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Action offers ‘dumb fun’
You may never be
intellectually
WHITE HOUSE DOWN 131 minutes (M)
challenged by its
Starring: Channing Tatum, Jamie Foxx, Maggie contents but you will
Gyllenhaal, James Woods, Jason Clarke
never, ever be bored
By LEIGH PAATSCH
Channing Tatum is ready to pounce in White House Down.
THE hunt for a weapon of mass
distraction is over. There is some
magnificent trash to be treasured
in White House Down.
Action fans who want nothing
more than a rush, a laugh and a
lot of cartoonish collateral
damage should book their tickets
now.
The following scene alone
should seal the deal for anyone
who might doubt the deliriously
dim-witted charm of this movie:
There’s the President of the US
hanging out of the passenger
window of an armour-plated limo,
speeding across the lawns of the
White House. An SUV full of
mercenaries is in hot pursuit.
POTUS is also brandishing a
rocket-launcher. I repeat, POTUS
is packing serious heat.
As you should have gathered
by now, White House Down is not
a movie to be taken seriously. It is
a movie to be taken in by.
Resistance is useless.
Logistics are irrelevant. It’s all
about the bang-bang-bang, the
boom-boom-boom, and
Channing Tatum getting his Die
Hard groove on.
Tatum plays John Cale –
perhaps intentionally a character
whose name is just a few letters
shy of Die Hard’s John McClane.
This hulking young fellow is a
low-ranking Congressional
bodyguard who somehow finds
himself the sole protector of US
President James Sawyer (Jamie
Foxx) when the White House
comes under terrorist attack.
The bad guys have been handpicked for the job by forces
displeased with the Prez’s
handling of military operations in
the Middle East. Every single one
of them is wanted by either the
FBI, CIA or Interpol for earlier
works of mayhem (some actually
performed while on the US black
ops payroll).
Without revealing too much, I
can report the villains take over
the White House with ridiculous
ease. The ultimate emblem of
freedom and democracy
becomes a fortified stronghold
of evil.
On the roof, missiles are
primed and ready to repel.
Snipers are positioned
everywhere else to see off any
incursion from the ground.
Oh, and those who survived
the initial storming of the White
House are now being held
captive.
Among them is Cale’s 11-yearold daughter Emily (Joey King).
Performances in White House
Down are nothing to write home
about, nor complain about.
Tatum (Usain Bolt-like in his
ability to outrun unfriendly fire)
and Foxx (Barrack Obama-like
with a street-smart twist) have the
right chemistry.
Australian Jason Clarke does a
serviceable take on a screw-loose
soldier of fortune.
Maggie Gyllenhaal looks a little
out of place as the President’s
right-hand-woman, but just about
gets away with it.
There is no other apt way of
putting it: White House Down is
big, dumb fun. You may never be
intellectually challenged by its
contents but you will never, ever
be bored.
CROSSWORD
Choosing
Elders is
choosing
success
ACROSS
DARWIN 8946 0500
PALMERSTON 8931 5000
VIRGINIA 8983 3611
OZ-DAR455
1. Pianist in the movie 'Shine' (5,8)
10. Midnight Oil's 1982 single, 'Power
and the ...' (7)
11. NSW beer (7)
12. Native honeyeater, ... miner (4)
13. Tommy Tavita in 'Water Rats' (3,7)
15. Helen Reddy's hit song of 1972
(1,2,5)
16. 1976 bushranger movie starring
Dennis Hopper, '... ... Morgan' (3,3)
19. Dr Frank Campion in 'All Saints',
John ... (6)
21. Divinyls singer, ... Amphlett (8)
24. Clothes line invented in Adelaide in
1945 (5,5)
25. Cane toad's scientific name, ...
marinus (4)
27. WA term for Schoolies Week (7)
28. Bob Ellis' musical about a US-born
politician, 'The Legend of King ...' (7)
29. Dubbo's zoo (7,6)
DOWN
2. Ex-miner, one of the 'Brushmen of the
Bush', Jack ... (7)
3. TV chef, ... Hewitson (4)
4. John O'Brien's poem, 'We'll all be
rooned, said ...' (8)
5. The Wimmera's ... Desert National
Park (6)
6. ABC 'Gardening Australia' host, Costa
... (10)
7. National rural newspaper (3,4)
8. Slim Dusty song written by Gordon
Parsons, '... ... ... No Beer' (1,3,4)
9. 'Wedding Crashers' star, ... Fisher (4)
14. 'The Devil's Advocate' author (6,4)
17. Street directory company, UBD ... (8)
18. '60s surf dance (3,5)
20. Rowena ..., Pat the Rat in 'Sons &
Daughters' (7)
22. PM at the start of the Great
Depression (7)
23. Prudish killjoy (slang) (6)
24. Bushranger shot dead in 1865, Ben
... (4)
26. 'Chopper' and 'Troy' star, Eric ... (4)
LAST WEEKS SOLUTION
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SEE NEXT WEEK’S PAPER FOR THIS WEEK’S SOLUTION
WEDNESDAY, September 18, 2013. Sun Newspapers
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