WHITE HOUSE DOWN

Columbia Pictures

Rated PG-13

Running time: 131 Minutes



Click below to watch the White House Down movie trailer.


In Columbia Pictures White House Down, U.S. Capitol Police officer and Secret Service candidate Channing Tatum winds up protecting the President of the United States Jamie Foxx when terrorists invade The White House.

This movie White House Down Directed by Roland Emmerich is basically the same movie as Olympus Has Fallen, but White House Down is sillier than Olympus. That said, there were a few things that I did like about White House Down that I wish were in Olympus Has Fallen. These things were mostly tactical in nature, which made the takeover of The White House even more unbelievable in White House Down. There were less Secret Service agents in this movie than in Olympus and also the Marine Presidential Guard disappeared as in Olympus Has Fallen. Although I did like the fact that the movie went more into the history of The White House in White House Down, like the burning of the White House.

I did not think I could accept Jamie Foxx as the President, but as the movie went along, Foxx did become more and more Presidential to me. There was still a little silliness involved, but Foxx seemed very Presidential. I liked that he was trying to negotiate a controversial Peace Treaty between the various allied countries in the Mid-East. I had actually liked the relationship that had developed between Tatum and Foxx during the movie. I also liked the fact that the movie played up the Presidential Line of Succession more than the movies have had in other Presidential movies.

Tatum having a daughter Joey King added a sympathy factor for Tatum as he tries to relate to his estranged daughter King with ticket passes to the White House since King's parents Tatum and her mother Rachelle Lafevre are no longer together. Hiding his disastrous Secret Service interview conducted with former college acquaintance Maggie Gyllenhaal from King was rather sad to see, although Gyllenhaal never seemed like a strong enough character to me. King eventually became a cute kid in the movie instead of the strong political blogger with videos on YouTube that King had started out to be. This resulted in Tatum and King becoming a sugary sappy father and daughter.

I liked Barbara Williams attitude about what her husband, the Head of the Presidential Protective Detail James Woods, is doing in the movie.

Having Jason Clarke from Zero Dark Thirty added a certain political credible continuity as an ex-Delta Force operative, although Clarke looks a little funny to me for me to take him too serious in such paramilitary movies.

Computer hacker Jimmi Simpson hacking into the defense system seemed more of a MacGuffin to me than being a major plot line of the movie. Nicolas Wright as the White House Tour Guide I did like in the movie.

The TV news crews were uneven in their gathering of news, but sadly can be the case - especially during a big event such as blowing up the White House.

I liked the idea of "The Beast" - the Presidential State Car - but that eventually became a silly car chase. That could have been great as a ground version of Air Force One. I look forward to someone making a movie about Ground Force One.

The small audience I saw White House Down with actually enjoyed the movie, so if you just turn your brain off and sit back and let it happen as an action movie, you can have a good time.

Rated PG-13 for violence and language. Running time: 131 Minutes.

Click below to watch another movie trailer of White House Down.



Pancho 
All people smile in the same language.

Pancho's Movie Reviews


 

G.I. JOE: RETALIATION

Paramount Pictures

Rated PG-13

Running time: 110 Minutes



Click below to watch the G.I. Joe: Retaliation trailer.



In Paramount Pictures G.I. Joe: Retaliation, the G.I. Joe team has been wiped out and the few survivors, Dwayne Johnson, D.J. Cotrona, and Adrianne Palicki go underground determined to find out why.

In this sequel, G.I. Joe: Retaliation seems like a more adult version of of the prequel G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra - despite the James Bond type of plot. A crawl at the beginning of the movie introduces the concept of G.I. Joe with Channing Tatum in command. Tatum and Johnson's relationship was great, not just as Joes, but as friends as well. The ninja scenes with Storm Shadow - Byung-hun Lee - and with Snake Eyes - Ray Park - and Jinx - Elodie Yung -  were great, especially when compared with the military action scenes. My favorite scene was with Storm Shadow/Lee and Snake Eyes/Park when they first meet each other. While Snake Eyes is not supposed to talk, I am looking forward to when martial artist stuntman Park actually gets a speaking part.

After a mission in Pakistan to confiscate nuclear warheads from terrorists, the Joes are wiped out in a military strike by Cobra. Storm Shadow/Lee rescues Cobra Commander, Luke Bracey with the voice by Robert Baker, from prison - while Snake Eyes/Park and Storm Shadow/Lee's cousin Jinx/Yung go after Storm Shadow/Lee. The Joe survivors from the military strike seek help from the original Joe - General Joseph Colton, Bruce Willis, in order to stop Cobra.

I have always felt that with Jonathan Pryce as a Welshman, Pryce was not an appropriate actor to be President of the United States. Certainly, Pryce did not have the presence to be President and was a little goofy. It was hard for me to believe Pryce as the leader of the free world. There is a worldwide presence to the movie that gives the movie more of a scope than what you might think of when watching this movie and adds to the James Bond feeling of the movie. The use of orbital kinetic bombardment weapons is interesting, especially since the military concept has been around since the 1950's but has never been implemented as far as I know. After having just watched the movie Olympus Has Fallen, the Presidential scenes in G.I. Joe: Retaliation in comparison to that movie were very cartoony.

General Joe Colton - Bruce Willis - from whom the Joes were names after, was not as strong a character as I was expecting. I was really expecting him to take over command of the rest of the Joes when they contacted him. Especially since the Joes were named after him Joe/Willis, I was expecting some kind of possessiveness from Willis about the Joes - as well as a little history about the Joes. Johnson was still basically the leader of the Joes, even with Joe/Willis joining the team. With very few characters from the original movie making an appearance in this one, it would have been nice for Joe/Willis reminiscing about the Joes he has served with. And the friends that Willis supposedly brought in as support to the surviving Joe  team were not seen.

The Cobras were not the super-soldiers from G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, but just a military force and was not such a menacing force as you would think. The ninjas were more menacing, and frankly more fun to watch. Cobra Commander was not a major character in the movie either. The movie could have been made without him and would not have changed a thing. I felt the guards where Cobra Commander was being held were too old to be prison guards and made me glad to see what happened to them. The resolution between Snake Eyes/Park and Storm Shadow/Lee is interesting, and I wonder what will happen between them in the next movie.

The movie apparently did so well during it's opening weekend, that the studio has reportedly commissioned a third G.I. Joe movie.

Rated PG-13 for violence. Running time: 110 Minutes.

Click below to watch my favorite trailer of G.I. Joe: Retaliation.


Pancho 
All people smile in the same language.
 

21 JUMP STREET

Columbia Pictures and MGM Pictures

Rated R

Running time: 109 Minutes





Click below to watch the 21 Jump Street trailer.



In Columbia Pictures and MGM Pictures 21 Jump Street, former high school adversaries and incompetent rookie cops Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum are transferred to the Jump Street program - where they are to become undercover high school students.

A loose sequel based on the 1980's dramatic TV show 21 Jump Street, created by Stephen J. Cannell and Patrick Hasburgh, the movie 21 Jump Street is a comedy with Hill and Tatum partnered up as undercover brothers by their Captain, Ice Cube because of their youthful looks in order to stop a synthetic drug from spreading out from the local high school into other schools being distributed by popular student dealer Dave Franco.

As a fan of the TV show, I was rather disappointed that the movie was basically a crude high school comedy, instead of a serious action drama that I was expecting - especially when the movie is dealing with hard drugs. Although the fact that the movie did make fun of the media not coming up with anything brand new and remaking old ideas was cute. However, the film is full of stereotypes and is very politically incorrect as the film makes fun of those stereotypes. With that said, the movie is a pretty funny comedy. With the film Written, Executive Produced, and Starring Jonah Hill, it makes it seem that Hill is going backward in his career in that he is doing high school comedies again, when I would much rather see him do more dramas like his baseball movie Moneyball. Although it was fun watching Hill and Tatum become brothers in this film and having them stay at home with Hill's parents. It was also fun having Hill dressed as Peter Pan which adds to a lot of jokes. Even if Tatum was the sports jock and Hill was the nerd, their roles were accidentally reversed when they go undercover - which breaks up the traditional buddy cop roles. I wish the rest of the movie was of that caliber, instead of the running joke of being able to remember the words to the Miranda Rights. Since the TV show was an ensemble show, I would have preferred Hill and Tatum working more with the other Jump Street undercover cops, like the girls, instead of just recruiting the other high school students to help them. Perhaps there will be more of an ensemble movie in the sequel, where Hill and Tatum will probably return as college students.

Having uncredited cameos with 21 Jump Street TV series stars Johnny Depp and Peter DeLuise reprising their TV roles was great to see in the movie with Depp and DeLuise portraying DEA agents and adds closure to their characters from the TV series. TV series star Dustin Nguyen was shown in TV clips in the movie, while TV series star Holly Robinson Peete was the only series regular who was actually credited in the movie. IMDB lists that TV series star Richard Grieco was also in the movie, which I did not know about and I do not know where he was in the movie as I did not notice him. Not having seen the TV show on the Fox Network in years, it was great that I was able to remember the words to the theme song - which was originally sung by Robinson Peete, with backup by Depp and DeLuise - when the song played during the end credits.

Rated R for language, violence, sexual situations, drug use.  Running time: 109 Minutes.

Pancho
All people smile in the same language.

Pancho's Movie Reviews

The Eagle

Focus Features

Rated PG-13

Running time: 114 Minutes



Set during the Roman Empire, Focus Features The Eagle, has a Roman Legion of 5000 infantry men disappear. 20 years later, the Legion commander's son Channing Tatum tries to find out what has happened to his father who had commanded the missing legion in order to regain his honor and retrieve their golden emblem - an Eagle.

This film is about honor as Channing Tatum tries to regain his family's honor - especially when his men consider Tatum to be a bad omen; Tatum's slave Jamie Bell's honor of staying with Tatum when Tatum saved Bell's life; and also of the Eagle's honor - which represents Rome. The senator friend of Tatum's uncle, Donald Sutherland, as well as the senator's son did not seem to have any honor as they refuse to support Tatum's one man expedition to investigate rumors of the location of the Eagle. The film also becomes a road/buddy film when Tatum and Bell leave home and set off past the "known world" and explore the land out north past the Wall Barrier to search for the Eagle. When the tables turn, and Bell becomes the master and Tatum becomes the slave, makes you think about the whole idea of slavery that we do not experience today and what it really means to be free - that slavery is more than just a matter of servitude.

I did not know that the Roman Empire had reached as far as the British Isles. That part was very interesting to me as the British Isles gave a different landscape for the film than a traditional European location for the Roman Empire. While The Eagle is more of a drama than an action film - there are battle sequences in the move, which unfortunately are not as epic as I would have preferred. The battle scenes also just end - instead of finishing the battle, which left me feeling a little unsatisfied as to the resolution of the battles. However, the violence of the movie is not that graphic despite the brutality of the times. The final fate of what happened to the missing legion is rather sad and made me consider what could go up against 5,000 trained heavily armed legionnaire soldiers.

Rated PG-13 for violence. Running time: 114 minutes.

Pancho
All people smile in the same language.

Pancho's Movie Reviews

G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra

Paramount Pictures

Rated PG-13

Running time: 118 minutes


Click below to watch the G.I. Joe: The Rise of the Cobra trailer.



A weapons dealer, Christopher Eccleston, whose company has supplied the U.S. military with weapons, has made some warheads with nanotechnology that eats metal. The G.I. Joe team must stop this turncoat and his Cobras from destroying the world's city capitals.

G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, based on the Hasbro Company toys and the comic book, is set in the near distant future, so the futuristic technology could be acceptable. Certainly the high energy digital effects make some of it acceptable. Otherwise, the technology detracts from the realistic version of the military that started out the movie if it was set today. The G.I. Joe team, that technically does not exist, is made of the best special operations soldiers from around the world - which differs from the comic of which the team was all-American special operations. This is a rather upsetting idea to me as the term "G.I. Joe" is a World War II term which referred to the American soldiers.

The best characterizations come from Channing Tatum as Duke and Sienna Miller as the Baroness - as well as the characters Snake-Eyes, Ray Park, and Storm Shadow, Byung-hun Lee. With so many characters, you never really get to know the other Joes or Cobras aside from the stars of the movie. The relationship with Scarlet, Rachel Nichols, and RipCord, Marlon Wayans, is different than their relationships in the comic and in the movie this relationship somehow demeans Scarlet as a person, although the women in the film are very smart. If they kept the relationship with Scarlet and Snake-Eyes, that would have developed both of these characters since Marlon Wayans has enough talent to develop his own character on his own if they had just let him go to town.

Rated PG-13 for violence. Running time: 118 minutes.

See book review:
G.I. JOE - THE RISE OF COBRA

Pancho
All people smile in the same language.