Roland dips into his full bag of action movie tricks for White House Down, a movie in which the White House is taken over by a group of military operatives, right-wing terrorists, computer hackers, and other people with axes to grind against the administration of President Sawyer (Jamie Foxx). The terrorists strike hard and quickly, mopping up the security forces and taking over the building with skillful precision. The only person standing in their way is Capitol Police officer John Cale (Channing Tatum), who was unlucky enough to be interviewing for a Secret Service job in the building with his daughter Emily (Joey King) at his side. Somehow Roland Emmerich even manages to get a car chase into play, despite not being able to leave the White House grounds. Crucially, Emmerich doesn’t go in for the obnoxious hand-held camera shakiness and power zooming that’s so popular in action movies these days. He keeps his camera back, leaves the screen wide, and makes great use of the big screen with his framing and shooting method. It’s nice to see people get shot without getting motion sickness. It’s all very impressive, a surprising amount of fun, and exactly the right tone for a summer blockbuster. While writer James Vanderbilt isn’t going to win any awards for the script, it’s funny enough to do the job while keeping the film moving at a swift pace with just enough time to slow down and breathe before the next tense search mission, gun battle, or fist fight. The film is an impressive 131 minutes, but it moves very fast and, for the most part, doesn’t lose its way or take itself too seriously. It’s an amiable bit of goofy summer shoot’em up that has a pretty stellar cast at its disposal and good comic chops. White House Down shouldn’t be as good as it is, but here we are. It’s a taste of classic chaos from one of the best directors still working exclusively in the action movie genre. For all his flaws (which are myriad), Roland Emmerich is still capable of putting out a big dumb fun summer flick with style to spare. Bring extra popcorn and check your brain at the door. US Correspondent Ron Hogan really had a good time watching priceless artifacts get blown up, shot up, smashed, or used as weapons. Find more by Ron daily at Shaktronics and PopFi.