Flicks, Andrew Hedley
Reminiscent of an episode of 24, complete with narrative gimmickry, Vantage Point comes across as an entertaining television pilot; fast-paced, tightly edited, but ultimately lightweight.
Full review
Vantage Point
With a Rashômon narrative style, the attempted assassination of the American president (William Hurt) on a visit to Spain is told from several different perspectives.
Thomas Barnes (Dennis Quaid) and Kent Taylor (Matthew Fox) are two Secret Service agents assigned to protect the president at a landmark summit on the global war on terror. In the crowd is Howard Lewis (Forest Whitaker), an American tourist videotaping the historic event to show his kids when he returns home. Also there is Rex (Sigourney Weaver), an American TV news producer who is reporting on the conference. Each one of these people has witnessed a part of the puzzle.
Thomas Barnes (Dennis Quaid) and Kent Taylor (Matthew Fox) are two Secret Service agents assigned to protect the president at a landmark summit on the global war on terror. In the crowd is Howard Lewis (Forest Whitaker), an American tourist videotaping the historic event to show his kids when he returns home. Also there is Rex (Sigourney Weaver), an American TV news producer who is reporting on the conference. Each one of these people has witnessed a part of the puzzle.
2008Rating: M, Violence & Offensive Language90 minsUSA
ActionThriller
- Director:
- Pete Travis ('Omagh')
- Writer:
- Barry Levy
- Cast:
- Matthew FoxWilliam HurtDennis QuaidSigourney WeaverForest WhitakerEdgar Ramirez
Vantage Point / Reviews
Time Magazine
The movie is best seen as straightforward, sometimes harrowing melodrama, packed with mistaken identities, beautiful villains, a kindly tourist who can outrace the bad guys, and a lost little girl whom the film brazenly sends onto a highway full of speeding cars. It's as if Dakota Fanning had wandered onto the streets of Ronin.
Full reviewThe New York Times
This is competent if completely impersonal filmmaking of a familiar type that finds the usual allotment of famous, or at least famous enough, actors.
Full review
New Zealand Herald
A one-trick cinematic gimmick whose sleight of hand fails to disguise its shortcomings, this big-budget, big-name thriller is little more than a long and frustrating prelude to an unremarkable car chase.
Full review
Hollywood Reporter
Straight out of the slice-and-dice school of filmmaking, Vantage Point fractures chronology and perspective in a vain attempt to disguise its flimsiness.
Full review
Empire Magazine
Some okay thrills with good performances and some smarts. But the last reel plunge spoils things. Myth for the new millennium: any average, out-of-shape middle-aged Yank, including the President, can get in a punch-up with a few well-armed, super-trained terrorists, and win.
Full review
Christchurch Press
Loaded with cliches, but there's enough action and unexpected twists to keep you interested for an hour and a half - if you can stand the Groundhog Day elements.
Full review
BBC
Vantage Point is an average thriller built on a neat gimmick. The idea is this: We see US president William Hurt assassinated at a Spanish summit. In fact, we see it happen eight times, from different eight points of view. So, we get Sigourney Weaver's TV news producer trying to cover the story, Dennis Quaid's secret service man searching for the shooter, Forest Whittaker's tourist filming the whole thing on his camcorder, and so on. Gradually, these frayed threads cohere into an extremely implausible whodunit.
Full review
Share