After a harrowing accident, Secret Service agent Mike (Butler) is transferred from protecting the President (Eckhart). But he keeps an eye on the White House from his office, and when a band of Korean militants led by unification nutcase Kang (Yune) storms the Oval Office, Mike kicks into action. The President and his Defense Secretary (Leo) are among the hostages while, at the Pentagon, the top dogs plot a course of action. But of course Mike is on the inside.

There are clear parallels to Die Hard in the haunted hero who's the last hope for an entire nation, and barely a single line of dialog is missing some sort of jingoistic exclamation of patriotic machismo. Even Leo says little more than "You'll have to kill me first", while Bassett is reduced to expressing outrage at every American icon destroyed by these pesky foreigners. Meanwhile, Eckhart is brave and stoic, Freeman rises to the challenge and Forster loses his rag.

But this is Butler's show, and he proves adept at stepping into the meathead shoes of Willis, Stallone and Schwarzenegger, killing anyone who moves with whatever's at hand (including, in a rare moment of knowing wit, an Abe Lincoln bust). Lucky for him, the White House security system is woefully inept, because it allows this mayhem to take place so he can prove himself useful again. And also because his old clearances and passwords still work.

Director Fuqua goes for broke with thrillingly huge action and nasty fights. But the film's ace in the hole is a spectacularly ludicrous defence gadget called Cerberus (Freeman actually proclaims, "They've breached the gates of hell!"), which triggers the corny countdown to one of the funniest moments in recent movie history. Not that the actors or filmmakers intended it to be so riotously silly. Who knew Fuqua could direct comedy?

themes, language, violence

27.Mar.13