Over on the other blog I received a trailer and image for an upcoming new film. White House Down. No it’s not a sequel to Black Hawk Down but a strikingly similar film to one coming out in a couple of weeks time.
It does remind me of when I was just starting out doing website for a living. That was way back in 1998 when two similar films came out. That time it was Armageddon and Deep impact. One was a brainless popcorn movie and the other was meant to be more of a drama. Even the posters were, almost the same.
As I said, the two films coming out this year have synopsis that could, almost, be interchanged and you probably wouldn’t know the difference..
In Columbia Pictures’ CENSORED, Capitol Policeman John Cale (Channing Tatum) has just been denied his dream job with the Secret Service of protecting President James Sawyer (Jamie Foxx). Not wanting to let down his little girl with the news, he takes her on a tour of the White House, when the complex is overtaken by a heavily armed paramilitary group. Now, with the nation’s government falling into chaos and time running out, it’s up to Cale to save his daughter, the president, and the country.
When terrorists take over the White House, a disgraced Secret Service agent attempts to rescue the president of the United States in CENSORED, an electrifying and ingenious action thriller from acclaimed director Antoine Fuqua (Training Day). A small group of heavily armed, meticulously trained extremists launches a daring daylight ambush on the White House, overrunning the building and taking President Benjamin Asher (Aaron Eckhart) and his staff hostage inside an impenetrable underground presidential bunker. As a pitched battle rages on the White House lawn, former presidential security officer Mike Banning (Gerard Butler) joins the fray, only to find himself the last Secret Service member alive in the besieged building.
Banning uses his extensive training and detailed knowledge of the presidential residence to become the eyes and ears of Acting President Allan Trumbull (Morgan Freeman) and his advisors. As the invaders begin executing hostages and threaten to kill more unless their outrageous demands are met, Banning tries frantically to locate the president’s young son, hidden somewhere in the building, and rescue the president before the terrorists can unleash their ultimate, terrifying plan. As the body count mounts and the clock ticks down, it becomes clear that Banning is America’s only hope of avoiding utter annihilation..
If you did watch the trailers before you got this far then congratulations. If you didn’t then scroll back up and watch them! They are great fun and have lots of explosions in them!
You probably did figure out that I swapped the synopsis over and apart from who the stars are you couldn’t tell the difference. Both have a black president (Morgan Freeman or Jamie Foxx). Both involve terrorists taking over the White House. Both seem to put one of the main character’s children in danger. I’m sure that the distributors will tell you that they have nothing in common but…
