"White House Down/Olympus Has Fallen"...what's up with these films? (review)

     White House Down and Olympus Had Fallen came out not too far apart from each other and one wonders why the premise of the White House being invaded was such a popular concept at the time they where made.  If you've visited Washington D.C. you know you can't get much closer that photo op area, so to create the premise where EVERYONE sleeps on the job must've been a hard sell.  Either way, two movies of the same theme were made and one is actually worse than the other.

Both movies, if you're going to sit through them have to be taken with a grain of salt in swallowing the story lines.  Channing Tatum in White House Down is pretty awful, after having been in so many films you would think he'd give up trying to act so Vanilla Ice-ish especially with the roles he's had lately but no, it sticks out like a sore thumb in his film.  You would have to look it up but it must've been made before Jamie Fox got his Oscar and in all honesty his performance is the only one worth commending.  If you can get into the White House the way so many people do in this film, their security is about as good as Chief Wiggum from The Simpsons would provide.

Olympus Has Fallen makes our capitols security seem just as bad bud Gerard Butler and Aaron Eckhart are decent and flexible actors, plus the action is decent and makes the "Die Hard in the White House" scenario easier to swallow than White House Down.  Gerard Butler's character is pretty kick ass and there are a lot of action sequences of hand to hand combat that you'll like too.

Olympus Has Fallen is streaming on +Netflix so it's easier to watch and the better film in my opinion.  White House Down is also available to rent, but I would not call it a solid rental and found the plot to be all over the place and hard to pay attention to.