Vantage Point (2008)

Vantage Point does not really get to the point. It is all about style over content resulting in the audience is left high and dry with each rewind of the same story. The movie told through the eyes of :

• 1st Vantage Point: television news producer Rex Brooks (Sigourney Weaver) whose TV crew captured some valuable information
• 2nd Vantage Point: Secret Service agents Thomas Barnes (Dennis Quaid) and Kent Taylor (Matthew Fox).
• 3rd Vantage Point: Enrique (Eduardo Noriega), a Spanish police officer assigned to protect the mayor
• 4th Vantage Point: Howard Lewis (Forest Whitaker), an American tourist making home movies for his kids
• 5th Vantage Point: The real President Ashton who is safe in his hiding place while his body double took the assassin's bullet
• 6th Vantage Point: The terrorists who seem to be one step ahead of everyone else

Vantage Point plays like the whole TV season of "24" with all the key scenes taken out so as to keep the audience high and dry, dazed and confused. When the film credits finally roll, you wish you could send the director and scriptwriter of Vantage Point to the Bourne Film School of Good Linear Storytelling. What the hell is the point of it all? Are they trying to tell us that this is how the JFK assassination was played out?

Cast: Dennis Quaid, Matthew Fox, Forest Whitaker, Sigourney Weaver, William Hurt

Director: Pete Travis

Genres: Political Thriller, Thriller

Tagline: 8 Strangers. 8 Points of View. 1 Truth.

Runtime: 90 minutes

Location: picturesque Spanish city of Salamanca (actually Mexico City)

Memorable Movie Moment: The car chase at the last Vantage Point

Advisory for Children and Objectionable Themes:

Rating: Rated PG-13 for sequences of intense violence and action, some disturbing images and brief strong language.

The violence is rather heavy for a PG-13 movie with shootings (including the assissation of the President of USA), explosions, car accidents, stabbings, beating etc. Fortunately, we are spared of excessive bloody scenes.

Profanity is moderate: includes one F-word and G-swear words.

Don't expect any spiritual or motivational content (unless you count Dennis Quaid conquering his fear so he can be more effective as a Presidential bodyguard). Actually, the movie is quite offensive as most of the characters in the movie are not good people, many are prepared to kill to further their hidden agendas.

This film is not suitable for kids. It is more for older teens and adults.

© http://goingtomovies.blogspot - Vantage Point