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White House Down (2013)
White House Down (2013)
I expected White House Down to be basically the same movie as Olympus Has Fallen (2013). Besides the actors, almost everything about each film looked very similar. It is very weird to me that two movies that are so much alike would be released the same year and so close to one another. For some reason I got it in my mind that White House Down was going to be the ugly cousin of Olympus Has Fallen.
White House Down follows a former military man (Channing Tatum) who brings his daughter with him to the White House where he managed to get a job interview to try to become a Secret Service Agent. He brings his daughter along with him to the White House because she is a huge fan of the President (Jamie Foxx). While there, they decide to take a tour. During the tour the White House is attacked and the man does what he can to protect his daughter and the President.
The film was directed by Roland Emmerich and the rest of the noteworthy cast includes Maggie Gyllenhaal, James Woods, Jason Clarke, Richard Jenkins, Joey King, Nicolas Wright, Jimmi Simpson, Michael Murphy, Rachelle Lefevre, Lance Reddick, Matt Craven, and Kevin Rankin.
This movie surprised me. It exceeded my expectations. I liked it a little bit better than Olympus Has Fallen. It was not quite as predictable as Olympus Has Fallen and I felt that the actors did a better job. Also, it seemed like White House Down had fewer flaws than Olympus Has Fallen.
The film was intense and exciting. The attack on the White House was eerily realistic. There was a lot of good action. As with most action movies, some of the action was a bit unbelievable at times. But, for the most part, this didn’t take away from the film.
Tatum was likable as he usually is. Foxx was better than I thought he would be as the President. When the two teamed up together, they were both pretty entertaining and even funny at times.
The rest of the actors played their parts well. Besides Tatum and Foxx, Woods and Jenkins stood out above the rest.
Overall, White House Down is a fun ride worth taking.
I rate this movie an 8 on a scale of 1-10.
Buy, rent, or run? Buy.
If you liked White House Down (2013), then you will probably enjoy the following movies:
Movie Picture of the Day 7/16/13
The woman is unknowingly drying a decapitated human head in the dark comedy, 8 Heads in a Duffel Bag (1997).
Movie Picture of the Day 7/15/13
Nicolas Cage being pleasantly insane in Matchstick Men (2003).
It is an utter shame what happened to him. He is one of my favorite actors and he flushed his career down the toilet. This picture probably sums up how he feels about it though. It’s okay Nic. We still like you.
Trailer for Red 2 (2013)
Red 2 (2013) (Click on the title for my full review.)
Frank Moses (Bruce Willis) is a retired CIA agent who cannot seem to stay retired from mayhem. In this sequel to Red (2010), Moses bands together with a group of friends who also happen to be misfit murderers, in order to try to track down a missing nuke.
The film is directed by Dean Parisot and the rest of the notable cast includes John Malkovich, Helen Mirren, Mary-Louise Parker, Anthony Hopkins, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Neal McDonough, and Byung-hun Lee.
If Red 2 is half as good as Red, it will be worth seeing. It should be full of laughs and plenty of good action.
The film is set to release on 7/19/13.
Trailer for Out of the Furnace (2013)
Out of the Furnace (2013) (Click on the title for my full review.)
A Man (Christian Bale) goes looking for his younger brother (Casey Affleck) after he goes missing. He will stop at nothing to get his brother back and release his own form of justice on whoever is responsible for taking him.
The film is directed by Scott Cooper. Who is Scott Cooper? I had to look him up too. The only other movie that Cooper directed is Crazy Heart (2009). Jeff Bridges won an Academy Award for Best Actor for Crazy Heart. Cooper has received a lot of critical acclaim for that film. It appears like Cooper just might have another Oscar contender on his hands with this new film Out of the Furnace.
The rest of the noteworthy cast includes Woody Harrelson, Willem Dafoe, Forest Whitaker, Zoe Saldana, Sam Shepard, Dendrie Taylor, and Tom Bower.
If you get a group of actors like that together to make a movie, it’s hard to expect anything less than excellence.
The film is set to release on 12/06/13.
I’ll be in the theatre in December to let you know if this film meets my expectations.
Movie Picture of the Day 7/14/13
Chris Farley is using his professional sales techniques desperately trying to sell brake pads to save his father’s company in the film Tommy Boy (1995). David Spade probably should have stopped him before it got to this.
Redband Trailer for Oldboy (2013)
Oldboy (2013)
This preview is approved for appropriate audiences.
10 years after the Korean film Oldboy (2003), Spike Lee decided to direct an American version. The original film was quite twisted and the remake appears like it will follow suit.
Oldboy (2013) is about a man (Josh Brolin) who is kidnapped and imprisoned for 20 years. When he is finally released, he sets out for revenge on his unknown captor. Why was he kidnapped and held for so long? Who did it and why did they let him go?
The rest of the notable cast includes Samuel L. Jackson, Elizabeth Olsen, Michael Imperioli, Lance Reddick, Sharlto Copley, Max Casella, Rami Malek, James Ransone, and Grey Damon.
Brolin continues to choose his roles carefully. If he pulls off his part, as it appears like he definitely will, this remake should be intensely awesome.
I am totally looking forward to this one!
The film is set to release on 11/29/13.
This is the End (2013)
This is the End (2013)
When you get a cast together that includes James Franco, Jonah Hill, Seth Rogen, Jay Baruchel, Danny McBride, and Craig Robinson, you just know that you are in for a raunchfest. The rest of the cast were basically all cameo appearances and they included Channing Tatum, Emma Watson, Paul Rudd, Michael Cera, Mindy Kaling, Aziz Ansari, Kevin Hart, David Krumholtz, Chritopher Mintz-Plasse, Jason Segel, Rihanna and The Backstreet Boys.
The movie is written and directed by Evan Goldberg and Seth Rogen, but based on the short film “Jay and Seth vs. The Apocalypse” by Rogen, Goldberg, and Jason Stone.
Seth Rogen basically took a page from Adam Sandler’s book and got all of his buddies together and decided to make a comedy about the end of the world. Arguably Sandler has been doing this at least once a year, but his movies lately have been making you wish that it was the end of the world.
Each actor plays themselves in This Is the End. They all go over to James Franco’s house for a party. The rapture crashes their shindig and they are forced to stay holed up in Franco’s house trying to survive.
The film started out a little stale and immediately I was worried that it was going to be a complete disappointment. Eventually the god of laughter smiled upon me and I found myself convulsing with amusement. However, it seemed like I was simply having laughing spells. The movie would be really funny and then it would get too cheesy and stupid and then funny again. The Comedy seemed to cycle through all types of humor. Sometimes it was hilarious and other times, not so much. It was crude, crass, vulgar, stupid, tasteless, and just plain dumb. Sometimes these things worked and sometimes they didn’t.
Overall the movie was too inconsistent. After a while, the inconsistency caused the film to drag on. The humor dissolved and all that remained was tacky stupidity. I did have a good time laughing while it lasted.
I rate this movie a 6 on a scale of 1-10.
Buy, rent, or run? Rent.
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