“It’s like Die Hard, only in a ______” is an oft-used phrase. It’s an easy way to get people to visualize what you are trying to pitch. Now Die Hard in the White House is going to happen. TWICE. Not even a month ago I wrote a post about all the dueling concept movies that come out. Now we have two dueling Die Hard in the White House Projects. Lets compare them both:
1. Olympus Has Fallen – This is an Antoine Fuqua helmed vehicle. He’s pretty much only made cop/action movies, one of which was actually good (Training Day), but he’s got the requisite chops to pull this off. This film will star Aaron Eckhart as the President of the US and Gerard Butler as his tough Secret Service agent trying to save him.
What’s good. Eckhart and Butler can play these roles in their sleep, but neither has been exactly bankable. Eckart is normally never the reason a film is good, but he’s someone people seem to like, just like people like Kevin Kline. Gerard Butler is the wildcard here. After 300 catapulted him to megastardom, he never really took the bull by the horns and became the new top-dog action hero. Hell, he let The Rock, after a 5 year sabbatical of making kids movies, take that spot from him. I feel as though this is the underdog of the pair.
2. White House Down – This is a Roland Emmerich helmed vehicle. You know. That guy who blows stuff up REAL good. If it’s one thing this man can do, it’s show destruction on a massive scale. I’m curious to see what he would bring to a more scaled down story (I only mean scaled down for him. He blows up whole planets, so this is slumming it for him). His film has Channing Tatum confirmed to star as the Secret Service agent who probably saves the day and is close to securing Jamie Foxx as the President of the US who most likely, mans up to kick ass too.
Is it weird that I am like 10 times more interested in White House Down over Olympus Has Fallen? It seems that way, but when you look closer Olympus Has Fallen just seems a bit stale, and based on the talent behind and in front of the camera, it seems like it will play it straight. White House Down, seems like it has potential to be crazy. Emmerich loves to blow shit up and makes dumb movies you can’t help but watch. Channing Tatum is about to have 100 million plus movies in 2012, by July all made on modest budgets. So he’s bankable. And women love him. The tracking on Magic Mike is picking up steam like you wouldn’t believe, so him stepping into a hero role will guarantee box office success. Jamie Foxx, you have to remember, can actually act when he chooses to. Him playing a president seems like a weird choice, but I also wasn’t into him as Django until I saw the trailer. Plus I imagine him and Tatum will actually have some Will Smith/Harry Connick Jr-like chemistry.
To me it looks clear that one of these movies will be fun and without taking itself so seriously, and the other will be boring and just an action movie that could have take place anyway.
What do you think?
Also, what’s up with having pretty much the same damn titles? I bet one of them blinks and changes.
Another example of Russ’ two movie theory.. eerie. We all know the best white house invasion movie was the beginning of XMen 2 right?
one of the best scenes in a superhero movie