When you're brought to Washington D.C. for a movie called White House Down, and given the chance to step in front of a very fancy camera that right in front of the actual White House-- come on, are you going to say no? Sean and I weren't ready to do the traditional kind of "stand-up," usually reserved for TV interviews on the scene of whatever junket they're attending, but in classic laid-back Cinema Blend style, we used the very fancy cameras to record a video blog review of the movie we were there in Washington to see.
Our rule here is that, if you're sent to a faraway location to do interviews for a movie (D.C. is just a short train ride from New York, but bear with us), you don't get to write the review. That's partly why reviewing duties went to Eric, who called the movie "a bloated, predictable political thriller that far too often forgets about what should be the film’s real central focus: the hero." As you can tell, we disagree (and that was even before I sat in a room with Channing Tatum, we promise!) In classic Roland Emmerich fashion, it's a movie filled with some unintentional laughs, with a lot of over-the-top action sequences, on-the-nose lines of dialogue and plot twists that are just a little too crazy to believe (the central villain's motivation, to put it kindly, is a little crazy). But a lot of these are things that you absolutely want to see in a summer popcorn movie, and White House Down got more response from the audience than either of us have seen at all this summer. Remember how near the end of Man of Steel everyone in the theater was silent, agog at the destruction Zod and Superman were bringing to Metropolis? At the end of White House Down, everyone in the audience is out of their seats and cheering. It's basically like the end of Independence Day, except it's actually happening inside your theater.
For more on White House Down you can check back later to see Katey's interview with the cast, or catch up on Kristy's report from the set, where she was amazed by how quickly the movie got going and how Channing Tatum kept up his energy by dancing between takes. Kristy also wrote up a hilarious GIF review, representing all those cheering moviegoers with a few moving images of Despicable Me minions and Adam Scott dancing on Parks & Recreation. If you go see White House Down this weekend, your face might look exactly like that too.
And now that you've watched us yammer on, it's your turn to speak up! Vote in the poll below and let us know what you thought of the movie, and then jump into the comments to discuss the film with spoilers. This is also a great spot to share your favorite, most ridiculous lines of dialogue. My pick is "I choose the pen!" How about yours?
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