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And while I’m happy to have both movies, I know which one I’d rather rewatch at the end of the day.Should the President fail in his duties, the line of succession dictates that the Vice President should take up the reins of the nation. Either way, in a contest between two similar plots, this represents one of the few times where “going weird with it” ended up being the right play. Maybe it had something to do with the very real American anger that gives Donald Trump his popularity today. Perhaps it was a matter of coming out first. Something about its nasty anger connected with audiences in a way White House Down did not.
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Olympus has Fallen beats the shit out of you until you’re willing to believe whatever it says.Īmazingly, between these two films, Olympus has Fallen was the one to get a sequel. White House Down’s siege of the White House walks you gently to the edge of your own disbelief. While White House Down keeps its cute kid in play from beginning to end, Olympus has Fallen is like “Fuck this brat” and ditches its kid as soon as it possibly can. But it’s not a typical Hollywood blockbuster, either. On the other hand, here’s this psychotic other film in which the Washington Monument gleefully crushes innocent tourists while high-caliber machine guns mow down tons of people and government officials are executed via pointblank headshots on TV. White House Down offers pretty much everything a big blockbuster action film needs. It’s good! But that’s also part of the problem.
White house down and olympus has fallen full#
We have a bevy of recognizable support players popping up all over the place, a cute kid, a jokey side-character (the tour guide) whose story comes full circle, and a very typical model of Hollywood storytelling. For the most part, the film is an entertainment machine, made by a guy who knows what he’s doing. Despite its bloated running time (137 minutes!), most of the film really books, never slowing down until Channing Tatum and Jamie Foxx part ways near the third act (after which it does kind of turn into a slog).
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White House Down features a laundry list of wonderful things found lacking in Olympus has Fallen: likable heroes, bright colors, a variety of villains, a general inclusive charisma. By almost any measurement that doesn’t include headstabs, curse words, or racism, Roland Emmerich’s White House Down is the better movie. In short, Olympus has Fallen is not a good film, just a fucking crazy one. Its villains murder so many hostages that it’s debatable whether the good guys even win at all. Its president is a heroic caricature who openly gives the bad guys everything they need to succeed. Its lead is a lumpy bag of potatoes who can hardly contain his troubling joy for killing. It’s an ugly, xenophobic throwback to a type of ‘80s action film that only really exists in our imaginations. I’ve been cheerleading the latter since it came out. Anyone who knows me can probably assume where I vote in any contest between White House Down and Olympus has Fallen, 2013's pair of White House Siege movies.