at all times. They make for an interesting pair and bounce off each other which does keep viewing interesting. If you compare this with its sister movie, Olympus has Fallen, while the trailers make them appear the same, there is a major difference. While Olympus tries to emphasize the gravity of the situation and continually reminds us that Bad Things Are Happening, White House Down looks at the inherent comedy of the typical American Patriotic Action film.
There are ludicrous moments, for example in an utterly ludicrous sequence where Cale and Sawyer are in the President's limousine driving round and round the fountain in the middle of the White House  the windscreen is blacked out and the president is trying to figure out how to assemble and use a rocket launcher in the back seat.The bad guys here are cartoonish and one sided, their motivation is thinly veiled.You get no real satisfaction from them being taken out, but that doesn't mean you don't feel good when the good guys win. The film ends with a Emily waving the Stars and Stripes heroically on the White House' front lawn. It's fun, light-hearted, and doesn't slip into the "I'm OK but how is the country?" overdone patriotism trap that others have fallen into; Vantage Point, Olympus has Fallen et al. Although you might instantly (like Boyfriend) guess the outcome of the entire plot five minutes into the film, it's fun and enjoyable. It's always good to see a film that doesn't take itself too seriously and is able to poke fun at itself and it's genre. That said there are certainly a plethora of haters out there, so I wouldn't necessarily take my word for it. It's always worth doing your research.