Tatum, Foxx, Emmerich? Shouldn't 'White House Down' Have Been Better?

Roland Emmerich's new movie White House Down will make its assault on the U.S box office this weekend, aiming to topple animation Despicable Me 2 and zombie movie World War Z. The action-thriller sees Channing Tatum playing rejected secret service applicant John Cale, who is thrown into the line of duty when a visit to the White House is interrupted by a paramilitary group led by Emil Stenz (Jason Clarke). He must project his daughter while keeping the President of the United States (Jamie Foxx) out of danger.

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There's been a steady buzz for White House Down for some time, with Sony Pictures purchasing James Vanderbilt's script in March 2012 for $3 million. The Hollywood Reporter called it "one of the biggest spec sales in quite a while," while describing the movie as "tonally and thematically" similar to Die Hard and Air Force One.

Emmerich has a solid pedigree with big-budget fast paced movies. The German director helmed Universal Soldier, Independence Day, The Patriot, The Day After Tomorrow, 2012 and Anonymous - a credit list that most budding filmmakers would kill for. Cast-wise, Jamie Foxx is amongst the biggest stars in the world and Channing Tatum is probably the current go-to guy for plucky underdog shooting heavily armed bad people. So why doesn't White House Down work?

Watch the White House Down Premiere:

"Roland Emmerich makes love of country into a thing of unabashed hokum, which bleeds through every nook of this overstuffed jumble and leaves no character untouched," said R. Kurt Oselund of Slant magazine. Keith Uhlich at Time Magazine New York was similarly unimpressed, "All the action scenes, as with many modern Hollywood blockbusters, are seemingly edited with a Cuisinart, or that the copious CGI would barely pass muster in one of those Asylum DTV quickies." The AV Club conceded that "While White House Down isn't going to score points for originality," though added, ".seriousness, or subtlety (Emmerich likes his political messages blunt and loud), it is a lot of fun; if nothing else, Emmerich is a great widescreen showman."

White House Down hits theaters in the U.S on Friday, June 28, 2013.

Roland Emmerich At A Press Conference For White House Down

Jamie Foxx Leaving The Ed Sullivan Theatre In New York