Independence Day special!!! IHAO on ... White House Down - READER REQUEST -

Happy day of celebrating being from a country that is pretty ok in some areas and pretty not ok in others and overall is perfectly fine and mostly just as good as a bunch of other countries but for different reasons!!!  What?  Oh, you want me to be more 'MERICA about this?  Eh, I dunno.  I'm going to need some help.

Nope this isn't going to work, I don't even like 30 Rock.  Plus, it is the exact opposite of how I feel about ... everything, really.  Thinking is what makes use great, and unique.  Having opinions, at least well informed or believed ones, that is what makes entertainment and art so great.  Also, I'm getting super preachy.  Let's keep looking for MERICA gifs.

Hmmm ... bad editing and film quality, holding big guns and shooting them, wearing an eagle helmet, wearing glasses, a whole bunch of stars and stripes ... this is close.  It tries too hard though.  I just don't get the weepy happies about MERICA I need.

Ok, that is an appropriate gif for exactly what I said.  But I feel like I could get something a lot more MERICAN than this, something that hits home for me a lot more ...

Hulk Hogan playing a guitar solo on a Star-Spangled electric guitar with an American flag background.  Yeah, this is what I'm looking for!  I'm starting to feel it!  I can feel it!  Now, I can be done with this entirely arbitrary extra and superfluous foolin' around.  I have a reader request to do!  And it is obvious and appropriate for this day!

Requested by Melanie Jessel

White House Down, an action movie that Cracked claimed was the perfect Die Hard sequel instead of the Die Hard sequel we got in 2013.  That is a great video I linked to, by the way.  It is made by the Roland Emmerich, who made Independence Day, Stargate ... 2012, Day After Tomorrow, Godzilla with Broderick, 10,000 BC, Anonymous ... ok, so the record hasn't been very good for a long time.  And ... the reviews aren't good either.  But ...

But I thought it was great.  Really great.  Super great even.  It is very much a Die Hard send-up that is surprisingly powerful and totally overshadowed by its now-joke of a director and the fact it came out at the same time as another film of the same style.  But damn it, it was great!  And lemme tell you why.

1) Channing Tatum is wonderful as a leading hero.  I never thought he could be, but he was humorous, believable, and excellent at action.

2) Jamie Foxx is fantastic as not-quite-Obama, playing a great president/sidekick with a lot of pathos and a reason to love him beyond just his status.

3) The plot is nicely convoluted, but figure-out-able, making it a thrilling ride from beginning to end.

4) Every other character is interesting, nuanced, and believable.  

5) The action is awesome, and the scope is pretty mindblowing.  

This film really is Die Hard meets Independence Day.  I loved it.  My wife loved it.  My roommate loved it, and he is not an action-movie-big-blockbuster type.  And yet, Roeper called it the worst film of 2013.  The worst film of last year.  Think about that.  Last year, Movie 43, The Last Exorcism Part II, Scary Movie 5, World War Z, the Lone Ranger, and A Good Day to Die Hard all came out!  And A Good Day to Die Hard is atrocious.  Absolutely atrocious.

If you get the ability, I highly suggest you find a way to watch White House Down this Independence Day.  I really cannot fathom anyone thinking this movie was anywhere near the worst film of last year, or even a bad film.  I personally found it immaculate, from pacing to cinematography to acting to scripting to the soundtrack.  The only piece of negative anything to say is that the necessary CGI to film helicopters flying around the White House, or the White House at all, sometimes looks fake.  Sometimes.  And it is never enough to take me out of the film.  

Grade: A++

Happy July the 4th.  I will see you all Monday!