I had been pre-warned going into this film that it would predominantly be suited towards male viewers, so I went in geared up to hear lots of explosions and to have to rely on perving on Gerard Butler to get through. However, not even Mr Butler’s ruggish looks and Scottish charm could save this blockbuster, and neither could its estimated £70,000,000 budget.

The scene starts with The President, played by Aaron Eckhart who you will probably best know from The Dark Knight, and his whole family due to be at a billionaire’s ball, as you do. We see them set off into the dark snow ridden night, a clear metaphor for the events that are to come, with several cars of secret service men following behind. Unfortunately due to the bad weather a car accident occurs, leading to the death of the president’s wife despite Gerard Butler’s character, Mike Banning, best efforts to save her. The film then fast forwards 18 months with the help of subtitles. A warning, especially to those who wear glasses, the director Antonie Fuqua is clearly a 24 fan as there is heavy, and quite honestly unnecessary, use of subtitles throughout the film for everything from the time frame to if someone moved two steps into a different room. The general out line of the film is that Banning is now a guilt ridden civilian who happens to see the White House be attacked and taken over by North Korean Terrorists. He seizes the chance to redeem his past and manages to be the only man out of 40 guards to get into the White House safely to try and find the President who is being held hostage.

Well, the dads out there will be pleased to know that this film does not disappoint on the action side as there is lots of fighting, grisly stabbings and explosions. My personal favourite moment is when we see Banning load two guns but then not use them in a fight; instead he grabs a nearby statue as a weapon. Cunning. Unfortunately, the script writer for this film clearly hates their job as it is jammed with terrible clichés and unanswered questions. “How did they get hold of our weapons???” Yes, how DID they get hold of your weapons? But it’s fine as the film focuses on the important details, such as making sure that the only female Korean terrorist has a great face of make up the whole way through, her eyeliner did not so much as smudge under gun fight.

Pet peeves of the film: Every time the President said something to his captures someone on his staff would get injured, yet he continued to bring the sass and then be surprised when his secretary was kicked in the face. He also insisted that everyone around his should tell the Koreans their secret passwords as he would never tell his, except it turned out that they cracked his password anyway. Good one.

Shining light in the film: The performance of Angela Bassett who played the Secret Service Director. Her believable performance saved the cast, especially since she was the only one who gave several facial expressions as opposed to just being opened mouthed like her peers.

Overall this film is an easy watch, probably something that I would recommend for when it is being shown on TV rather than going to the cinema. I had worried at the start of the film that the plot would hit too close to the current political climate, however I like to think that if North Korea did attack the White House then the fate of America would not lie on just one man who happened to run in through the front door at the right time. The lead terrorist said at one point “ it took us 13 minutes to take control of the White House”, well it took me 3 minutes to realise this film is not going to be high on any award lists.