Vantage Point (2008)
Director: Pete Travis
Writer(s):Barry Levy
Release Date:February 22, 2008
Genre: Drama | Thriller
Plot:President Ashton (William Hurt) is attending a global war on terror summit in Spain. Thomas Barnes (Dennis Quaid) and Kent Taylor (Matthew Fox) are two of the Secret Service agents assigned to protect him. This is the first action that Agent Barnes has been in since he took a bullet for President Ashton six-month earlier. We really dont know if Agent Barnes is up to the challenge of protecting the President. Shortly after President Ashton is escorted to the stage in the plaza by the Secret Service, he is immediately shot twice by a rifle from a window and falls to the floor. The crowd is in shock and chaos breaks out all over, especially, when bombs begin to explode. Howard Lewis (Forest Whitaker) is an American video-taping the event to show to his children that he was actually there at this historic event. He believes that he has the picture of the man who shot the President. Agent Barnes sees the tape and has a clue to that person. Several different people witness the event, and only through their eyes do we see the truth behind the assassination attempt. (credit to users imdb.com users)
Awards: 1 win
Cast:Dennis Quaid, Matthew Fox, Forest Whitaker, Sigourney Weaver, William Hurt
MPAA: Rated PG-13 for sequences of intense violence and action, some disturbing images and brief strong language.
Box Office: $72,266,306
When me and my family rented it, I was skeptical. Action movies make me want to just see it in 3x speed. There’s not much for me in an action movie. But I saw it anyway; in 1x speed. My first step into watching this movie was, as with all movies, to get the opinioning of my parents, who saw the movie before I did. There were mixed reviews and a big warning from my papa-chan. But I held my breath and pressed play.
The beginning was OK. Military was never my thing so I got a little antsy. I won’t get into a lot of the details. So I’ll get right to the point. The whole let’s go back in time 8 times really tickled my angry box. I hated it. After the 3rd time I was ready to just fast forward to the end to see what happens.
Another bad thing about the flashbacks, by the 3rd or 4th one, I knew exactly what was going on. I knew who did, who was involved, and what was going to happen. That’s not a good thing. It became so predictable that I knew what the 5th flashback was going to show and the 6th. Forget that they were all of different people perceptions of the event that was currently happening. I knew who did what and what was going to happen.
I guess that was the point of the flashbacks but they gave too much information in them. By the time the surprise was going to hit you, instead of saying “For real!?!?!” you would end up saying, “I knew it!”.
I don’t know if that was what they were looking for or what, but I felt that it shouldn’t have. The ending should have been a big surprise and it wasn’t for me.
The acting was good. The action was thrilling. Overall, it was a good movie. There was some flaws and the setbacks but it was OK.
C
It was somewhat entertaining but not awe-inspiring goodness.
MYV382
Allis R.
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