If every President needs an iconic statement, a great line by which they will be remembered for centuries to come, Jamie Foxx's 'The pen is truly mightier than the sword' doesn't quite cut it. Mr. President, that one's taken. In Roland Emmerich's White House Down, there are few pens, and fewer swords, but plenty of guns, and the argument seems to be that the gun is mightier than the both of them. Emmerich can get away with the sickly American patriotism with which he infects many of his films (with most, myself excluded) because he's not actually American; White House Down's argument is that America is great because it is America, which is perhaps a stronger argument than any other in this case. The patriotism comes in waves (more like tsunamis), as does the comedy, but the action is pretty much relentless after a while. It takes about half a Presidential term of office to get there, but once it does, the battles and chases and explosions are almost unyielding. In fact, they're so non-stop that those characters involved are briskly reduced to the status of mobile weapon / mobile target - Channing Tatum's supposed to be the lead, but his stunt man seems to get more screentime! Odd moments of humour attempt to lighten the mood, but they only create a separate mood, divorced from the rest of the film, and clashing with it. The comedy feels shuffled in from another film entirely. The funniest bit, in fact, is when a government helicopter sniper spots Tatum among terrorists on the roof of the White House and exclaims "Wait! I think he's friendly!" before Tatum proceeds to beat the shi-ite out of Jason Clarke. Yeh... so what was that thing about the pen?
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