Stars Channing Tatum, Jaime Foxx, Maggie Gyllenhaal, James Woods, Richard Jenkins, Jason Clarke, Michael Murphy, Lance Reddick and Joey King Directed by Roland Emmerich Die Hard in The White House… again. At least this is far closer to what the actual Die Hard was than either Olympus Has Fallen or A Good Day To Die Hard. Why? Here, we actually have a what amounts to a cop, in the wrong place at the wrong time, with an estranged family member in jeopardy and the odds really heavily against him. Oh, and he gets support over a phone. Only thing extra is that he's got to rescue the President of The United States at the same time. One of the bad guys even play Beethoven's music! Also, the nature of the villainous plot hews far closer to Die Hard than the other two Die Hard pretenders this year. Speaking of the villainous plot tho, could there have been a more appropriately dastardly plot suited for a Malaysian audience? One that highlights money politics and cronyism? Spoiler alert? In any case, we do have out hero (Channing Tatum) who does eventually end up in the white singlet vest, and it does get rather mucked up. Not by much. Tatum manages to carry the movie, doing what he has to in order to rescue, then protect the POTUS (Jaime Foxx) while trying to rescue his daughter (Joey King). There are the bad guys and their devious plot (not saying what it is) which is different from the previous Die Hard in The White House flick. Come to think of it, the US President is having a tough summer (see also Iron Man 3 and Olympus Has Fallen) Director Roland Emmerich does what he does best with the given material from James Vanderbilt (The Rundown, The Amazing Spider-Man, , definitely delivering the bang for the buck and churning out some decent action set-peices. I did enjoy the movie immensely and I was hard pressed to come up with something negative about it. It's not perfect and how much one can tolerate Channing Tatum can determine how much you'll enjoy the movie. The support cast, however, fill out the numerous characters fairly nicely, from the classic forms of James Woods and Richard Jenkins, to the sassy Maggie Gyllenhaal and the ever dependable like Michael Murphy and Lance Reddick. Joey King may be carrying the precocious kid role, but even she acquits herself very well. If anything, the action and the plot does strain itself as the movie wears on, and unlike Die Hard, Tatum's hero doesn't seem to be as worn down by the events, and the fights, and the explosions as one would expect. He does come across as nigh invincible which is something of an issue with action movies these days. The heroes barely come across as human anymore. It's like we're really back to the 80s with all our muscle-bound tough guys who can get gut-shot and call it a scratch. Still, this is an above average, slightly more than generic action film with Emmerich at the helm, wrecking havoc on, in and around his favourite landmark. It might deliver what you'd expect from the director of the action likes of Universal Soldier, Independence Day, 2012 and The Day After Tomorrow (not Anonymous). And yes, check half your brains at the door.
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