This horror movie really isn't doing anything new or special but it still manages to work out as a great and effective one, simply by just being a mostly old fashioned one.

This movie definitely feels like old school horror. Back from when it wasn't just another simple cash grab but directors still put some effort into their movies and tried to be creative, without constantly having to fall back on well known horror clichés and other formulaic ingredients.

It actually manages to feel like a very original genre move, even though in its core this still is a very formulaic haunted house genre movie with its story and settings. It never really feels like one though, which is really mostly due to James Wan's effective directing approach. It's a classy and good looking movie, made with an eye for detail and not as a standard horror movie that basically only builds up toward its next scare moment and is also constantly busy trying to scare you. This movie feels more subtle and humble with is approach. Instead of trying to be scary it simply is trying to tell a story instead, that just happens to be a scary one. Not that it makes this movie a more realistic one but it does make it a more effective as well as interesting to follow one.

It's also a movie with a great atmosphere to it. It definitely helps that this movie is set in 1971, as opposed to modern times. It makes the movie a more gritty and dark looking one already, without ever feeling or looking outdated with anything by the way.


The movie manages to feel like a genuinely creepy one, due to its atmosphere and its great and subtle build up to things. It handles all of the mystery and tension well and is only revealing small snippets of new information, one at a time, spread over the movie. It's never revealing too much but at the same time still enough to keep things going and interesting to watch, at all times.

This also a movie that works out a tad bit better than usual due to its characters. They are some well developed and played characters and it besides is good and refreshing to see two different couples being equally important and featured in the movie. It brings some more variety to the table and basically makes this a movie with two stories for the price of one in it.

A great and original feeling genre movie, that besides is being a very effective one with all of its horror.

7/10

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Paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren work to help a family terrorized by a dark presence in their farmhouse. Forced to confront a powerful entity, the Warrens find themselves caught in the most terrifying case of their lives. From: IMDb.com

If "Olympus Has Fallen" was "Die Hard" set in the White House, than "White House Down" is like "Die Hard: With a Vengeance" set in the White House!

To start things off, yes, I definitely liked this movie better than "Olympus Has Fallen". Both movies of course feature a similar type of plot and got released around the same time, so it's hard not to compare the two of them. Even though this is an ever far more silly movie, it at the same time is also a far more entertaining one. It's dumber, it's way more overblown but that's what makes it better and more entertaining one to watch! I basically don't remember a thing about "Olympus Has Fallen" really but I'm sure I'm going to remember some of the silly but spectacular action moments that were in this movie, in months from now!

I was basically entertained all throughout by this movie. Of course it's not a perfect one and of course I noticed all of its flaws and inconsistencies as well but all of this simply matters less, once a movie still manages to entertain me.

It actually is Roland Emmerich's best movie in years! I used to like all of his movies, till he started doing mediocre- and just plain bad ones. With this movie he truly returns to form and it besides shows that I can be important for an action movie to have an experienced and seasoned director at the helm, who is confident and knows what he is doing.

It's also always good to see Channing Tatum continue to grown and improve as an actor. He definitely is a great and charismatic actor for these type of movies. He's really in his element and handles all of the action well, while at the same time also managing to play a likable protagonist.

But I have to say though; there are large portions of the movie in which neither Channing Tatum or Jamie Foxx plays much of a role. Sometimes they disappear out of the movie and story completely, which was a bit of an odd thing to note. Hard to say what was the cause of all of this. Maybe there were too many other characters, with each their own thing going on. Or perhaps the movie went through 1 or 2 too many rewrites before- or during production. The movie is filled with stuff like this, which makes it all the more obvious this is a far from perfect genre flick.

Even though it's definitely a good enough- and fun enough movie, it at the same time still feels like wasted potential as well. There is so much more they could have done with its story. So much more they could have done with some of its characters but the movie mostly plays things safe and by the numbers. It does make the movie a tad bit predictable at parts and just a bit too simplistic overall. But oh well, at least it handles all of its formulaic and predictable elements very well, so it isn't too much of a problem.

Thing that did still bother me were its special effects. Seriously, here we have a $150.000.000 movie, with special effects that however look sub-par, at best. Simply not acceptable for a movie of this sort and caliber!

And to complain about one more thing; was there really a need for this movie to be over 2 hours long? It definitely felt too long and it caused to movie to be a bit of a needlessly slow- and stretched out one at times.

But despite of all of its obvious flaws and ludicrous story elements, I simply had fun with this movie and enjoyed watching it, from start to finish.

7/10

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Paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren work to help a family terrorized by a dark presence in their farmhouse. Forced to confront a powerful entity, the Warrens find themselves caught in the most terrifying case of their lives. From: IMDb.com

Directed by: James Wan

Starring: Vera Farmiga, Lili Taylor, Ron Livingston and others

Current release date: July 19, 2013

While on a tour of the White House with his young daughter, a Capitol policeman springs into action to save his child and protect the president from a heavily armed group of paramilitary invaders. From: IMDb.com

Paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren work to help a family terrorized by a dark presence in their farmhouse. Forced to confront a powerful entity, the Warrens find themselves caught in the most terrifying case of their lives. From: IMDb.com

While on a tour of the White House with his young daughter, a Capitol policeman springs into action to save his child and protect the president from a heavily armed group of paramilitary invaders. From: IMDb.com

While on a tour of the White House with his young daughter, a Capitol policeman springs into action to save his child and protect the president from a heavily armed group of paramilitary invaders. From: IMDb.com

Directed by: Roland Emmerich

Starring: Channing Tatum, Jamie Foxx, Maggie Gyllenhaal and others

Current release date: June 28, 2013

While on a tour of the White House with his young daughter, a Capitol policeman springs into action to save his child and protect the president from a heavily armed group of paramilitary invaders. From: IMDb.com

While on a tour of the White House with his young daughter, a Capitol policeman springs into action to save his child and protect the president from a heavily armed group of paramilitary invaders. From: IMDb.com

Directed by: Roland Emmerich

Starring: Channing Tatum, Jamie Foxx, Maggie Gyllenhaal and others

Current release date: June 28, 2013

A family encounters spirits living among them in their New England farmhouse. From: IMDb.com

Directed by: James Wan

Starring: Patrick Wilson, Vera Farmiga, Ron Livingston and others

Current release date: July 19, 2013

While on a tour of the White House with his young daughter, a police officer (Channing Tatum) springs into action to protect his child and the president (Jamie Foxx) from a heavily armed group of paramilitary invaders. From: IMDb.com

Directed by: Roland Emmerich

Starring: Channing Tatum, Jamie Foxx, Maggie Gyllenhaal and others

Current release date: June 28, 2013

This probably was one of the more anticipated movies of 2013 because of its concept and director involved but does it also deliver? I would have to say no to that.

The movie is stuck somewhere between being a colorful fantasy movie for kids and an adult fairytale. It never really manages to find a good balance between its entertainment and its more dark and serious aspects. Not just with its story but also with its characters. All of the sidekicks are basically, childish, comical characters, of which most are CG animated as well. The 'human' characters are still the movie its main focus but it's just too bad that none of their story arcs ever convinces well enough.

Why would Oz want to be king of Oz instead of trying to get back to the real world? Why would Oz need a king in the first place? It's not like the land is in war or chaos. And why would the witches suddenly try to take control of Oz, once an adversary drops out of the air? They had plenty of time and opportunity before that, you would think. It are questions like this that the movie never answers. It doesn't handle its story well- or convincing enough and it's focusing on the wrong things at times.

It for instance also bothered me how this movie can basically more be seen as a romantic movie, with an underwhelming love-triangle kind of romance in it, as opposed to an entertaining, marveling, adventurous epic, set in a strange world, filled with fantasy objects and characters. Nothing against romance in movies of course (well, most of the time it doesn't bother me) but it just feels odd that it's the story its main focus, for most of the time. The main focus should have been on its adventure and entertaining aspects but the movie instead prefers to have other distractions to it, that divert from the movie its entertainment. I mean, why bother to spend $200,000,000 on sets and special effects, if you are not going to use it well and focus on other things instead. Things that you basically could have done for free as well!

OK, I'm of course somewhat exaggerating but point remains that the movie isn't half as adventurous and entertaining you would expect and hope for. It's the foremost reason why the movie feels like a slight disappointment.

It really reminded me off Tim Burton's "Alice in Wonderland", not just visually but also story-wise. It besides suffered from most of the same problems; it doesn't really ever uses its fantasy aspects in a very creative, impressive or entertaining way. The story and character motivations are too simplistic and shallow. Both movies attempt to be more serious and adult type of fairy tales but without ever pulling you in to its fantasy world, or without making you feel involved with any of the characters, that are in it. Both also really don't have a clear- or strong enough main conflict in it. It lets stuff just happen and expects its audience to simply go along with it. Well, I'm just not falling for that!

Perhaps the movie would had been better and more involving to watch for me, if it had a better main characters in it. I'm really not putting any of the blame on James Franco for this but his character isn't always written in the most sympathetic (after all, he's a con man) way and as mentioned earlier, there isn't really a good enough character motivation for his Oz character in this. The one moment he want to be king, the other he tries to get out from under it. The one moment he sympathizes with some of the movie its character, the other he is just being selfish. The story keeps doing stuff like this with his character, all throughout, making him just not the ultimate hero or right type of protagonist for this type of movie. He should have been a bigger anti-hero really. It would at least made him a more likable character and his story arch probably a more involving and convincing one as well.

But really, the same can be said for basically every character and actor in this. It's hard to say whether or not most of them are miscast in their roles, or if all the blame could be put on the movie its writing instead. I'm still leaning more toward the latter, knowing how great most of the actors in this normally are, in other movies.

A too shallow and not involving enough fantasy experience, that besides is lacking some good enough entertainment in it.

5/10

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A 16-year-old girl takes her parents hostage after they miss her big jump-roping competition. From: IMDb.com

Directed by: Benjamin Epps

Starring: Kristin Chenoweth, Matthew Modine, Olesya Rulin and others

Current release date: March 29, 2013

How the Wizard arrived in Oz and became the ruler. A prequel to The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. From: IMDb.com

Directed by: Sam Raimi

Starring: James Franco, Michelle Williams, Rachel Weisz and others

Current release date: March 8, 2013