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FIRST IMPRESSIONS
A former Secret Service agent happens to be in the White House when it's taken over by North Korean terrorists, and must stop them with a little help from his contacts on the outside.
Does that sound like a rewrite of Die Hard to you? Well, surely no one would be that creatively bankrupt. To quote the Nostalgia Critic, they are when they frigging advertise it like that! Right on the front cover, it says "Die Hard in the White House". Subtext: "Throw out all originality, ye who enter here!"
Even my impression of it as a movie is tired and unoriginal. Like so many other modern action movies, it's not fun: it's boring. It's full of shaky cam that's not fun to watch: just disorientating and frustrating.
I also can't help noticing how grossly misogynistic the movie is. There's the death of the First Lady at the beginning, and the first hostage to be killed for a cheap shock death is a woman.
But my biggest problem with the movie, and the main contributor to its insufferable boredom factor: it takes itself way too seriously. When the terrorists strike, the gunning down of innocent civilians makes it feel too much like a real terrorist attack. There's just no escapism to it.
So, while it's at least bloodier and bolder than most action movies today, it unfortunately takes its authentic brutality too far. It's just all-around devoid of fun.
My rating: 30%
