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Bookmark this pageVantage Point (2008)
Director: Pete Travis
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
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- fred said...
- Posted on Mar 26 2008 18:38 brilliant
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- raja said...
- Posted on Mar 26 2008 13:33 Typical. Films aim: to make Americans feel better about the fact that they have caused utter detruction all over the world and in my opinion art the number 1 terrorists. How is it that others die in smaller collisions but the agent and president get out of their crashes with minor scratches/bruises!! I only liked the first 5 minutes and car chases weren't bad, other than that the rest of the film included cheesy lines, the predictable and bad acting.
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- Jamie said...
- Posted on Mar 25 2008 20:22 Thank God this forum is making some sense again! Thank you Munster, NICK and crazy masch for quite simply making some humane and sane comments!
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- crazy masch said...
- Posted on Mar 25 2008 18:50 a movie trying to be very clever with the whole rewind 8 minutes mularky, but in truth a standard yank feel good movie, depicting how great they are and how their president is a superhero... bet it made millions in the states, utter rubbish
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- NICK said...
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Posted on Mar 25 2008 16:16
The movies photo above right sums it up: Forrest Whitacker just realises what an awful movie he's in, Dennis Quaid is checking the footage to see if both he and Forrest can overact some more, and Fox from lost thinks looking cool can dirstract from his bad acting, particularly his death scene. I wish he was lost ...
Bad movie, cliched, drawn out and awful acting.
For better acting go see the CGI Mamoths in10,000 BC - Report as inappropriate
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- Munster said...
- Posted on Mar 25 2008 00:57 In my previous comments, I meant the 4 people BEFORE Jamie, who is spot on with his assessment!
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- Munster said...
- Posted on Mar 25 2008 00:54 Just in case anybody has failed to spot the irony, the people responsible for writing the 4 previous comments are all joking (H, Jasin, Coopei and Jiron). What they actually meant (and I agree with them) was that this film was awful. Utterly stereotypical terrorists with the gratuitous American 'bad guy' (in order for the film-makers to appear less racist). How pathetic. The plot was what I would describe as 'tryhard', and it became apparent that the intention was that the audience think it clever that everything could be done by a...wait for it...mobile phone. Brilliant! With names such as Forest Whitaker, William Hurt and Sigourney Weaver, I would have expected better. This film addressed modern-day undertones by turning it into a shoot-em-up car chase. Roland me old buddy, you're not impressing me much lately...
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- Jamie said...
- Posted on Mar 25 2008 00:51 And sorry, to quote David: "an American film that challenges the concepts of "good" and "bad" with the "good" winning of course" : this film was anything but! It has quite simply exacerbated the all too familiar cliche in America that their war on terrorism is winning outrightly and is the right thing to do... The halmark to this is perhaps the final scene when the USA-branded helicopter flies off into the sunlight with America's dear president intact while the camera pans out on a small Spanish city left in utter turmoil... hmmm, rings bells with some other similiar stories which perhaps show more truth in the current political climate. truly poor.
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- Jamie said...
- Posted on Mar 25 2008 00:43 This was one of the most cliched, unintellectual, sensationalist, poorly written and badly acted films I have ever seen. As per all American "we are the best" films, the plot unfolded in an all too predictable format and the only thrill about this film was the level of hilarity it instilled in audience members, when in truth there ought not to be a thing funny about it. Truly pathetic film.
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- H said...
- Posted on Mar 25 2008 00:04 Good fim with plenty of twists and turns. Frustrating in places. the end of the film clarifies it all.
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- Yasin said...
- Posted on Mar 24 2008 19:40 This is one of the best movies i have ever seen i reccomend tht you watch it...its sommet new
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- coopei said...
- Posted on Mar 24 2008 18:46 The idea of this film is great, however, like everyone else i know who saw it, you will def be frustrated and breath a heavy sigh after th 5th time of going back to the beginning again! was a good film tho.
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- jiron said...
- Posted on Mar 24 2008 18:08 Was a great must see movie. Different from any other.
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- susan said...
- Posted on Mar 23 2008 22:20 Dreadful film. Ludicrous plot, juvenile script and wooden acting. Very high body count so surprised at its 12A rating.
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- Dalia said...
- Posted on Mar 23 2008 10:43 If you want to laugh for all the wrong reasons then I recommend this pile of cliched RUBBISH!
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Cast & crew
Director: Pete Travis
Cast: Dennis Quaid, Forest Whitaker, William Hurt, Matthew Fox, Eduardo Noriega, Zoë Saldana, Ayelet Zurer, Sigourney Weaver, James LeGros full cast
Duration: 90 mins
US Release: Feb 22 2008
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