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SYNOPSIS:
During an historic counter-terrorism summit in Spain the President
of the United States is struck down by an assassin's bullet.
Eight strangers have a perfect view of the kill but what did
they really see? As the minutes leading up to the fatal shot
are replayed through the eyes of each eyewitness the reality
of the assassination takes shape. But just when you think
you know the answer the shattering final truth is revealed.
MOVIE
REVIEW
To tell the truth, I’m far more impressed with
the technicalities of "Vantage Point" than anything
else. The repeatedly showing of the President being shot and
a bomb going off is sad to say, tedious rather than gimmicky.
Now imagine watching it at least four times in this 88 minutes
movie.
That
is not to conclude that "Vantage Point" is without
its merits. There’s a saying that we shouldn’t
look at things from a single perspective. Perhaps this is
the main message "Vantage Point" is trying to put
across.
As
Dennis Quaid himself says, "Everybody has his 15 minutes
of fame". From the multiple points of view, we slowly
learnt that Quaid’s character is suffering from the
after-effects of taking a bullet for the President in the
year before. The local Spanish cop (Eduardo Noriega)has his
fair share of relationship problem followed by the videocam
tourist played by Academy Award winner Forest Whitaker who
is taking a break from his estranged wife and lastly the terrorist’
target, the President of the United States (William Hurt).
While
it might sound that the screenwriter is trying to up the tension
and adding in more depth to the characters, it fails miserly
as to why the terrorist act was not so much as accountable
for in the end. The loopholes are especially obvious if you
are "forced" to go over the crime scenes all over
again. You got to ask yourself in what ways do the various
character developments contribute to the terrorist act? In
addition, the surprise twist in the end didn’t really
add much spice to the otherwise bland broth either.
Pardon
my ranting but I’m not particularly impressed with the
"Bourne" inspired shaky car-chase sequence in the
end too. On the whole, "Vantage Point" was partly
salvage by the impressive cast including Quaid, Hurt, Whitaker,
Noriega, Matthew Fox and Sigourney Weaver who deserved the
Best Cameo nomination if there’s one. As I mentioned
earlier, technically director Pete Travis and his editor,
Stuart Baird did manage to concoct a slick and fast-cutting
action political drama. To the filmmakers: Just remember be
kind and refrain from rewinding too much next time.
SPECIAL FEATURES :
Director's Commentary – Pete Travis delivered
a competent commentary track explaining in details how certain
scenes were shot and how the plot evolved. We even get to
know details such as Mexico standing in for Spain and the
car chase sequence which were inspired by “The French
Connection” and “The Bourne Trilogies”.
Vantage
Point: An Inside Perspective – A 26 minutes
interview segment with the cast and crew including director
Pete Travis and writer Barry Levy.
Plotting
an Assassination – The Barry Levy’s story
is discussed by the writer himself and the cast, mostly about
they fell in love with the script. 10 minutes of that.
Coordinating
Chaos – The stunts in the movie are dissected
by the director, producer and stunt coordinator.
Surveillance
Tapes – Surprise, surprise…a tongue in
cheek appearance by the director.
Trailers
– Hancock, 21, Prom Night, The House Bunny and many
more.
AUDIO/VISUAL:
"Vantage
Point" is presented in 2.40:1 widescreen. The location
shooting looks pretty good onscreen and no visible flaws are
detected. For the price of one, you get to repeatedly hear
the bomb going off and several gunshots towards the end to
get the surround 5.1 going. Dialogue is not a problem at all.
MOVIE
RATING:
 
DVD
RATING :
Review
by Linus Tee
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