Escape to the Movies: White House Down

[maswell]

As poor a fit as Captain Planet is for the big screen, I can't NOT be behind it. It was my favorite show as a kid. Here's hoping it's decent.

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

I usually avoid seeing Emmerich's shitty movies in the theater, but this is kind of a love letter to Obama who's also wielding a fuckin' RPG in the movie so I'm torn.

Fuck it. It's Emmerich. I'll just wait for the DVD and maybe rent it.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Seems like just another Amerikanata BS propaganda film comisisoned by the US equivalent of Herr Goebbels. If you ask me. Not that anybody did. But hey, there's a 'Post Reply' button.

 

[BehattedWanderer]

I didn't want to see either this or Olympus has Fallen, but I might see this, now. Not right now, but maybe when it's out to rent it for a night. I mean, I've only got so much leisure money to blow on summer blockbusters, and Pacific Rim and Elysium are both due out soon, and I still need to see This Is The End, so I'll be passing on this for now, but nice to know it's in the same serious-but-silly vein as its predecessors.

 

[Tono Makt]

History is going to deem the current president as a weak one considering how little control Hollywood and the rest of the media is presenting him as having, just think about the one in this movie, it isn't easy overlooking so many groups plotting an armed insurrection, not unless the heads of NSA, FBI and CIA are in on it, and if they are you've really fucked up as president.

I'm pretty sure that future historians are going to discount most of the available news media starting from June 1, 1980 and onward until infinity. (Come to think of it, future historians may actually push that back to January 1, 1041 just to be safe.) I'm also fairly certain that future historians, like modern historians, recently dead historians and died-a-long-time-ago historians, are going to discount most of Hollywood's portrayals of real figures starting from June 15, 1878, and onward until infinity squared.

(This also applies to every President, Vice President, Prime Minister, cult leader, monarch, civil rights leader, sex tape releasing socialite, athlete, sports entertainer, singer, writer, producer, actor, internet meme, all women named Dave, inventors, twits and anyone who may or may not have a pulse.)

 

[flaviok79]

Bob, I was gonna pass this one, but since you liked it so much, I'm gonna take the misses tonight on a movie date.

 

[TheYellowCellPhone]

...

...

I want to fucking see this movie right now. Bob has sold this movie to me with his credit to the ridiculousness and bluntness of the movie, and this is something I have to freaking watch.

 

[Tono Makt]

Why do I get the feeling that Bob only likes this movie because Rolland Emmerich was at the helm? And that if anyone else, Micheal Bay or Owe Boll for example, Bob would have mercilessly torn it to shreds for the exact same reasons that he was praising it?

Eh. I don't think so, simply because neither Uwe Boll nor Michael Bay would be so obviously Liberal. Michael Bay would probably remove any and all politics from the movie and Uwe Boll would have the President fly Air Force 1 in loop-de-loops through the London Eye, except wouldn't have the budget left for proper CGI and would use a ferris wheel at Coney Island and forget to take down any American flags flying in camera range.

Now, if Boll or Bay made this EXACT same movie, Bob might actually start with a conspiracy theory that they actually didn't have anything to do with it, and all evidence to the contrary might not change his opinion in the slightest. His criticisms might tend toward "Who put this in there? Who really directed this scene? The way it's framed I'd say it is someone who is influenced by Eastwood, but so far my sources haven't been able to pull up anyone but Boll/Bay. Hollywood has lost its collective mind if they think that they can pass this movie off as a Boll/Bay movie!"

 

[RatherDashing89]

You say it's not afraid to be about something, but what it's about is just pumping up the propaganda machine and continuing to pander to the us/them ideology that is destroying this country. To wit, Obama is not interested in peace with Iran, has put more troops into combat overseas than President Bush, is SUPPORTING a bigger and more dangerous spying scandal than Richard Nixon that has all the same qualities of McCarthyism (replacing communism with terrorist as the excuse for doing it), and has not only refused to prosecute the banks that have caused the economic problems in this country, but systematically put into place laws that further protect them from legal repercussions and allow them to continue the exploitation of the American people. If it were still Bush in office, most of the media would be up in arms about it, calling for his resignation and you'd be right along with them in the chants. But because Obama's a democrat, the media will make any excuse they can to keep from being seen as the monster he is (unless you're Fox News, but Fox is already a joke to most of the American public, so their opinion doesn't count).

I don't care if it's ballsy for Emerich to make this film about something. It would be equally ballsy for someone to make a film in which a a good-hearted, but maligned Republican president is attacked by unapologetically evil homosexual pro-abortion Muslim radicals.

It would also be equally bullshit.

This right here, the movie is presenting a president as far removed from the real one as possible

A really bland protagonist

Villains with no logical motivation or rational actions

A message as close to the current mainstream ideology as possible

There's nothing edgy about this, no Roland Emmerich movie has ever been either edgy or even thought inducing, he makes what he does best, special effect summer blockbusters pandering to the Hollywood view

No, no, but the left is the persecuted minority in America! Fox News is the only news channel on TV! Mindset Hollywood blockbusters about giant robots are actually conservative propaganda despite featuring a direct caricature mocking President Bush! It takes a truly bold person to dare making a movie criticizing conservatives, who clearly have an iron grip on the entertainment industry.

 

[Alar]

I really do want to see a fun, awesome, over-the-top action movie right about now. Thanks for the recommendation, Bob.

 

[abell]

Yea, I don't think this is particularly novel. There's been a string of action movies with the right/republicans as the villains for the past decade. Some are really obvious (Shooter, Syriana, etc.) and some less so, (Bourne might actually have been the first of the new wave), but, it's nothing new. I'm just not sure why the political quality is a selling point here. Is the left really interested in wishfulfillment of killing a bunch of Republicans?

 

[SNCommand]

Yea, I don't think this is particularly novel. There's been a string of action movies with the right/republicans as the villains for the past decade. Some are really obvious (Shooter, Syriana, etc.) and some less so, (Bourne might actually have been the first of the new wave), but, it's nothing new. I'm just not sure why the political quality is a selling point here. Is the left really interested in wishfulfillment of killing a bunch of Republicans?

You would be surprised at what turns up in my facebook feed, apparently any sympathy towards the 2nd Amendment, pro-life or anti-redistribution means you deserve and should die

I'm not saying Republican causes are right, but people are throwing about the execute argument a bit too much to my liking these days

 

[Mr. Omega]

I would think Bob is going easy on this one because it lines up with his politics, but just about every other review of this I've seen says the same thing. Well shot action, good looking explosions, Tatum and Foxx work well together, a plot that's absurd to the point of hilarity, so on and so forth. I'll probably wait for it to show up on Netflix.

Also, if Obama shot a rocket launcher out of a limo, I'd forgive just about everything he's done. [sub][sub][sub]Not really, but still, it'd be cool...[/sub][/sub][/sub]

 

[ShadowGandalf01]

Hmm, I thought this was gonna be another Olympus Has Fallen (which I saw bits of... (I work at the cinema) and it didn't look great), but it sounds like this is a bit more mindless fun. I might actually watch it.

 

[Hammartroll]

You say it's not afraid to be about something, but what it's about is just pumping up the propaganda machine and continuing to pander to the us/them ideology that is destroying this country. To wit, Obama is not interested in peace with Iran, has put more troops into combat overseas than President Bush, is SUPPORTING a bigger and more dangerous spying scandal than Richard Nixon that has all the same qualities of McCarthyism (replacing communism with terrorist as the excuse for doing it), and has not only refused to prosecute the banks that have caused the economic problems in this country, but systematically put into place laws that further protect them from legal repercussions and allow them to continue the exploitation of the American people. If it were still Bush in office, most of the media would be up in arms about it, calling for his resignation and you'd be right along with them in the chants. But because Obama's a democrat, the media will make any excuse they can to keep from being seen as the monster he is (unless you're Fox News, but Fox is already a joke to most of the American public, so their opinion doesn't count).

I don't care if it's ballsy for Emerich to make this film about something. It would be equally ballsy for someone to make a film in which a a good-hearted, but maligned Republican president is attacked by unapologetically evil homosexual pro-abortion Muslim radicals.

It would also be equally bullshit.

Agreed, for people who concern themselves with politics beyond putting false (and at this point in his administration, ignorant) hope in a figure head this movie comes off as intellectually insulting, like if you put Fox News in movie form and then made it appeal to the left wing. I guess it's cathartic but if you're looking for this kind of catharsis then you've been lying to yourself about this administration. And I hate seeing my fellow Americans being vilified the way this movie does, hardly a message of unification for a movie which apparently cites Abraham Lincoln as an idol. Let's just make all the evil right wing caricatures the scapegoat and pretend Obama isn't guilty of anything.

Also, what's with Bob using the word "unironically" around the military industrial complex? Like it doesn't exist?

edit- also, even though I've never seen it, I remember him citing An American Carol as an example of pandering (to the right), yet he doesn't want to classify this movie as pandering? Instead he classifies this film as a wish fulfillment and says it's good for being that, but imagine he'd have nothing but vitriol if he reviewed something similar pandering to the right.

 

[abell]

You would be surprised at what turns up in my facebook feed, apparently any sympathy towards the 2nd Amendment, pro-life or anti-redistribution means you deserve and should die

I'm not saying Republican causes are right, but people are throwing about the execute argument a bit too much to my liking these days

Yea, I guess I defriended that group a while ago. I have little patience for that sort of demagoguery. Also,whenever I see that sort of revolutionary speech from the left, (NRA VP should be shot, Occupy, etc), I always wonder about the practical quality of how that's going to happen. Demographically speaking, the Right in this country is significantly (though not exclusively) better armed and trained and the military/police forces are disproportionately conservative as well. Basic arithmetic seems to not be on their side re violent insurrection. Which might be why they need these sorts of fantasies where Barack Obama fires rocket launchers. There just seems to be way too much cognitive dissonance going on.

 

[SNCommand]

Yea, I guess I defriended that group a while ago. I have little patience for that sort of demagoguery. Also,whenever I see that sort of revolutionary speech from the left, (NRA VP should be shot, Occupy, etc), I always wonder about the practical quality of how that's going to happen. Demographically speaking, the Right in this country is significantly (though not exclusively) better armed and trained and the military/police forces are disproportionately conservative as well. Basic arithmetic seems to not be on their side re violent insurrection. Which might be why they need these sorts of fantasies where Barack Obama fires rocket launchers. There just seems to be way too much cognitive dissonance going on.

There's been movies and series about the subject of armed revolutions though, some have rather lackluster portrayal like Nolan's Dark Knight Rises, but Legend of Korra [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZoDAeezq08] had a very good portrayal, kinda strange thought that one of the most right wing things to come out of Hollywood these days is a animated show on nickelodeon, to be fair the Equalists were portrayed with a bit of sympathy, but they were still very much the villains

 

[abell]

There's been movies and series about the subject of armed revolutions though, some have rather lackluster portrayal like Nolan's Dark Knight Rises, but Legend of Korra [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZoDAeezq08] had a very good portrayal, kinda strange thought that one of the most right wing things to come out of Hollywood these days is a animated show on nickelodeon, to be fair the Equalists were portrayed with a bit of sympathy, but they were still very much the villains

Heh, you know I had a really fun time with Legend of Korra and the Equalists. Huh, some people might be pissed that they live with a bunch superpowered assholes who can terrorize them however they want? That seems reasonable, I'm pro chi blocking/zappy hands. Wait, now they want to depower everybody? No, you see, now you're being dicks. And you're upset about people being dicks, that was the point from the beginning. And now the superpowered government is cracking down on chi blockers because they're dens of anti-super powered people. Or just because they can actually defend themselves? Harrblegarblegarble. It's all so deliciously annoying and plausible, layers and layers of people doing dumb things, or having good ideas but missing and becoming dicks. Also, I think Penny Arcade [http://penny-arcade.com/comic/2012/06/25] got it right.

 

[SNCommand]

Heh, you know I had a really fun time with Legend of Korra and the Equalists. Huh, some people might be pissed that they live with a bunch superpowered assholes who can terrorize them however they want? That seems reasonable, I'm pro chi blocking/zappy hands. Wait, now they want to depower everybody? No, you see, now you're being dicks. And you're upset about people being dicks, that was the point from the beginning. And now the superpowered government is cracking down on chi blockers because they're dens of anti-super powered people. Or just because they can actually defend themselves? Harrblegarblegarble. It's all so deliciously annoying and plausible, layers and layers of people doing dumb things, or having good ideas but missing and becoming dicks. Also, I think Penny Arcade [http://penny-arcade.com/comic/2012/06/25] got it right.

Thanks for the Penny Arcade strip, personally I thought the whole love triangle was kinda awkward, but to be fair I have seen it done much much worse, it's actually kinda human of them