Movie Review - White House Down

White House Down (2013)

Starring Channing Tatum, Jamie Foxx, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Jason Clarke, Joey King, Richard Jenkins, and James Woods

Directed by Roland Emmerich

I keep trying to tell myself that I shouldn't like Channing Tatum.  I keep telling myself that I should laugh off all of his movies.  I keep saying that since the ladies love him I should automatically carry some disdain towards him.  Because of this, it was easy to avoid Tatum's summer action picture White House Down.  Of course, that wasn't the only reason to scoff at this film.  I could certainly do without Jamie Foxx's irksome overacting and this was the second movie to come out within five months detailing a terroristic takeover of the White House following Olympus Has Fallen.  Plus, the trailer for Olympus seemed much better than this Roland Emmerich-directed "blockbuster."  Having watched Olympus Has Fallen a few months ago and finding it disappointing, when White House Down arrived in my mailbox last week, I was actually irritated that I hadn't reordered my Netflix queue.  Needless to say, White House Down proved to be surprisingly enjoyable -- a film that doesn't necessarily do a single thing we haven't seen before, but somehow manages to revel in its ridiculousness and keep things rocking and rolling for over two hours.

Like I said, White House Down doesn't reinvent the wheel.  Channing Tatum is Cale, a security officer for the Speaker of the House (Richard Jenkins).  Hoping for something more, he heads to the White House for an interview, bringing with him his precocious eleven year-old daughter (Joey King).  After being interviewed by Finnerty (Maggie Gyllenhaal), one of the President's high-ranking Secret Service officers and (of course) a former fling of Cale's, Cale and his daughter bogart their way into a White House tour.  While on the tour, the White House finds itself under attack, taken over by a crew of men headed by the leading Secret Service agent Walker (James Woods), a man upset by the President's foreign relations policies that caused Walker's military son to be killed in combat.  Naturally, Cale springs into action, doing what he can to protect the well-liked President Sawyer (Jamie Foxx) along with his daughter.

Honestly, I could've written the basic story behind White House Down, but I must give credit to director Roland Emmerich and screenwriter James Vanderbilt who keep the flick moving along at a steady pace punctuating some of the most ridiculously over-the-top action sequences with humorous quips wherein the characters themselves admit the ridiculousness of said action sequences.  Tatum is certainly game for both the action scenes and he's already proven himself a charmingly sly comedian.  Jamie Foxx is shockingly understated -- I was pleasantly surprised by the way he allowed his presidential character to play second fiddle to Tatum.  The supporting cast from Woods to Jenkins to Gyllenhaal all give better performances than is to be expected in a movie like this.

So, I must say that no one is more shocked than me to say that White House Down is worth your time and better than it really should be.  I think I need to admit that Channing Tatum isn't nearly as bad as I want him to be.

The RyMickey Rating:  B

Movie Review - Straw Dogs

Straw Dogs (2011)

Starring James Marsden, Kate Bosworth, Alexander Skarsgård, and James Woods

Directed by Rod Lurie

When screenwriter David Sumner (James Marsden) and his actress wife Amy (Kate Bosworth) move back to her childhood hometown in Mississippi, they're hoping for some peace and quiet away from the Hollywood spotlight so David can work on his new screenplay.  The couple hire a group of hicks (and, yes, I'm using that word derogatively because like in every Hollywood movie, the Southerners here are all hicks that spit a lot and carry shotguns around with them) to fix up the roof of a rotting barn at their secluded house.  The workers, headed by Amy's former boyfriend Charlie (Alexander Skarsgård), look like trouble from the get-go -- so much so that the thought that a smart guy like David would hire these guys is completely irrational and ruins the movie's plausibility right in the opening act -- and the group proves to be a handful.  Needless to say, Straw Dogs (and the original 1971 movie upon which this remake is based) is touted for both its violence and its message that even a civilized man can resort to heinous acts to save the ones he loves, but that isn't nearly enough to recommend this flick.

The problem is that beyond that overly violent final act, Straw Dogs has nothing going for it.  It's built upon a premise that's simply unbelievable -- David is a smart guy (he plays chess so we know that's the case) and yet he hires this grungy looking group to fix his house.  The movie tries to play it up that he was just trying to be nice to some hometown guys, but as soon as he hires this construction crew, all realism went out the window for me.  And, if I'm being completely honest (and this may make me sound awful), I wanted the violence to come into play a whole lot sooner than it actually did.  There's a particularly heinous act that happens about halfway through the movie that should have precipitated the ending to come a lot sooner, but the film just lingers around for nearly an hour more.

James Marsden and Kate Bosworth are fine, but I found their relationship to be rather odd and off-putting and I don't think that was supposed to be the point.  Alexander Skarsgård is kinda creepy, but he's certainly not bringing anything new to the table.  And the less said about the overacting James Woods whose character precipitates the third act's violence the better.

But at least this flick gave me a better appreciation for using bear traps as a means of enacting revenge on your worst enemy.

The RyMickey Rating:  D+

Movie Review - Videodrome

Videodrome (1983)

Starring James Woods and Deborah Harry

Directed by David Cronenberg

***This film is currently streaming on Netflix***

From the little bit that I'd heard about Videodrome, I knew that I was in for something weird and off-the-wall.  Not that I'm all that familiar with director David Cronenberg's work, but I had this preconceived notion that many of his films dealt with sex and violence in odd and uncomfortable ways...Videodrome did nothing to change that thought as it takes a twisted look at both subjects.

James Woods plays Max Renn, the president/CEO of Civic-TV, a Toronto television station that prides itself on running softcore pornography.  Max wants to push the envelope more and, while using a pirate television satellite, he picks up a television show called "Videodrome" that mixes sex, torture, and murder.  While he initially believes that the show is beaming in from Malaysia, it is soon discovered that it's coming from Pittsburgh. This intrigues Max's girlfriend Nicki (Deborah Harry) who is aroused by the sadomasochism on the show.  She decides to trek out to Pittsburgh to take part in the show and Max soon finds himself in a bit of a conundrum -- he wants to get Nicki back, but he also wants to have "Videodrome" for his own station.  As the movie progresses, Max soon finds that "Videodrome" is more than just a tv show and that, in fact, it may be causing hallucinatory effects in its watchers, perhaps even creating some odd alternate realities that cause its viewers to question what is their "real life."

Videodrome is weird.  Perhaps too weird.  I was onboard with the twisted tone until about halfway through when the aforementioned Dali-esque surrealist hallucinations came into play.  At that point, rules are thrown out the window and that's not necessarily a good thing.  James Woods is nicely depraved as Max Renn who exudes sleaziness, yet Woods somehow manages to get you to care about his character when his world begins to fall apart.  Deborah Harry (of the rock band Blondie fame) is fine and was better than expected (that perhaps comes across as faint praise, but I mean it as a compliment).

In the end, though, Videodrome is simply okay.  It has solid premise that I'm sure it holds psychological and sociological meanings if one digs enough, but the flick becomes a bit too convoluted and twisted at the end to have any of those deep philosophies make a difference.

The RyMickey Rating:  C