White House Down - Movie Review

Starring Channing Tatum, Jamie Foxx, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Jason Clarke, James Woods, Richard Jenkins, Joey King, Nicolas Wright, Jimmi Simpson, Michael Murphy, Rachelle Lefevre, Lance Reddick, Matt Craven and Jake Weber.
Directed by Roland Emmerich.

★★½

Emmerich movies always have the tongue implanted in cheek, and this movie's no exception. Think of the big-budget disaster flicks like 2012 and The Day After Tomorrow or the more action-oriented flicks like The Patriot or Independence Day.  Now comes a ridiculous buddy-action-comedy between a Secret Service wannabe and POTUS fleeing terrorists in Die Hard in the White House.

Jamie Foxx is the Obama-esque President, and I'm not saying that because he's black.  He even adopts the way Obama speaks, at least in the beginning of the movie. His character's name however is President Sawyer.  Sawyer has announced he's withdrawing all US troops from the Middle East, which makes some never-seen CEOs of defense-contractor companies upset.  Needless to say, eventually some mercenary types start blowing stuff up around the White House. I wonder who could be backing them...

Tatum's character is John Cale.  Not quite John McClane, but come on, he even winds up wearing just the wife-beater by the end of the movie.  It's never bold enough to have him declare "Yippy-ki-yay!"  That'd just be too much.

The movie's fun the whole time.  Even when it gets stupid, and it does, it never forgets it's just a moooovie.  Tons of explosions, gunfire, but with the cameras angled just right to help keep that PG-13.

Tatum and Foxx have infectious chemistry.  Joey King (Beezus & Ramona) has her own moments as Cale's daughter.  MVP is Nicolas Wright as the tour guide. It seems like a throwaway part that just keeps getting better.  Anyone left of center should love that all the bad guys' motives hit on every Evil Republican cliche. Some are in for white supremacy, some are in it for money, some are in it to create more war, etc. We just needed one terrorist to say he's pro-life.

It's not the best movie of the summer, but it's worth seeing if you take it on its own level.

Monsters U is still #1, The Heat is #2

For the weekend of June 28-30.

1. Monsters University - $46.18 million ($171) - 2 wks (BV) -44%
 . . . 4004 screens / $11,533 per screen
2. The Heat - $40 - 1 wk (Fox)
 . . . 3181 / $12,575
3. World War Z - $29.8 ($123.72) - 2 wks (Par) -55.1%
 . . . 3607 / $8262
4. White House Down - $25.7 - 1 wk (Sony)
 . . . 3222 / $7976
5. Man of Steel - $20.82 ($248.66) - 3 wks (WB) -49.6%
 . . . 4131 / $5040
6. This Is the End - $8.7 ($74.68) - 3 wks (Sony) -34.5%
 . . . 2710 / $3210
7. Now You See Me - $5.5 ($104.68) - 5 wks (LG) -30.2%
 . . . 2564 / $2145
8. Fast & Furious 6 - $2.41 ($233.31) - 6 wks (U) -51.1%
 . . . 1550 / $1555
9. Star Trek Into Darkness - $2.04 ($220.5) - 7 wks (Par) -35.6%
 . . . 1035 / $1971
10. The Internship - $1.43 ($41.71) - 4 wks (Fox) -58.1%
 . . . 1008 / $1414
11. Iron Man 3 - $1.4 ($405.44) - 9 wks (BV) -36.6%
 . . . 540 / $2598
12. The Purge - $1.23 ($62.79) - 4 wks (U) -65.7%
 . . . 1122 / $1095

The Heat is Sandra Bullock's best opening of her already impressive career.

White House Down was not able to get the $30 million that Olympus Has Fallen got with the same plot.  The two films might have opened too close together.

Monsters University has grossed $300 million worldwide so far.

Despsicable Me 2 and The Lone Ranger open later this week.

Box Office Tracking - 6/25/13

Looking ahead at how upcoming movies are tracking.

Opens June 28
THE HEAT - $35 million, $140 total
WHITE HOUSE DOWN - $34 million, $110 total

Opens July 4
DESPICABLE ME 2 - $76 million, $353 total
THE LONE RANGER - $35 million, $135 total

Opens July 12
PACIFIC RIM - $55 million, $185 total
GROWN UPS 2 - $40 million, $128 million

Opens July 19
THE CONJURING - $23 million, $65 total
RED 2 - $22 million, $71 total
TURBO - $21 million, $80 total
R.I.P.D. - $12 million, $30 total

Opens July 26
THE WOLVERINE - $65 million, $160 total

Opens August 2
2 GUNS - $43 million, $127 total
THE SMURFS 2 - $26 million, $100 total

Opens August 9
ELYSIUM - $30 million, $90 total
WE'RE THE MILLERS - $22 million, $83 total
PERCY JACKSON 2 - $20 million, $77 total
PLANES - $17 million, $70 total

Opens August 16
KICK-ASS 2 - $25 million, $58 total
THE BUTLER - $17 million, $68 total
PARANOIA - $11 million, $32 total
JOBS - $10 million, $28 total

At one point, The Heat and White House Down were both flirting with a $40 million opener, but with the giant success of Monster U and World War Z, they've both settled into the mid-30's.

Disney has to be happy with The Lone Ranger numbers.  Domestically, no, that's not great, but Depp translates great overseas, and it will wind up being a profitable venture after all.  Despicable Me 2 already has its spinoff movie Minions in the works.

R.I.P.D. still has a lot of work to do to prove it's not a Men in Black ripoff (even if that's what it essentially is.)

The Wolverine anticipation is increasing.  It benefits greatly from being the only movie opening that week.