In 'White House Down,' the wisecracks are spread out, Tatum being too much of a sweetheart type to deliver all of them. In other near-clone comparisons, you can't help but think the ' Die Hard' franchise, with its alienated kids (as in the latest 'Die Hard,' Emily even calls her father John for a while before breaking through to ' Dad.') The 'Die Hard' franchise has so run its course that the only real pleasure left is finding out how much punishment McClane can take. Cale doesn't get as brutalized by battle as John McClane, though he takes many knocks. Kennedy 'Olympus Has Fallen' bodyguard ( Gerard Butler), who did rescue the president, but not the first lady Channing Tatum specifically, for every 'Sexiest Man Alive' reason, plus his dance-trained agility and his desire to impress and bond with his estranged daughter. Regret is a great motivator. I'd like to have one of these guilt-driven security guys protecting me: Clint Eastwood in 'In The Line of Fire' (1993) who failed to save the life of John F. Wrong place, right time for Cale, as he becomes the de facto presidential protector after all, though in the extreme straddle position of having to cover the President and rescue Emily when she is taken hostage. Suddenly a paramilitary force commandeers the place and threatens to start World War III. Skipping over the bad news, he instead offers a White House tour. So it's a sad moment when he has to pick up his waiting daughter Emily ( Joey King). He can't make the grade of security guard for the President because he was a bit of a slacker, as his Secret Service interviewer ( Maggie Gyllenhaal) reminds him. In 'White House Down,' Channing Tatum plays John Cale, a Capitol Hill police officer, Afghanistan vet and divorcé. The title also hits us subliminally: Is the White House really Our House? And how much does it hurt us when it's attacked? This time it's an inside job aliens not required, what with right-wing sociopaths, white supremacists, and assorted bureaucrats with nasty agendas right here in the homeland.

White house down characters