Channing Tatum, Jamie Foxx, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Richard Jenkins, James Woods, Jason Clarke
Roland Emmerich
Twenty-five years ago, Sandra Boynton wrote a greeting card where a cat tells his or her paramour, “What I lack in finesse, I make up with raw enthusiasm.” It’s a cute sentiment, and it also serves as a shockingly good description of director Roland Emmerich’s filmography (“2012,” “The Day After Tomorrow,” “Independence Day”). His movies are not what one would call subtle, but they’re infused with a relentlessness that carries them through even the darkest plot hole and corniest joke.
None of Emmerich’s movies, though, works as hard as “White House Down.” This is a script that feels like it was born from a weekend binge session of caffeine and ‘90s-era Jerry Bruckheimer movies, capped off with about 30 minutes of Wikipedia searches on the layout of the White House and the succession of the chain of command during wartime. And yet, somehow, it (mostly) rises above its shortcomings to deliver an entertaining shoot ‘em up. Channing Tatum should get the lion’s share of the credit for this, thanks to his effortless charm, but it doesn’t hurt that he and Jamie Foxx have good chemistry as well.
Former soldier John Cale (Tatum) is trying to land a job with the Secret Service, and he brings his estranged political junkie daughter Emily (Joey King, who looks like the little sister of Alia Shawkat) with him to his interview at the White House in the hopes of buttering her up. While they are there, a group of goons infiltrates the grounds and dispatches with White House security rather quickly. John and Emily were apart when the attack takes place, and as John looks for Emily, he winds up locating and rescuing President Sawyer (Foxx), though both are still trapped inside the White House. Cale and Sawyer try to sort out why the siege is happening and who could be responsible, but more importantly for Cale, he needs to find Emily.
Next week, the ever-awesome Shout Factory is going to be releasing The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis: The Complete Series. While this is an announcement which will be greeted by shrugs and blank stares from just about anyone under the age of 30—oh, hell, we could practically make it 40 or 50 and still not be too far off base—I’ve been revisiting the adventures of Dobie (Dwayne Hickman) and his beatnik buddy Maynard G. Krebs (a pre-“Gilligan’s Island” Bob Denver), and the more I delve into the series, the more I realize just how well it holds up. Heck, many of its elements continue to be staples of teen-themed comedies to this day!
First of all, look at these two gentlemen here. Have you ever seen a picture that so desperately screamed to be captioned “Freak and Geek”?
Every Tuesday, I review the newest Blu-ray releases and let you know whether they’re worth buying, renting or skipping, along with a breakdown of the included extras. If you see something you like, click on the cover art to purchase the Blu-ray from Amazon, and be sure to share each week’s column on Facebook and Twitter with your friends.
“The Incredible Burt Wonderstone”
WHAT: Burt Wonderstone (Steve Carrel) and Anton Marvelton (Steve Buscemi) used to be the hottest act on the Vegas Strip, but in recent years, they’ve been overshadowed by a self-mutilating street magician named Steve Gray (Jim Carrey). When the duo parts ways following a failed attempt to update their show, they must put aside their differences and compete against Gray for the chance to earn the headlining spot at their former employer’s brand new hotel.
WHY: The trailer for “The Incredible Burt Wonderstone” had disaster written all over it, but much to my surprise, I actually enjoyed the film quite a bit. The movie is laugh-out-loud funny at times, and there’s not a single weak link in the cast. Steve Carell channels his inner Will Ferrell as the conceited magician, while Jim Carrey proves that he’s still got it as the Criss Angel-like villain. Even Steve Buscemi, Olivia Wilde, Alan Arkin and James Gandolfini (in one of his final film roles) get in on the laughs, and that’s mostly to the credit of Jonathan M. Goldstein and John Francis Daly’s amusing screenplay. Though it may seem like the movie is just making fun of magicians at their expense, it has a healthy respect for its subject matter (David Copperfield even served as a special consultant) and does a better job of showcasing the art of magic than last month’s “Now You See Me.”
EXTRAS: In addition to nearly 30 minutes of deleted scenes and alternate takes, there’s also a short magic featurette with Copperfield, footage from Steve Gray’s faux video series “The Best of the Brain Rapist” and a gag reel.
FINAL VERDICT: RENT
“The Call”
WHAT: Feeling partially responsible for the kidnapping and subsequent death of a teenage girl, 911 dispatcher Jordan Turner (Halle Berry) takes a leave of absence, eventually returning six months later in a new position as a training supervisor. But when a fellow operator receives a distress call from teenager Casey Wilson (Abigail Breslin) after she’s kidnapped and locked in the trunk of a car, Jordan jumps back into the hot seat, only to discover that the abductor is the same man from the previous incident.
WHY: The WWE logo is a strange thing to see before any movie, but especially one that stars a former Oscar winner like Halle Berry. Sadly, just when it looks like “The Call” is going to deliver a fresh take on the kidnapping genre, it switches gears and becomes another run-of-the-mill thriller better suited for VOD than the big screen. Though it’s hard to pinpoint exactly where the film starts to go downhill, you won’t find a more unintentionally funny scene this year than the introduction of the villain – an over-the-top Norman Bates clone who’s first seen listening to Taco’s synth-pop cover of Puttin’ on the Ritz.” It’s disappointing to see Brad Anderson’s once-promising career relegated to low-rent fodder like this, because while the director and his two stars try their best to elevate the material, their effort only goes so far before the movie crumbles into a clichéd mess.
EXTRAS: The bonus material features a little bit of everything, including deleted scenes, an alternate ending, the audition tape for actor Michael Eklund, a tour of the film’s two main sets, and a stunt featurette on the gas station sequence.
There’s a lot to be said about “XCOM: Enemy Unknown” for iOS, but none of it can be said without eventually mentioning the price.
Yes, “XCOM” is a $20 gaming app, in a world where $20 can also easily translate to owning 20 gaming apps. This will cause many people dismay, or even fits of laughter.
But I’m not going to talk about the price just yet. Instead I just want to focus on “XCOM.”
“XCOM” took the console and PC world by storm last year as gamers everywhere discovered the joy of running a worldwide alien defense organization, and commanding troops on the ground in tense and violent tactical operation scenarios. A revival of one of the most complicated and hardcore PC franchises of all time, “Enemy Unknown” somehow managed to find a way to maintain the things that made that series great, while also making the experience much more manageable and appealing to the more mainstream gaming market.
Of course the star of the game is its permadeath system. Much like last weeks “Sword and Glory” app, death is not only around every corner in “XCOM,” but when it happens you lose that soldier for good. This is made worse by how much you can customize a soldier to make them your own, and the hours you will inevitably spend leveling up your favorites. No matter how much time or effort you put into a character though, one false move and they are dead and gone.
It’s a punishing system to be sure, but it gives the game an element of tension that would be impossible without it. Every decision matters in “XCOM,” whether it be on the battlefield, or in the management mode when trying to determine what countries to aid (you can’t save them all) and what research to pursue in order to manufacture new items and weapons. Every moment in “XCOM” is spent making these tough decisions, and as such success and joy are found not in glorious moments of gratification, but just through mere survival, and a chain of little moments that make up your 30+ hour playtime.
A glorious moment of success is to be found, though, the minute you boot up the game and realize that this is indeed the entire “XCOM” experience (sans multiplayer) on a mobile device. Sure the graphics took a very slight hit, but this is compensated for by some nice touch controls that add to the feeling of being the “Commander” character the game casts you as. While playing this on an iPhone over an iPad is not the most welcoming of propositions, again it’s the fact it even exists in that format in a playable manner that deserves recognition.
Ultimately though, even though this is still every inch of the original 2012 game of the year candidate expertly ported by 2K to a potentially hostile format, it does come back to the price. While $20 spent well is a fair amount of money, the fact is that $20 for this game is a steal, considering it means you’re getting what is essentially a console game at about a third of the original price, to take with you wherever you go. The price is all a matter of perspective, and in an app world where a “Free” game can easily set you back around $20 when you consider in-app purchases (of which “XCOM” has none) and usually are not of this level of quality, you really have to call this a case of paying an appropriate price for what you get.
“XCOM” defied expectations last year and made most of its fans out of people who never played this type of strategy game before, much less the franchise. With any of the luck I do not have when I play this game (my guys die a lot), this mobile version will do the same as it’s a near-flawless port of that all-time great strategy experience.
So get ready to craft a virtual graveyard of fallen soldiers, start seeing Chryssalids in you nightmares, and get addicted to “XCOM” all over again as it’s not only a perfect port, but my app of the week.
The trailer is here, so the countdown to the holiday release of “Anchorman: The Legend Continues” begins. Will Ferrell looks as funny as ever as Ron Burgendy, and with the beautiful Meagan Good (check out our slideshow!) as a new love interest, the trailer gives a glimpse of how Ron is totally incapable of handling an interracial relationship. The results predictable but hilarious. Comedy sequels are tough to pull off, so hopefully the amount of time that’s passed since the original “Anchorman” has helped them come up with enough fresh material to make this one work.
