Technical Assessment:
3.5
Moral Assessment:
2.5
MTRCB Rating: PG13
CINEMA Rating: V14
John Cale (Channing Tatum), a police
officer detailed to the Speaker of the House, is working out a relationship
with his politics-savvy daughter Emily Cale (Joey King). In his effort to
impress Emily, John brings her along to the White House when he applies for the
Presidential Secret Agent position. But John does not get the job and this
worries him because Emily has high expectation of him, so he chooses to lie and
tells her that he is hired. At the time of John’s application, US President
James Sawyer (Jamie Foxx) is under criticism on his proposal to retrieve the
military forces in the Middle East.
Father and daughter are still inside the White House when an explosion occurs
and puts the city capitol under siege of coup d’etat led by former Secret Agent
Martin Walker (James Wood). Emily
is in the restroom during this chaos in the Whitehouse. Realizing the danger
for his daughter, John manages to skip the captors and searches for Emily but
he instead finds the President under hostage by Walker. He rescues the
president and the two of them find the way out. After ensuring the escape of
the President, John stays behind to search for Emily. Amidst the fearful situation, Emily manages to take a video
of the terrorists inside Whitehouse and uploads it onto her video blog which
leads to the exposure of the culprits. The terrorists discover what she did and
become madly on watch of her.
White House Down has an overused theme of power grab by unsatisfied
colleagues with orchestrated bombings, hostage taking and senseless killings. The
saving grace of the story was the heroic deeds of father and daughter in the
name of national interest. The good
plot development highlighted this aspect. The director did a good job in his treatment of the story
particularly injecting humor in some highly tensioned scenes. The acting and
characterization were commendable. There was meaningful delivery of dialogues
by the actors. The production design was a real treat to the viewers. The
cinematography and composition keep up with the interesting scenes with
compliments of special effects as applied to aerial, firing, explosions and
chasing scenes. Technically the
film is above average.
Every person grows and never
stays stagnant in the different aspects of life. So John Cale was right when he
said in an interview scene that he has changed and that he was not the same
person as reflected in the school records. But he was not still considered for
the job. In our society, there are people who are misjudged and deprived of opportunities.
Yet despite the humiliating experience of John during the interview he still
did the right thing when called for and used his skills to protect the
President and the interest of the state. Vindication came to John when he succeeded in his accidental
mission to save the President and the US government from the hands of traitors.
A dedicated father does everything and is willing to
sacrifice his life for his children, and so was Cale to his daughter Emily. When
there were opportunities to run away and free himself, he chose to stay and not
to leave without her. The two of them shined in this chaotic situation as
heroes. John used his skills in security and protection measures while Emily used
her skills in social media to expose the villains by uploading her video on
internet, helping authorities resolve the crisis. Young people who are adept social media may get an idea of
how they can make a difference by being responsible users.
A traitor who has no respect
for peace and precious life has no place in the society. While conflicts over a
high profile decision such as peace treaty is a reality, this should not be a
reason to stage a violent take over compromising the innocent lives and the
interest of the entire nation. The
film values family bond particularly between a parent and a child as the main
theme. But the entire run is
stressful. Since a greater part of
the movie shows violence and senseless killings of people, CINEMA finds the movie
disturbing and rates it for mature audiences aged 14 and above.
