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


 

OZ THE GREAT AND POWERFUL

Walt Disney Pictures

Rated PG

Running time: 130 Minutes




Click below to watch the Oz the Great and Powerful trailer.




In Walt Disney Pictures Oz the Great and Powerful, James Franco is Oz, a con artist carnival magician who gets caught up in a twister - and winds up in the Land of Oz.

Based on the works of L. Frank Baum and directed by Sam Raimi with music from Danny Elfman, this is a prequel to The Wizard of Oz from 1939 as elements from The Wizard of Oz is explained in Oz the Great and Powerful. Like The Wizard of Oz, at the beginning of the movie Oz the Great and Powerful, the movie starts out in black and white when it is set in Kansas - and turns into color when Franco/Oz arrives at the land of Oz. The aspect ratio of the movie also changes to the wider widescreen format and goes from monaural sound to surround sound when the movie is in the Land of Oz. And just like the original The Wizard of Oz, several characters from the black and white Kansas play characters in the land of Oz, such as Michelle Williams, Zach Braff, and Joey King.

After an unsuccessful magic show in a traveling circus, Franco/Oz gets caught in a twister while riding in a hot air balloon. When he arrives in the Land of Oz, Franco/Oz gets mistaken to be the Wizard that was described in prophecy. Franco/Oz soon gets recruited to save the Land of Oz from the wicked witch who had killed the king of Oz.

I liked the fact that the opening credits were created more like practical credits in line with the time of the movie instead of CGI credits and that practical sets were mostly used in the film. Elfman's music gives the movie a classic Hollywood movie feel to the movie. The song Almost Home from Mariah Carey is used during the end credits of the movie and is the only contemporary song in the movie. This is not a musical with characters breaking into song like in the original Wizard of Oz or as Disney musical animated fairy tale films tend to do.

While it has been years since I have read Baum's Oz series, and I have never seen the theater musical play Wicked, this felt like a true prequel to the movie The Wizard of Oz as we got to know much more of the characters from the original The Wizard of Oz movie. The story is such a tragedy, but the movie does set up the events to The Wizard of Oz movie that is set 20 years later.

I felt that Franco/Oz's relationships with the women in the beginning of the movie were a little too long to get to the story - but when Franco/Oz first arrives in the Land of Oz, it feels like riding in an attraction at Disneyland, which is quite appropriate as the movie was produced by Walt Disney Pictures. Disney had been trying to produce a film based on the Baum's Oz books since the late 1930's. Producer Joe Roth was happy to finally have a fairy tale with a male protagonist, such as the male protagonist in the origin story of Oz the Great and Powerful. Franco/Oz's desire to be a great man, obviously leads to him becoming Oz the Great and Powerful. Franco received magical training with magician Lance Burton in preparation for the role of a magician in this film. Franco and Braff reminded me of Matthew Broderick and Nathan Lane. In fact, I could see Broderick and Lane doing their roles.

The twister was much more intense and violent than the twister in The Wizard of Oz. It was more like the movie Twister than the sanitized fantasy version that was shown in The Wizard of Oz. In fact there were several times that I expected Franco/Oz to be seriously injured during the various episodes of the movie.

I saw the movie in regular 2-D, but the movie was obviously designed as a 3-D movie. The movie does have some scary scenes that Raimi had to edit down to get a PG rating, which is Raimi's first PG film. For those of us who were scared as children from the original The Wizard of Oz, Oz the Great and Powerful is a scarier movie for children - especially the flying baboons. I am sure the movie is even scarier in 3-D.

Rated PG for violence. Running time: 130 Minutes.

Pancho 
All people smile in the same language.