The President of United States(Aaron Eckhart) and a group of high officials are held hostage in this action movie directed by Antoine Fuqua. When the White House is under siege, the duty to protect the president falls on the shoulders of a guilt-ridden ex-Secret Service agent Mike Banning(Gerard Butler). He has a desk job in the US Treasury overlooking the White House. The job and the office makes it convenient for him make a dash across the road to engage in the rescue operation. While kidnappers pushes US into brink of creating chaos in the world, the speaker of the house(Morgan Freeman) dons the cap of the President of United States of America during troubled times.
Die Hard in the White House. This will be the easiest way to relate to the movie. Antoine Fuqua creates the White House elsewhere and beautifully merge it with real thing using computer graphics to make it believable. He almost succeeds. The "almost" part because we know the carnage on the screen cannot be shot on real location and we are unable to suspend disbelief. As a regular moviegoer, we are easily able to overlook this fact. The visuals are stunning and the action choreography is good especially the scenes involving the takeover of the White House. But is the White House so poorly guarded? As a symbol of power, it is strongly etched into the brain that most of us will refuse to answer affirmative on the question.
Gerard Butler looks ill at ease in a stereotypical role of a fallen hero plagued with guilt. He gets to do action and also mouth one-liners. The one-liners generates chuckles not for the fun quotient instead for the stupidity quotient. They end up as forced instead of being natural and funny. Morgan Freeman and Aaron Eckhart are very comfortable in their roles although they have nothing much to contribute in this enterprise. The familiar faces of Angela Bassett and Robert Forster are wasted in a one-dimensional and predictable roles associated with this genre.
At the end of the day, the action and CG effects are good. The idea is to awe the audience. The movie is able to do in couple of sequences. You can watch it if you love this genre or if you do not have any other option.
Gerard Butler looks ill at ease in a stereotypical role of a fallen hero plagued with guilt. He gets to do action and also mouth one-liners. The one-liners generates chuckles not for the fun quotient instead for the stupidity quotient. They end up as forced instead of being natural and funny. Morgan Freeman and Aaron Eckhart are very comfortable in their roles although they have nothing much to contribute in this enterprise. The familiar faces of Angela Bassett and Robert Forster are wasted in a one-dimensional and predictable roles associated with this genre.
At the end of the day, the action and CG effects are good. The idea is to awe the audience. The movie is able to do in couple of sequences. You can watch it if you love this genre or if you do not have any other option.
Language: English
Genre: Action
Rating: **
For trailer, click here.
This movie deserves a bad rating coz there are some really good actors whov not done justice to their stature but the only person who upgraded was the korean guy who had done a really pathetic job in fast n furious...nuff said
ReplyDelete:) In fact, I didn't like him too. There is not much he had to do in the movie. I agree this is a bad movie. The action scenes make this a choice if you do not have anything else to do.
DeleteNot that I dislike good movies, but how long will we see American President at risk? :-).
ReplyDeletehe he he. Supreme commander at risk. That seems to add drama while stating the plot in one-line. But the movies do not add up to the drama or action. :)
DeleteI had wanted to watch this movie. The concept and the trailers seemed very good. But Die hard in the White House? That puts it straight on my DVD list.
ReplyDeleteJust a minor point...I think the term is to Suspend Belief, not disbelief. Maybe a typo, that's all! Great review.
Actually you did the right thing. It can be viewed on DVD. :)
DeleteIt is suspension of disbelief when it comes to movies and stories. Here we know it might be not real. But we are ready to let it go and hop in for the ride. :)
Check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suspension_of_disbelief
Oh...I stand corrected! Thanks! :-D
Deletehe he he. :) Luckily, this is all fiction.
ReplyDelete