Dennis Quaid- Thomas Barnes
Mathew Fox- Kent Taylor
Forest Whitaker- Howard Lewis
William Hurt- President Ashton
Eduardo Noriega- Enrique
Egar Ramirez- Javier
Ayelet Zurer- Veronica
Sigourney Weaver- Rex Brooks
Zoe Saldana- Angie Jones
Said Taghmaoui- Suarez
Bruce McGill- Phil McCullough
Richard T. Jones- Holden
Directed by Pete Travis
Screenplay by Barry Levy
Distributed by Columbia Pictures
Rated PG-13 for sequences of intense violence and action, some disturbing images and brief strong language
Runtime- 90 minutes
Website: http://www.vantagepoint-movie.com/
By the end of the gimmicky action mystery movie "Vantage Point" I was both enthralled and deeply annoyed. Because on one hand, "Vantage Point" is a tight, well made action spectacle with a superb cast that's obviously very into what it's doing. But on the other hand, it's a lame, corny "message" movie, something that it really has no business trying to be. Instead of focussing on and following through with the specific story at hand, a presidential assassination attempt told through five different perspectives, both first time director Pete Travis and first time screenwriter Barry Levy decide to tell us that America, and Americans, are great.
Well, that's just fabulous.
The five different perspectives range from the Secret Service (Dennis Quaid, playing Agent Thomas Barnes), to the actual President (William Hurt, as President Ashton), to the media covering the President's trip to Spain to attend an anti-terrorism summit (Sigourney Weaver as Rex Brooks and Zoe Saldana as reporter Angie Jones), to an American tourist on hand because, well, he's an American tourist (Forest Whitaker as Howard Lewis), and the local population (Eduardo Noriega, as local cop Enrique). We get to see the run up to and the eventual assassination followed by the immediate chaotic aftermath, and then the movie "rewinds" itself twenty three minutes to before the attempt and starts over again from a different perspective. This gimmick works for the most part. The story starts to lose steam towards the end as the grand mystery that gets the movie going is eventually revealed to be not as interesting as originally assumed. The flick is then saved by a spectacular sub compact car chase set piece through the narrow streets of Mexico City, subbing for the streets of Salamanca, Spain.
As I said, the cast is superb. Spot on. Quaid's Secret Service Agent Thomas Barnes is old, craggy, obviously been through a lot. He doesn't show much emotion beyond being stoic and deeply concerned when the hooha hits the fan, but as the essential center of the movie he doesn't have to. He's got one job, protect the President. Quaid is a better actor than most people give him credit for, and with Barnes (or a character very similar) Quaid could easily be the anchor of a major action franchise. Mathew Fox, as the shady Agent Kent Taylor, holds up well with Quaid. Hurt just looks presidential. Sigourney Weaver is outstanding as the news director in the truck. Zoey Saldana has that cocky, high brow "liberal media" thing down pat. Eduardo Noriega is just awesome as local cop Enrique. His character could have carried the whole movie by itself. He's that good. Edgar Ramirez and Ayelet Zurer are fine in their roles.
And special mention should be made of both Bruce "D-Day" McGill as Presidential advisor Phil McCullough and the undersued Richard T. Jones as Secret Service Agent Holden. It's always great to see both of them in anything, especially Jones. He'd be a fine addition to a Dennis Quaid franchise. And D-Day is, well, D-Day.
And then there's Forest Whitaker's American tourist Howard Lewis. Whitaker is his usual outstanding self here, but why is his character here at all? This is where the overt political commentary comes in. Now, Lewis isn't the sole element of political commentary in the movie, as Zoe Saldana's whole part is based on the idea that the so called liberal media loves to talk bullstuff but when the sky starts to fall they ball up and cry like a bunch of women because they all went to college and got degrees and hate the military, etc. President Ashton engages in some obvious political commentary on the current real world "war on terrorism." But when it comes to Whitaker's Lewis, you can just see the director and the screenwriter yelling at the audience "Look at how freaking humble and good Americans, real Americans, not politicians, are! They'll help anyone!" And while that's to a degree absolutely true, do we really need it in this movie? Plot wise, Lewis is there taping the pre-summit festivities, ends up catching one of the potential criminals on tape, and is then asked by Quaid's Barnes if he saw the shooter, etc. But, really, that could have been anyone in the crowd. The guy with the camera really doesn't need his own segment. So why is he there? Again, he's an American tourist, he helps people on the chaos after the attack, and he somehow figures into the end of the movie in an improbable (even for a movie) way. Maybe Whitaker's part is there as cover for Hurt, so no one can claim that the movie hates America (yeah, and when has that kind of thing ever stopped some yahoo from yelling loudly that Hollywood hates America?). Eventhough Whitaker is great in the part, the part itself drags the movie down. If Whitaker was not in the movie in the part of Lewis the flick would most definitely be a total disaster. I just wish the movie makers had more confidence in the story and just played it straight.
Because when you consider all of that you start to wonder about the motivation of the bad guys. Why are they bad guys? Who the heck knows. They're just evil, I guess. That'd work in a regular old action movie, but not in a movie that aspires to be something more.
See what I mean by this commentary stuff not working all that well? It should have been jettisoned from the get go.
"Vantage Point" isn't a great movie by any means, but it's not a bad way to waste ninety minutes of your life. Just don't be surprised if you're annoyed by the end.
So what do we have here? An anti-terror summit in Salamanca, Spain, gratuitous Sigourney Weaver, gratuitous stock footage of Dennis Quaid taking a bullet for the President, gratuitous liberal media, an explosion, a weird egg necklace, gratuitous "rewind 23 minutes," which happens several times, putting magazine in a Glock, gratuitous Presidential motorcade, watching TV in a limo, gratuitous protesters, gratuitous baby in crowd, gratuitous Forest Whitaker, tackling a guy in a white shirt, man on fire, metal detector, elbow to the face, gratuitous Richard T. Jones, running into a cafe, running across a busy multi-lane highway, waving children, gratuitous little girl with an ice cream cone, attempted Kim Richards, a switcheroo, gratuitous Bruce McGill, "attacking" Morocco, stealing a kid's mini flag, using a cell phone as a remote control, a fan, shooting a cleaning lady (two in the chest, center mass), gratuitous killing people, tape bondage, knife to the lung, chloroform, gratuitous sub compact car chase through narrow streets, cars go down stairs, gratuitous delivery truck, a concrete pillar, a flipping ambulance, gratuitous CGI Presidential helicopter, and Spiro Razatos as the stunt coordinator.
Best lines: "Angie, what the hell was that?," "Hey, I'm cool with censorship. I know the American people love that," "It's Thomas Barnes," "Remember, we're here for the summit, not the sideshow," "The President of the United States has been shot," "What are the chances he freaks out the minute we walk?," "Find that shooter!," "This never should have happened," "What? What did he see?," "Police. I work for the mayor," "Surprised to see me alive?," "It's amazing," "I go where the moment takes me," "The NSA has just confirmed the threat," "Sir, we've used doubles since Reagan," "You want me to call in an airstrike on a friendly Arab nation?," "He doesn't even look like me," "No, we're not going near the 25th Amendment," "Mr. President, we have to act strong. No, we have to be strong," "The beauty of American arrogance is that they can't believe in a world where they're not always a step ahead," "Secret Service! I need your car!," "We need to tie up all of the loose ends," and "Christ! It's Barnes!"
"Vantage Point." See it.
The 411: "Vantage Point" is equal parts excellent action mystery movie and annoying political diatribe about how great Americans are. The pseudo patriotism just comes on too strong. Forest Whitaker is fine, but he doesn't really need to be in the movie. It's not bad, though. Not terrible, at least.
Standard negative comment re: your movie review format.
You make me never want to hear, speak, type, even think of the word gratuitous.
Posted By: Phi (Guest) on February 28, 2008 at 11:09 PM
As goofy as this sounds, your review, just makes it sound more interesting. Sometimes it is good to be annoyed.
Posted By: MystikCode (Registered) on March 01, 2008 at 11:47 AM
Uh, you were all over the map with this one, bro. First Forrest Wittaker's presence in the movie is unnecessary, then the movie is a disaster without him. Someone needs to lay off the energy drinks, methinks.
Posted By: Frank (Guest) on March 01, 2008 at 12:12 PM
Forest Whitaker is a great actor. The guy can act in anything, even in a totally unnecessary part like this one. So in one sense I wish he wasn't there, and in another sense, since the moviemakers oh so wanted to have the Lewis part in there, I'm glad he did it. That's what I said.
Posted By: Bryan Kristopowitz (Registered) on March 02, 2008 at 01:23 AM
