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Vantage Point (2008)

Director: Pete Travis

Time Out rating

Average user rating

56 reviews

Movie review

From Time Out London

Salamanca, Spain, and crowds jostle in the main square as secret service agents usher in the US President (William Hurt) to make an address before an international conference negotiates a new accord on the war on terror. As a TV news director (Sigourney Weaver) marshals her cameras, a shot rings out and the leader of the free world crumples to the ground. What just happened? Let’s rewind… before you can say ‘Rashomon’ we’re seeing the same events from another perspective (the Presidential POV), then another (veteran bodyguard Dennis Quaid), and even, eventually, from the vantage point of the perpetrators. Sounds fascinatingly ambiguous, no?

Well, it might have been if the film had been made 35 years ago, but one simple truth emerges: murderous Arab extremists won’t escape US intelligence forces, not even in a high-speed car-chase down narrow side-streets lined with café tables.

Although mounted with no little efficiency by director Pete Travis (who previously made the TV drama-doc ‘Omagh’), the narrative enterprise actually hides a one-dimensional world view, with civilian casualties mere background set dressing. Crass indeed.

Author: Trevor Johnston

Time Out London Issue 1959 March 5 – 11 2008

User reviews of this film

tommy said...

Posted on May 07 2008 01:08 i cant understand how the same terrorist who was incharge of ordering the killings of millions of innocent civilians, who even met the little girl before the explosions (and probably realised that there is a good chance this little girl will get caught up in the explosion and die) yet he choose not to care then, when the plan hadnt even got to a point of benefit. but now when everything they have worked for has come true and the president is in the back and things are going well, then this master mind terrorist decides to have a heart and risk the whole plan to avoid crushing the very same little girl that a few hours ago didnt even care??!!!!

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Jack said...

Posted on Apr 30 2008 17:10 If I had paid money to see this "film" in a cinema, I would probably feel very stupid indeed.
Seeing it this lunchtime at home, while recovering from a virus I feel just cheated.
Why cannot the Americans make a decent film? Are their filmmakers really so detached from reality or is it the great American public who is asking for simplified bang-bang, vroom-vroom rubbish like this?

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james said...

Posted on Apr 18 2008 22:35 its good

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usman khawaja said...

Posted on Apr 16 2008 11:57 the world famed UNESCO WORLD HERITAGE SITE SALAMANCA ,a glitterring jewel near valladolid ,which surpasses madrid in classical and medieval splendour is chosen by hollywood to stage a circus where a redundant breed like u.s presidents are chosen to be assassinated a record 8 times ,by the time you start questioning as to the wisdom of this deed or what it will achieve all logic is frayed ,just like the clinton majority at the beginning of this year ,
of course it is adapted from a kurosawa classic but kurosawa and hollywood never were two of the same kind -BE KIND REWIND /yes we do mind /but hollywood is not in its right mind .
does it matter who is the president as the policy is run by the admin ,but some silly foreign terrorists who are possibly related to c.i.a .dont know that for a fact ,i am sure mr.osama bin laden is aware of this truth as he seems to be very clever ,having so far foiled the wizardry of the western technology to capture him from the caves of afghanistan,
but then who are these naive idiots who want to kill poor little william hurt in this shoddy,dull thriller ,with 4 paralysed so-called oscar winners acting together .
mr whitaker is the obligatory afro-black,fresh from his oscar win ,who gives a performance so bad he needs to return his oscar a.s.a.p ,he is left holding a video cam with a vacant look on his face which is so funny it beats black jack in be kind rewind,
william hurt desreves to be executed and so he shall be for his awful acting ,he embarasses himself as he tries to stumble out of an overturned ambulance.
dennis quaid will never win an oscar after this and weaver is the woman caught in the morass of this male lunacy and she desrves to be with aliens after this bunch as it will be a mercy for her,she is of course the media woman in charge of a really bad tv crew ,
the movie is shot in mexico city ,but then salamanca would possibly never wanted to be in a crude hollywood thriller ever if it had known it was going to be turned into an octagonal cartoon of a torture chamber ,
i am sure no us president will have the aesthetic sense ever to logically visit salamanca ,a medieval jewel ,and this is what you see-AN OCTAGONAL QUADRIPLEGIC TORTURE CHAMBER -and it remains the same even if you inspect this movie from 8 million points ,even the car chase in the finale is forced and boring,though the best thing about this trash.
the world famed UNESCO WORLD HERITAGE SITE SALAMANCA ,a glitterring jewel near valladolid ,which surpasses madrid in classical and medieval splendour is chosen by hollywood to stage a circus where a redundant breed like u.s presidents are chosen to be assassinated a record 8 times ,by the time you start questioning as to the wisdom of this deed or what it will achieve all logic is frayed ,just like the clinton majority at the beginning of this year ,
does it matter who is the president as the policy is run by the admin ,but some silly foreign terrorists who are possibly related to c.i.a .dont know that for a fact ,i am sure mr.osama bin laden is aware of this truth as he seems to be very clever ,having so far foiled the wizardry of the western technology to capture him from the caves of afghanistan,
but then who are these naive idiots who want to kill poor little william hurt in this shoddy,dull thriller ,with 4 paralysed so-called oscar winners acting together .
mr whitaker is the obligatory afro-black,fresh from his oscar win ,who gives a performance so bad he needs to return his oscar a.s.a.p ,he is left holding a video cam with a vacant look on his face which is so funny it beats black jack in be kind rewind,
william hurt desreves to be executed and so he shall be for his awful acting ,he embarasses himself as he tries to stumble out of an overturned ambulance.
dennis quaid will never win an oscar after this and weaver is the woman caught in the morass of this male lunacy and she desrves to be with aliens after this bunch as it will be a mercy for her,she is of course the media woman in charge of a really bad tv crew ,
the movie is shot in mexico city ,but then salamanca would possibly never wanted to be in a crude hollywood thriller ever if it had known it was going to be turned into an octagonal cartoon of a torture chamber ,
i am sure no us president will have the aesthetic sense ever to logically visit salamanca ,a medieval jewel ,and this is what you see-AN OCTAGONAL QUADRIPLEGIC TORTURE CHAMBER -and it remains the same even if you inspect this movie from 8 million points ,even the car chase in the finale is forced and boring,though the best thing about this trash.

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blahh said...

Posted on Apr 15 2008 04:35 dont know about it...havent watched it...HAHA

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blessing said...

Posted on Apr 12 2008 18:53 the movie was great..I reccomend ou watch it.. its so so good!

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Dodo said...

Posted on Apr 11 2008 20:59 This film was quite scary with all the explosions, i agree with the bad ending reviews though. The flashbacks did get a bit boring and repetitive. Overall I think its a film to rent out but not to watch at the cinema.

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gasnut said...

Posted on Apr 11 2008 19:17 great film

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Rosemary said...

Posted on Apr 08 2008 15:33 I enjoyed the rewinds - reminded me of a whole season of lost flashbacks. The ending was very disappointing - did they run out of money? Completely ruined the story

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mildred said...

Posted on Apr 07 2008 12:38 my name is mildred and i liked horton hears a who, i very very very much like elephants i enjoyed it when horton watches the president get shot over and over again from different angles like a monkey.

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derick said...

Posted on Apr 07 2008 12:32 i thought the whole film was utterly pointless and i believe that the director rushed the story and didn't show the shooting enough. Yes i like shooting it is my friend

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spongebobsquare said...

Posted on Apr 06 2008 18:48 This film was very predictable and far fetched (like when the body guards car got smashed with him in it and he survived) but worth watching. Got a bit boring after they re played it over and over again showing different peoples points of view. I would say that this film is average. Relieved that the little girl survived thanks to that man wayhay

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in hell i rock !! said...

Posted on Apr 04 2008 21:54 ITs soo kool it rocked for the first 10min but got slightly boring, there was soo many obvious twists and turns.
2/5

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david said...

Posted on Apr 04 2008 12:19 I would say this is an enjoyable film, at the start i was pessimistic, half expecting the film to be repetitive and turn out to be a disappointment but i was happily surprised. This film was an enjoyable experience if you take it for what it is, a light watch. However disappointing end from all the build up.

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ruby said...

Posted on Apr 03 2008 23:06 although totally predictable,and if you dont mind dumbing down for an hour and a half then yeah quite enjoyable

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