It wasn’t that long ago when National Association of Theater Owners stated that movie trailers were too long, showed off too much and they wanted to mandate Hollywood to cut ’em down. Frankly, when something like a 4-minute trailer for “White House Down” drops, showing what looks like every beat of the movie as well as every major setpiece, it’s hard not to see their point. But since we’re here, let’s dive into this thing anyway.
Are we looking at the most awesome dumb movie of the summer? Perhaps, because this new trailer practically goes out of its way to tell you, “It’s cool, you don’t have to think too much, hey explosions!” The plot is pretty straightforward. John McClane Cale goes for a job interview for the Secret Service at the White House and basically has the most insane practical exercise to convince everyone he can do the job. You see, some terrorists attack right about the same time as he’s trying to convince Maggie Gyllenhaal he’s good for the gig, and not only is he the only one for some reason who can head into action and save the President, he also has to save his daughter. EMOTIONS!
The amount of bad green screen here is almost shameful (the scenes of Dad Tatum driving around Not Chloe Moretz are particularly jarring), but goddamn if Roland Emmerich doesn’t know how to make things explode. Really, it seems like that’s all he cares about, since it never seems like the President is any real danger. He just becomes the nerdy sidekick to John Cale. In case you were wondering, what’s possibly next for Emmerich? A big sci-fi alien invasion movie called “Emergence” because, obviously.
“White House Down” gets inaugurated on June 28th.
