White House Down (2013)

3/5

Stop me if you've heard this one before: a terrorist plot to overtake a building is thwarted by a lone off-duty officer behind enemy lines. No, it's not Die Hard. It's White House Down. If you want to put it in a positive light, you can call it an homage or a re-envisioning. If you want to hate on it, you can call it a blatant rip-off. In truth, it probably lies somewhere in between, and it might have worked if Emmerich were a superior director.

The casting is the best part of the movie. Channing Tatum nearly matches Bruce Willis in terms of his on-screen presence and comic timing. (I say this knowing full well that I'll be blasted as a blasphemer or a Tatum fanboy.) But Emmerich takes it one step further by adding Jamie Foxx into the mix, turning it into a buddy movie with an undeniable chemistry between the two leads. It seems like it has all the right ingredients for success, but it just doesn't have that special sauce. Emmerich directs the action just a little too over-the-top. Even I could not suspend my disbelief (and this coming from someone who recently saw Fast & Furious 6). The bad guys are unoriginal and bland, even before comparing them to Die Hard and the inimitable Alan Rickman. The movie sags at around the 2/3 mark and it never manages to pick up the pace after that (even with the unnecessarily ludicrous plot twist at the end). For those of you that don't know, this is basically the exact opposite of what you want in an action movie.

Whereas Die Hard was a classic, White House Down will quickly fade out of our collective memory. That's okay though. It served its purpose as a summer blockbuster popcorn flick. It's entertaining enough for an action movie and I don't feel like I wasted my money. Just don't let the similarities to a much better movie get your hopes up.

IMDb link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2334879/

Nashville (1975)

4.9/5

Robert Altman's Nashville is a truly astounding picture. The film follows a series of singers at various stages in their career, whose lives intertwine during a few days in Nashville. In all these people resides a common love for music, which makes the film feel like a living, breathing entity whose experiences are those of everyone involved. Thus, we see the aged singer (Gibson), who must give up his fans to the younger generation. We see the Lothario rock star looking for true love (Carradine), the son in his father's shadows who never got to sing (Peel), the backup singer waiting for her chance at fame (Black), and the radiant celebrity with her adoring fans (Blakley). Throughout these few days, a reporter from the BBC tries to interview the celebrities (Chaplin), a politico tries to promote his presidential candidate (Murphy), and a bizarre man with goofy glasses performs magic tricks and gives rides to random women on his motor-tricycle (Goldblum). And there are many more characters I don't have space to describe. While these 20 or so personages are introduced in the first 20 minutes, they make such an impression on you that you remember them for the entire movie.

The editing in this movie is pure magic. There are five or more storylines taking place at any one time, each one with overlapping dialogue and music. And yet there is never a confusing moment in the picture. You always know exactly where you are and exactly which people are involved. And it is hilarious and moving all at once, thanks to stellar writing and acting. However, the weakest aspects of this movie are its lighting and cinematography. Bland, washed-out colors and cheesy extreme zooms heavily date the film. Combined with a 2.5 hour running time (which probably could have been trimmed to 2 hours), the film fails to invite modern audiences in. But give it a chance, because this is a truly magnificent portrait of American culture.

IMDb link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0073440/