White House Down

Theatrical Release Date: 2013 06 28 (USA)

UPC: 043396417595

Studio: Sony Pictures

MPAA Rating: PG13   Contains:[Violence, Profanity, Sexual Situations]

Summary: A devoted father fights a ruthless paramilitary group that has seized control the White House in this high-stakes action thriller from director Roland Emmerich (2012) and writer James Vanderbilt (The Amazing Spider-Man). Dejected after being turned down for a position with the Secret Service but unable to break the news to his adoring daughter, Capitol policeman John Cale (Channing Tatum) is taking her on a tour of the White House when a powerful explosion rips through the building, sparking mass chaos. When the smoke clears, Cale learns that heavily armed rebels have taken both his daughter (Joey King) and the president (Jamie Foxx) hostage. As news of the attack creates mass panic and fear of total collapse, Cale realizes that the fate of his daughter, the Commander in Chief, and the entire nation rest in his willingness to fight back against the terrorists who have brought the most powerful nation on the planet to its knees. Maggie Gyllenhaal, Jason Clarke, Richard Jenkins, and James Woods co-star. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Category: Action

Features: A dynamic duo: Channing Tatum & Jamie Foxx
Men of action: Stunt training
Meet the insiders: Supporting cast
Roland Emmerich - Upping the ante

White House Down

Format: DVD

Release Date: 11/05/2013

Aspect Ratio: 2.40:1 2.40:1

Audio: DD5.1 Dolby Digital 5.1

Runtime: 132 Minutes

Sides: 1

Number of Discs: 1

Language(s) English,French,Portuguese,Spanish

Subtitles: English,French

Region: USA & territories, Canada

Chapters: Disc #1 -- White House Down
1. Scene 1 [6:40]
2. Scene 2 [8:38]
3. Scene 3 [6:18]
4. Scene 4 [8:32]
5. Scene 5 [7:36]
6. Scene 6 [8:03]
7. Scene 7 [5:20]
8. Scene 8 [8:42]
9. Scene 9 [7:13]
10. Scene 10 [7:32]
11. Scene 11 [3:11]
12. Scene 12 [6:19]
13. Scene 13 [5:39]
14. Scene 14 [7:33]
15. Scene 15 [7:08]
16. Scene 16 [9:40]

Jason Buchanan

Every generation deserves a "John McCLane" to call its own, and as aging Bruce Willis wisecracks his way through a series of lame Die Hard sequels, the Millennials get theirs with Channing Tatum as John Cale in White House Down. A director who knows a thing or two about blowing up the Oval Office, Roland Emmerich's unabashedly fun throwback delivers whiz-bang action that never feels compromised by the PG-13 rating, and features an expert cast of character players firing on all cylinders.
Dejected after being turned down for a position with the Secret Service, Capitol policeman John Cale (Tatum) is taking his daughter Emily (Joey King) on a tour of the White House when a powerful explosion rips through the building, sparking mass chaos. When the smoke clears, Cale learns that a heavily armed paramilitary group has taken control of the White House. In the race to find Emily, he bravely rescues President Sawyer (Jamie Foxx) from the ruthless rebels, and attempts to guide him to safety. As news of the attack creates mass panic and fear of total governmental collapse, the fate of Cale's daughter, the Commander in Chief, and perhaps the entire nation rest in his willingness to fight back against the rebels who have brought the most powerful nation on the planet to its knees.
If the above synopsis seems somewhat sparse, frustrated spoiler-hounds can thank White House Down screenwriter James Vanderbilt (The Rundown, Zodiac, The Amazing Spider-Man), because half the fun of watching this high-stakes action opus is attempting to keep pace with all the curveballs he throws into the plot. Using dialogue and subtle character beats to clue us in about precisely why things are unfolding the way they are, Vanderbilt also seems to delight in playing sleight of hand with his colorful cast of characters. With supporting turns from such talents as Maggie Gyllenhaal, James Woods, Richard Jenkins, Jason Clarke, Lance Reddick, Jake Weber, Jimmi Simpson, and Matt Craven, he's got the talent to pull off such an ambitious feat as well. True, White House Down is, for the most part, your typical siege film, but it's one in which the winning combination of writing and onscreen talent effectively keep us locked into the action. As the stakes get higher we're never quite sure who's being motivated by what, and ultimately we become so immersed in the action that we just sit back and try to soak it all in. All the while, Vanderbilt smartly disburses a non-stop barrage of one-liners amongst the cast, playfully subverting the commonly held standard that the star gets all of the zingers.
Little of this would amount to much in the hands of an incompetent director, but Emmerich is obviously a storyteller who's comfortable working on such a sprawling canvas, and as a result it all coalesces in a near-perfect popcorn flick. Whether riding the wave of panic that follows the initial explosion, thrusting us into a thrilling car chase on the White House lawn, or ratcheting up the tension as a trio of Black Hawks blast through the streets of Washington, D.C, Emmerich rarely falters in delivering a thrill -- and thankfully does so in a way that keeps the mood light, despite the mayhem. In a post-9/11 society, there are times when it feels that big-budget action filmmakers are forcing us relive the horrors of that fateful day time and again (The Dark Knight Rises and, more recently, Man of Steel). What Emmerich and Vanderbilt opt for instead is pure, unadulterated escapism. Despite the high stakes, this feels like a movie that could have been made in the 1990s, before the dark shadow of fatalism had yet to be cast. It's a refreshing approach, and though early references to Al Qaeda place the film in a clear cultural context, it's one that pays respect to our current condition without obsessing over it. In truth, the plot of White House Down seems more informed by President Eisenhower's cautionary 1961 speech on the dangers of the military-industrial complex than by the perpetual War on Terror; while it would be far-fetched to call White House Down a "smart" action movie, at least it doesn't come off as completely brain dead.
Meanwhile, much like Bruce Willis in 1988, Channing Tatum displays an effortless blend of confident charm and sweaty heroics as John Cale, a father and former soldier whose bravery has obviously been inherited by his moody 11-year-old daughter, despite the fact that he was deployed in Afghanistan for much of her childhood. Cale is the precisely kind of underdog hero that audiences love to root for, and Tatum plays him with pitch-perfect precision. The same can also be said of Jamie Foxx's President Sawyer, a principled Commander in Chief who knows the difference between a politician and a leader, but whose belief in peace doesn't prevent him from picking up a rocket launcher when the time is right. Foxx gets a few of the film's best lines, including but not limited to one of the most satisfying PG-13 F-bombs ever delivered. Perhaps less satisfying than that expertly placed profanity, but equally effective, is the score composed by Thomas Wander and Harald Kloser, a commanding collection of musical cues that swells and wavers in all the right places -- just another of the many factors that make White House Down the kind of thrilling, brazenly fun action blockbuster that begs to be seen on a big screen, in a crowded theater. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Cast and Crew: Roland Emmerich  Director 
Roland Emmerich  Producer 
Ute Emmerich  Executive Producer 
Harald Kloser  Composer (Music Score) 
Harald Kloser  Producer 
Laeta Kalogridis  Producer 
Larry Franco  Producer 
James Vanderbilt  Producer 
James Vanderbilt  Screenwriter 
Bradley J. Fischer  Producer 
Channing Tatum  Executive Producer 
Thomas Wander  Composer (Music Score) 
Reid Carolin  Executive Producer 
Channing Tatum  Actor 
Jamie Foxx  Actor 
Maggie Gyllenhaal  Actor 
Jason Clarke  Actor 
Richard Jenkins  Actor 
James Woods  Actor 
Joey King  Actor 
Nicolas Wright  Actor 
Jimmi Simpson  Actor 
Michael Murphy  Actor 
Rachelle Lefevre  Actor 
Lance Reddick  Actor 
Matt Craven  Actor 
Jake Weber  Actor 
Peter Jacobson  Actor 
Barbara Williams  Actor 
Kevin Rankin  Actor 
Garcelle Beauvais  Actor 
Falk Hentschel  Actor 
Romano Orzari  Actor 
Jackie Geary  Actor 
Andrew Simms  Actor 
Catherine Lemieux  Actor 
Vincent LeClerc  Actor 
Andreas Apergis  Actor 
Victor Cornfoot  Actor 
Anatoly Zinoviev  Actor 
Lee Villeneuve  Actor 
Patrick Sabongui  Actor 
Anthony Lemke  Actor 
Kyle Gatehouse  Actor 
Yardly Kavanagh  Actor 
Andrew Shaver  Actor 
Rhys Williams  Actor 
Kwasi Songui  Actor 
Leni Parker  Actor 
Faber Dewar  Actor 
Brent Skagford  Actor 
Todd VanDerHeyden  Actor 
Paul VanDerHeyden  Actor 
Neil Napier  Actor 
Ahmed Mekallach  Actor 
Raphael Grosz-Harvey  Actor 
Chad Connell  Actor 
Mark Antony Krupa  Actor 
Patrick Costello  Actor 
Ralph Prosper  Actor 
Jennifer Morehouse  Actor 
Martin Thibaudeau  Actor 
Simon Gouveia  Actor 
Richard Bradshaw  Actor 
Frank Cavallaro  Actor 
Lori Graham  Actor 
Barry Morgan  Actor 
Andrew Peplowski  Actor 
Timothy F. Sargeant  Actor 
Tarah Schwartz  Actor 
Dan Duran  Actor 
David Haydn-Jones  Actor 
Janette Luu  Actor 
Tamara Sutherland  Actor 
Seamus O'Reagan  Actor 
Lauren Sanchez  Actor 
Christopher Schauble  Actor 
Brooke Anderson  Actor 
Ben Mankiewicz  Actor 
John Hans Tester  Actor 

Country: USA