Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on June 2013

North Korean “terrorists” orchestrate a meticulously coordinated air and ground assault on the White House (as IF), take the president hostage in the underground bunker and demand that American forces be withdrawn from South Korea. Ah, but unbeknownst to them, a disgraced former chief of the Prez’s security detail (and a pal of the boss’s son, and ex-Special Forces) is somewhere in the House. So it’s Die Hard in Washington, but the increasingly tiresome Gerard Butler is the kind of actor that makes you miss Bruce Willis’s (never thought I’d say this) charisma. The Bulgarian-made CG images of several DC landmarks getting demolished are cheesy but effective. The body count is high, the violence is brutal and frequent, and the dialogue is moronic. This is a sporadically entertaining, completely forgettable sledgehammer that won’t disappoint its target audience of hard-core action fans. But normal humans may share my disappointment with director Antoine Fuqua, who made his name with 2001’s memorable Training Day. Korean male model Rick Yune channels John Lone (not advised) to create a suitably smarmy villain. Morgan Freeman, Aaron Eckhart, Angela Bassett and Melissa Leo pick up paychecks.