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Vantage Point [2008]
from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
starring Dennis Quaid, William Hurt, Sigourney Weaver, Forest Whitaker, Zoe Saldana
directed by Pete Travis

Features:

• PAL

Editorial Review:

Vantage Point, which aspires to be a cunningly twisted thriller, comes equipped with plenty of hurtling action, handheld camerawork, what-was-that? editing, and a plot that has multiple, contradictory agendas writhing like a nest of snakes. It's all set within a few blocks of a town square in Spain where a U.S. President is targeted for assassination. Although the movie lasts 90 minutes, the events it depicts are mostly over within fifteen minutes or so--but seen, rewound, and reseen from half a dozen different (you guessed it) vantage points. The first line in the credits reads "Original Film," apparently the name of the production company. "Gimmick Movie" might be more accurate. The opening reel, effectively jolting, affords an initial overview of the events through the eyes, lenses, monitors, and duelling sensibilities of a TV news producer (Sigourney Weaver), her activist-minded reporter (Zoe Saldana) and crew. Everybody’s in Salamanca for the start of an international conference to reaffirm Arab-Western commitment to the fight against terrorism. Terrorism, of course, sees this as an ideal moment to break out. As gunshots and explosions reduce everything to chaos, the clock is reset to zero and we proceed to revisit the scene as experienced by several Secret Service agents (namely Dennis Quaid and Matthew Fox), an American tourist with camcorder (Forest Whitaker), sundry locals--including three who may be caught up in a love triangle or a conspiracy or both--and even the President himself (William Hurt).

For a while, this is mildly diverting: that guy, or that gesture, so sinister when glimpsed across the plaza in one run-through, now appears harmless in closeup--or vice versa. But there's no real ambiguity (so stop with the careless comparisons to Kurosawa's Rashomon)--this is a shell game in which the peas aren't worth tracking. Despite decent actors, the characters might as well be holograms (although poor Forest Whitaker is saddled with "motivation" of surpassing sappiness), and the casting telegraphs several twists: one redoubtable good guy practically gives a wink-wink, nudge-nudge that he's really bad, etc. The movie declines to specify which nutjob philosophy the terrorists espouse, and their numbers are multi-ethnic. There's also a laborious suggestion that they have bloodthirsty, reactionary counterparts among the President's inner circle, which perhaps qualifies as redeeming socio-political comment and prompts a meaningless declaration of deep meaning from the Prez. The whole megilleh finally comes down to an extended car chase through impassably claustrophobic streets that would mark a lurch into unintentional self-parody--if only that point hadn't been passed a couple of rewinds earlier. --Richard T. Jameson

Customer Reviews:

• Avg. Customer Rating: 3.5 / 5.0

• Exciting technically proficient thriller with redundant emotional clout.
  One of the stars of Vantage Point-Dennis Quaid - has described the film as a "Kind of Rashomon [1950] [Special Edition]" alluding to the films method of showing the same 23 minute loop of time from several different perspectives. Whoah there Dennis , don't get carried away . Structurally , though he kind of has a point though in terms of quality these two films while not chalk and cheese are definitely wildly varying qualities of cheddar.
  Vantage Point takes place at an anti -terrorism summit in... more info

• mind blowing!!
  What a heart pounding thriller. Plots about assassinations are always exciting but this had a particular twist to it, being that the same event was repeated from different character's perspectives. What follows is a hair-raising helter skelter of events, each character noticing different significant moments that no one else knew of. A really good film and some stunning performances from Quaid and Hurt.

• Mayhem in Salamanca
  "Vantage Point" is an entertaining but totally implausable action film set in the Spanish city of Salamanca. A double of the US President is shot at an anti terror conference of world leaders and amidst further bombings and shootings in the vicinity an intricate plot to abduct the real US President unfolds. The terrorist plot is quite brilliantly coordinated , but it is so highly unlikely that belief has to be suspended by the viewer. This suspension continues during a remarkable car chase through the city... more info

• Exciting but Obvious
  President Ashton(William Hurt)is assassinated at a political summit in Salamanca,Spain.Seasoned Secret Service Agent Thomas Barnes(Dennis Quaid) and his collegues are in a race against time to uncover the perpetrators whose very careful plans include a bribed special forces operative,a compromised bodyguard and several explosive devices.
  Rashomon like thriller(the same event from several perspectives)is fast paced,well acted(even if Quaid is starting to look like he is permanently constipated)and... more info

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