Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on August 2013

Roland Emmerich makes big, dumb & loud disaster porn for 12-year-olds. Like Godzilla and 2012. This is another. A bunch of hammy bad guys cinematically take over the title mansion. Fractured plot, murky motives, and what pacing? Also the silliest car chase in movie history (around the WH lawn). Okay, Channing Tatum is marginally less wooden than usual as the wife-beater-clad hero, and he and imperiled POTUS Jamie Foxx riff well off each other. So is it better than that other moronic blowing-up-the-White-House, Die Hard clone, Olympus Has Fallen? Jeez, who cares? At least it doesn’t star Gerard Butler.