White House Down

 Released Year: 2013

Directed by Roland Emmerich

Casted by:

Channing Tatum as John Cale

Jamie Foxx as James William Sawyer

Joey King as Emily Cale

Maggie Gyllenhaal as Carol Finnerty

Story:

John Cale is a United States Capitol Police officer and former U.S Army soldier assigned to Speaker of the House of Representatives Eli Raphelson after Cale saved Raphelson's nephew's life during a tour in Afghanistan. Cale is struggling to develop a better relationship with his daughter Emily, who has a strong enthusiasm for politics. She became angry when Cale failed to attend her school talent show due to an unexpected delay on his work shift. He hopes to impress her by getting a job with the Secret Service, but the interview is conducted by Carol Finnerty, a former college acquaintance of his who believes that he is unqualified. After Cale lies to Emily about the outcome of the interview, the two join a tour of the White House. At the same time, United States President James Sawyer proposes a controversial peace treaty between allied countries to remove military forces from the Middle East.

Meanwhile, a man disguised as a janitor detonates a bomb at the center of the United States Capitol, causing the collapse of the building's dome. Raphelson – who was in the Capitol but is uninjured – and Finnerty are taken to a secure command center underneath The Pentagon while Vice President Alvin Hammond is taken aboard Air Force One. The White House is put on lockdown, separating Cale from Emily (who had left the tour group to use the restroom). Meanwhile, terrorists led by Emil Stenz start killing off most of the Secret Service and take the tour group hostage, but Cale manages to take a gun from one of Stenz's henchmen named Ritter and escapes to go and find his daughter. Meanwhile, retiring Head of the Presidential Detail Martin Walker escorts President Sawyer and his detail to the Presidential Emergency Operations Center. Once Sawyer gains access, Walker kills everyone else in Sawyer's detail, revealing himself to be the leader of the attack; he wants revenge for his son, who was killed during a botched black ops mission. Cale, who fails to find Emily, uses his radio from Ritter to locate and rescue the President.

Walker and Stenz bring in Skip Tyler to hack into the defense system, but they still require Sawyer to activate the nuclear football. Emily, while hiding, records a video of the mercenaries and uploads it to YouTube before eventually being captured by Carl Killick, one of the terrorists. Walker demands $400 million from the Federal Reserve as ransom for the hostages. Cale and Sawyer manage to contact the Pentagon, and Finnerty tells Cale to get Sawyer out through a series of secret underground tunnels. Finnerty then uses Emily's video to discover the mercenaries' identities, realizing that they used to work for various government agencies and radical political groups. They are informed that Stenz, a former Delta Force and Central Intelligence Agency operative, was disavowed and burned on mission, leading to his capture by the Taliban. They also discover that Walker has a brain tumor which occasionally causes mental breakdowns, suggesting his involvement to be a suicide mission and not for ransom. Cale and Sawyer find the tunnel gate rigged with an explosive and are forced to escape in a presidential limousine. After a car chase with Stenz on the White House lawn, Cale and Sawyer are flipped into the White House pool after Cale gets distracted by the sight of Killick holding Emily at gunpoint. A gunfight erupts which results in an explosion that leaves Sawyer and Cale presumed dead. Aboard Air Force One, Hammond is sworn in as President.

When Cale and Sawyer reveal they are still alive, they learn Hammond has approved an aerial incursion by Delta Force to take back the White House. Knowing the hijackers have Javelin surface-to-air missiles, Cale tries but fails to stop the hijackers from shooting down the helicopters. Cale gets into a fight with Stenz and ends up dropping his White House passes for himself and Emily while escaping. Having already learned of Emily from the video, Stenz, knowing that she is Cale's daughter, takes her to Walker in the Oval Office. Meanwhile, Tyler finishes the upload to NORAD and launches a missile at Air Force One, killing everyone on board, including Hammond. Raphelson is then sworn in as President and, in a last ditch effort to end the crisis, orders an air strike on the White House.

Walker tells Cale over the White House intercom to surrender Sawyer or he will shoot Emily. Sawyer ultimately surrenders himself to save Emily, knowing Cale could still save them both if he were free. Holding the pair in the Oval Office, Walker reveals to Sawyer that his motive for the attack was to convey a message of American power. Because of Sawyer's dislike of military force, as well as backing out of the mission that killed his son, Walker had grown to believe Sawyer was too weak to be President; by launching a nuclear attack on Iran, Walker had hoped to regain international respect for America and avenge his own personal loss. He asks for Sawyer to activate the nuclear football, but Sawyer refuses. When Walker threatens to shoot Emily again, Sawyer still declined, explaining to Emily that lots of people will die, which she understands. Just as Walker is about to pull the trigger, the alarms and sprinklers are activated by Cale setting fire to the Lincoln Bedroom. In the chaos, Tyler tries to escape, but encounters the tunnel gate bomb. When he tries to deactivate it, it detonates instead, killing him. Killick finds Cale and tries to kill him, but is ambushed by Donnie Donaldson, the White House tour guide, who bludgeons Killick to death with a clock. After freeing the hostages and trusting Donnie to get them out safely, Cale battles Stenz and ultimately kills him with a grenade belt.

Using the explosion to catch him off guard, Sawyer attacks a distracted Walker, but Walker gains the upper hand and forces Sawyer to activate the football before apparently shooting him dead. Using updated launch codes from an anonymous source, Walker targets various cities in Iran, but before he can initiate the launch, Cale smashes through the wall of the Oval Office with a presidential SUV, and kills Walker with the SUV's minigun. Emily learns of the air strike, and she takes a presidential flag and waves it on the front lawn, prompting the pilots to call off the attack. Meanwhile, Sawyer reveals himself to be alive since the bullet that hit him had been stopped by a pocket watch given to him by his wife. Finnerty calls them to reveal that the hijackers were not hired by Walker, and that there is another person behind the attack. Cale realizes who it is and asks Sawyer for his help in exposing the person.

Later, Finnerty arrives at the White House with Raphelson. When Cale tells them Sawyer was killed, Raphelson orders troops to be placed back into the Middle East, which would go against Sawyer's peace treaty. Cale then reveals that Raphelson had conspired with Walker to orchestrate the attack because of Raphelson's opposition to Sawyer's treaty and then proves it by having Finnerty call the call-back number on Walker's pager, which was the source of the updated launch codes. Sawyer arrives and has Raphelson taken into custody, treating his taking of the Presidency as a coup d'état. Sawyer then officially makes Cale a Secret Service Special Agent, and takes him and Emily on an aerial tour of Washington, D.C. on his way to the hospital. Realizing an increased need for peace due to the day's events, the presidents of Iran, Russia, Israel, and France agree to sign Sawyer's peace treaty.

L² Scored: 3/10

L² Comment:

Once again, it prove that i'm so not into this kind of movie which i boringly and hope the movie will end fast. No doubt i like Channing Tatum a lot but it won't save me from falling asleep in the mid of the movie. yawn

World Trade Center

 Released Year: 2006

Directed by Oliver Stone

Casted by:

Nicolas Cage as John McLoughlin

Michael Peña as Will Jimeno

Maria Bello as Donna McLoughlin

Maggie Gyllenhaal as Allison Jimeno

 Story: 

On September 11, 2001, Port Authority Police officers John McLoughlin and Will Jimeno, are patrolling the Port Authority Bus Terminal in Midtown Manhattan, when they see a plane fly dangerously low overhead. As all of the police officers return to the station, they see on TV that the North Tower of the World Trade Center has been hit by a plane. Sergeant McLoughlin assigns many of the officers to assist in a precautionary evacuation attempt of the South Tower and they board a Metropolitan Transit Authority bus. On the bus, they hear reports that the South Tower has also been hit. When they arrive at the World Trade Center, they realize the extent of the disaster and see one of the first victims to jump out of the towers to certain death. The men proceed to get safety equipment and enter the concourse between the towers.

The group consists of McLoughlin, Jimeno, Dominick Pezzulo and Antonio Rodrigues. Officer Chris Amoroso appears to inform them of other events, such as the attack on the Pentagon, the second plane's hit on the South Tower and an attack on Israel though the group does not accept any of these as true. As the men prepare to enter the North Tower, the buildings begin to rumble. McLoughlin realizes that the South Tower is collapsing onto them and that their only chance of survival is to run into the service elevator shaft. Amoroso trips and does not have time to get up. Rodrigues is unable to get to the shaft in time. McLoughlin, Jimeno and Pezzulo manage to escape the huge amounts of dust and rubble flying down from the South Tower. However, as the rubble continues to crush the elevator shaft, the three are trapped. As the cascade of debris subsides, Pezzulo realizes he can free himself and manages to move nearer to Jimeno who, along with McLoughlin, is pinned under rubble and cannot move. Pezzulo tries but fails to shift the debris covering Jimeno's legs and is told by McLoughlin not to leave.

As Pezzulo becomes optimistic that they will live, the rumbling begins again as the North Tower starts to collapse. Although Jimeno and McLoughlin are not further harmed, Pezzulo is fatally injured. After he fires a gun through a gap in the rubble to try to alert rescuers to their position, he dies. Jimeno and McLoughlin spend hours under the rubble, in pain but exchanging personal information. McLoughlin is particularly anxious to keep Jimeno from falling asleep and Jimeno also realizes that by straining to grab a metal bar above his body, he can make a noise that rescuers might hear. Two United States Marines, Dave Karnes and Jason Thomas, who are searching for survivors, do hear it and find the men, calling for help to dig them out. Jimeno is rescued first, and then hours later McLoughlin is lifted out of the debris, barely alive. They are then both reunited with their distraught families at the hospital. Two years after the attacks, McLoughlin and Jimeno attend a barbecue with their families: McLoughlin's Wife Donna, Jimeno's wife Allison, daughter Bianca, and their newest addition Olivia.

 L² Scored: 4/10

L² Comment: 

This is the first time i watch this movie, i thought it might have more scenes on the damaging part when the plane crash into WTC, but its mostly on the 2 man who are stuck in the collapsed building instead. Well, the storyline is still acceptable but not as what i have prefer.

Secretary

 Released Year: 2002

Directed by Steven Shainberg

Casted by:

James Spader as E. Edward Grey
Maggie Gyllenhaal as Lee Holloway

 Story:

Lee Holloway, the socially awkward and emotionally sensitive youngest daughter of a dysfunctional family, adjusts to normal life after having been hospitalized following an incident of dangerous self-harm. She learns to type, starts to date an acquaintance from high school named Peter, and begins to work as a secretary for an eccentric attorney, E. Edward Grey, who hires her despite her stilted social skills and unprofessional appearance.

Though at first Grey appears highly irritated by Lee's typos and other innocuous mistakes, it soon becomes apparent that he is sexually aroused by her submissive behavior. After he confronts her about her propensity for self-injury and commands that she never hurt herself again, the two embark on a BDSM relationship. Lee experiences a sexual and personal awakening, and she falls deeply in love. Edward, however, displays insecurity concerning his feelings for Lee, and he shows shame and disgust over his sexual habits. After a sexual encounter in his office, he fires Lee.

During this period of exploration with Edward, Lee has also been attempting to have a normal boyfriend in Peter, even engaging in lukewarm sex with him. After Lee is fired from her job, Peter proposes to Lee, who reluctantly agrees to marry him. However, while trying on her wedding gown she leaves and runs to Edward's office where she declares her love for him. Edward, still uncertain about their relationship, tests Lee by commanding her to sit in his chair without moving her hands or feet until he returns. Lee eagerly complies. Days pass, as Peter, family members, and acquaintances individually visit Lee to alternately attempt to dissuade or encourage her. After three days, Edward returns to the office and takes Lee to his apartment where he bathes and nurtures her. The pair marry and happily continue their dominant-submissive relationship.

 L² Scored: 6.5/10

L² Comment:

I have heard about this film a long time ago but didn't really got the chance to watch it. Well, after watching, this multiples awards winner (not the main stream award) is kinda ok, but of course a lot of the storyline is expected and ya Maggie's boobs are nice :) lol