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however, the different "vantage points" (vision of the crime scene) make the movie fairly long the plot to the movie only takes about 30 minutes to complete.
I thought it was pretty well done as each person's point of view rewinds events back to the time of the attack, and then branches off to their repsective perspectives. At the end everything gets resolved a bit neatly in terms of who gets what, and there were a couple of things that were a little annoying in that they did not make sense from what was shown of the charactors.
But if you just want to watch a general thriller that has a couple of warts, this one is good. In other words some things bad guys would have done they did not do (do not want to play spolier though).But the small parts were not too objectionable in light of the fact that this is a general thriller and usually there will be one or two things that miss the mark.There are other thrillers that are better, and some other movies portray the switching persepctive/stories better.
I had wanted to see this one since I saw a trailer in the theater, and it looked like it had a good cast with a decent stroyline. Each piece added to the question of who was the good guy or gal, and who was the bad one.It comes together towards the end with a rather traditional chase scene (which was also hinted at throughout the movie in the flashbacks).
If you are a bit picky about thrillers and some logical inconsistencies will be something that detracts, you may not like it as much as I did. It was pretty clear from the trailers that the President was getting shot and different people saw it in different ways.And that is exactly what happens.
And each flashback adds a little bit and piece to what happened and I found myself trying to tie each person and parts together.
The different viewpoints of what took place are reminiscent of the conflicting accounts of the assassination of JFK in 1963, which, of course, has encouraged conspiracy theories.Is this flick designed to encourage Islamophobia. A terrorist spins the car he is driving out of control in order to avoid hitting a little girl on the road. The scene of the assassination of the stand-in US President is reminiscent of St.
He also realizes that the terrorists hope to provoke a US retaliation that would only antagonize peaceful Arabs.Parts of the plot are farfetched: The assassins are totally successful, never make a mistake, and never encounter a serious obstacle to their plans. Is this intended to show that even the most cold-blooded of terrorists can have a heart. The car chasers encounter crash after crash without getting killed.
Perhaps unintentionally, the makers of this flick have made it coincide with some real events. The real US President makes a statement in which he makes it clear that the 5 terrorists from Morocco should not be conflated with the 6 million peaceful citizens of that nation.
Peter's Square, where Pope John Paul II was shot in 1981. I think not.
Over the course of the film, the hour is rewinded and replayed through the eyes of each character until, finally, the audience has the whole story.This was a great action thriller. Forest Whitaker turns in a touching performance as Howard, an American with a troubled marriage in town to observe the festivities. At the culmination of a historic peace summit in Salamanca, Spain, an attempt is made on the life of the President of the United States.
Dennis Quaid plays Agent Thomas Barnes, who's recently returned to the detail after taking a bullet for the President the previous year. There are also several foreign actors in the film that you may not recognize, but who deliver the goods on screen just as well as their famous co-stars - Edgar Ramirez, Ayelet Zurer, Eduardo Noriega, and Said Taghmaqui.I won't spoil how everything shakes out, but the ending had me on the very edge of my seat. William Hurt plays the Prez, and Sigourney Weaver has a great (but small) part as Rex, a television journalist on-site to cover the summit.
Here's the skinny: Vantage Point covers an intense hourlong period in the lives of several key characters. Matthew Fox plays Agent Taylor, who serves on the President's Secret Service detail. I also think the movie made some interesting larger points about global politics and terrorism without bashing us all over the head.See this movie.
Each one of the primary characters sees and knows something about the true culprit. I loved the style and premise of the movie, and I really loved the fact that, even though the movie was largely about action, all the performers were really strong in their roles.The cast was great, with heavy-hitters even in small roles.
Would you believe this one has eight. Too many. And seeing William Hurt (Into the Wild) get shot multiple times was pretty enjoyable, too. Here, he seemed like an overweight but athletic American out of his league carrying a video camera through Spain because.well.we're not sure. But how about six. Which made me nearly turn off the film. from different points of view might be interesting to some. But we had to have a happy ending, sweet and sticky, with Quaid saving the day.
And an ending that is pure schlock. And you'd probably be right. The problem with VANTAGE POINT is that it doesn't take into consideration two very important things: the point of view of the watcher, and a believable storyline. Far, far, far too many. Not being that much of a fan of Dennis Quaid didn't help matters for me either -- the only two films with him in them that I enjoyed were Enemy Mine and The Big Easy.
You might think that four or five points of view would be the maximum allowable for something like this. Terrorists who need to hire an assassin. And they all start just about the same place, which grated on the nerves after a short while. Let me explain.Seeing a situation/crime/etc.
Having seen Whitaker in The Last King of Scotland, I know what he's capable of. Matthew Fox (Speed Racer) as agent Kent Taylor was completely miscast and unbelievable. I doubt that. The rest of his movie repertoire is questionable to say the least; Jaws 3-D, Yours, Mine & Ours, The Day After Tomorrow, etc.I will say, however, that the action was fun to watch. But probably the most miscast of all the characters was Forest Whitaker.
Doppleganger Presidents. If terrorists are prepared to kill, maim, and destroy innocent people in order to get to the President of the United States, would running over a girl stop them. Ugh. The big and final letdown was the ending of this film. But if you're going to do that, you need to make sure that there are engaging points that aren't repeated ad nauseam.
But that's where my enjoyment stopped. Double Secret Service agents. Or seven. The storyline is pretty ridiculous, too.
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