Vantage Point

Plot synopsis:
U.S. President Henry Ashton (Hurt) attends a political summit in Salamanca, Spain, to promote an international treaty. Displayed with eight differing viewpoints, an assassination attempt on the president occurs, relayed in a time span of 23 minutes. Each time the events unfold from the beginning, a new vantage point is shown revealing additional details, which ultimately completes the story of what actually took place during the incident.
From the first vantage point, GNN producer Rex Brooks (Weaver), directs various media personnel from a mobile television studio as the president arrives at the gathering. Mayor De Soto (Rodriguez) delivers a short speech and then introduces the president, who is shot twice as he greets the crowd from the podium. An explosion outside the plaza soon follows. Moments later, the podium itself is destroyed by a secondary explosion, killing and injuring numerous people. As the smoke clears, GNN reporter Angie Jones (Saldana) is seen lying dead in the rubble.
The second vantage point follows Secret Service agents Thomas Barnes (Quaid) and Kent Taylor (Fox). Barnes notices a curtain fluttering in the window of a nearby building that was allegedly vacated. He also observes American tourist Howard Lewis (Whitaker) filming the audience. After the president is shot, Barnes tackles a man rushing to the podium named Enrique (Noriega). Taylor pursues a lead to a potential assassin. Following the second explosion, Barnes barges into the GNN production studio and asks to view their footage. He calls Taylor, who reports the direction of the suspected assassin's escape route. Barnes then views an image on one of the camera's live feeds that startles him and prompts him to run out.
In the third vantage point, Enrique, a Spanish police officer assigned to protecting the mayor of Salamanca, sees his girlfriend Veronica (Zurer), being embraced by a stranger and overhears them speaking about meeting under an overpass. When he confronts her, Veronica assures Enrique of her love for him as he hands her a bag. When the president is shot, Enrique rushes onto the stage to protect the mayor, but is tackled by Barnes. While being detained, he witnesses Veronica toss the bag he gave her under the podium, causing the second explosion. Enrique escapes as the agents who previously had him in custody mount a chase while firing shots in his direction, failing to subdue him. Enrique confronts an unseen individual at the overpass and asks if he is surprised to see him still alive.
The fourth vantage point revolves around Howard Lewis who is chatting with a man called Sam (Taghmaoui), while a little girl named Anna (Zapien), bumps into him and drops her ice cream. Later, Lewis notices Barnes looking at the curtain fluttering in the window of a nearby building, and captures the footage with his camcorder. Following the second explosion at the podium, Lewis chases Enrique and the pursuing Secret Service agents. At the overpass, Lewis views the pair of agents from afar shooting in the direction of Enrique as he greets an individual in a police uniform under the overpass. Seriously wounded, Enrique falls to the ground. Lewis sees Anna who had earlier become separated from her mother, trying to cross a busy intersection. An ambulance races down the road about to hit Anna, as Lewis runs out to save her.
The fifth vantage point begins as President Ashton, having been informed of a credible assassination threat, has returned to his hotel room with his aides while his body double proceeds to the gathering in the plaza. The President talks with his personnel about the reason for the terrorists' plot, the retaliation by the U.S. to the plot, the return of Barnes to active duty, and giving the order for the retaliation to proceed. The first explosion occurs just outside the hotel. Seconds later, a masked assailant bursts into the president's room, shoots his advisers and then proceeds to abduct Ashton.
By the sixth vantage point, terrorist Suarez, previously seen as Sam, shoots Ashton's body double using a remote-controlled automatic rifle placed in an adjacent window next to the one with the fluttering curtain that had drawn Barnes' attention earlier. The rifle is retrieved by Taylor, who Barnes sees leaving the scene wearing a Spanish policeman's uniform on one of the GNN live feeds, even though he tells Barnes that he's in pursuit of the assassin over the phone. Barnes realizes Taylor is actually part of the terror plot. The man Enrique saw embracing Veronica is revealed to be sharpshooter Javier (Ramirez), whose brother is being held hostage to ensure Javier's cooperation with the terrorists. The first explosion, at the hotel, is revealed to be a device detonated by a suicide bomber disguised as a bellhop who had previously handed Javier a hotel room key. Javier kills the guards and aides within the hotel, and kidnaps the president. Ashton is later placed in an ambulance with Suarez and Veronica disguised as medics. Javier joins Taylor in a police car to a planned rendezvous at the overpass. Barnes commandeers a car and chases Taylor and Javier. Barnes gets into a collision with a truck, allowing the duo to escape. At the overpass, Enrique, who did not die in the blast at the podium as intended, confronts Javier and Taylor. Enraged, Javier shoots Enrique, mistakenly believing he had knowledge of his kidnapped brother's whereabouts. Javier is then shot and killed by Taylor when he demands to be brought to his brother, who had been killed earlier by Suarez. Enrique dies of his wounds as Barnes reaches the scene on foot firing several rounds at Taylor, who attempts to flee. After crashing his car, a critically injured Taylor is dragged out by Barnes. He orders Taylor to reveal where the president has been taken, but Taylor dies. Meanwhile, Ashton regains consciousness in the ambulance and attacks Veronica, distracting her and Suarez just as Anna runs into their path. Suarez swerves causing the ambulance to flip over just as Lewis pulls Anna out of its way. Barnes runs to the ambulance where he sees Veronica lying dead. He shoots Suarez dead and rescues the president.

Tags: romantic, mystery, murder, flashback

Review:
As the Bourne series raises the bar for action films, and audiences balk at two-plus hour runtimes, the filmmakers of Vantage Point seem like they are trying to bring a fresh, new, unconventional take on the action/thriller genre.
Though it may annoy some people, I felt the new take turns Vantage Point into a taut terrorist thriller.The new take or approach is jumping right into the moment (everything is already planned out, people and weapons in place, etc.) of the action and then telling it from eight different points of view.
This is where some people may be mildly irritated because after you see one point of view everything is suddenly rewound and shown from the next person's point of view (this is done six times) before they all converge into a thrilling finale filled with one massive adrenaline-fuelled car/chase sequence.Because of the complex twists and turns of the plot and characters I will be brief, very brief actually, on the plot.
The editing must be commended in this film as it blends all the points of views so sophisticatedly you cannot help being engrossed, and the star-studded cast includes Dennis Quaid, Mathew Fox, Forest Whitaker, William Hurt, and Sigourney Weaver simply adds to everything.In the theater I was watching some people called out their annoyance of "again?!" on the fifth rewind, which I find amusing as the filmmakers are simply trying to come up with something new in these sequel-ridden times.
And probably as those same people say Hollywood is "out of ideas" they get angry when it tries something "different" and would rather go spend their money on Spider-man 8.I felt Vantage Point was an intelligent thriller, and yes it had its' share of implausible plot points, but these were minor as the new technique makes you feel like you have an all-seeing surveillance system.
Slowly, I got drawn into things, and by the time the we were at the fourth vantage point, I was fascinated by how all the stories interrelated with each other, and wondering the story would end up.The acting is uniformly excellent, especially that of Dennis Quaid, who I had previously considered a mostly comic actor, but is very convincing here as a Secret Service agent.The direction and script are also excellent, especially when you consider both are first-timers in the world of feature films.
Seeing all the plot threads converge in such a convincing matter was nice, as was the final action scene, which seems like it was plucked right out of one of the Bourne films.
It gets a little annoying because each time it stops, the audience is left on a cliffhanger which carries the film's tension into the next character.As for what the film promises, it promises a good puzzle, suspense and intense action.
The film is told from multiple viewpoints and the events that transpire within a 23-minute time frame, thus a Groundhog Day-like experience.Vantage Point is really just an action film .
The result is a cool action flick with some clever storytelling that sort of fizzles in the end.In "Vantage Point," the President of the United States (William Hurt) arrives in Salamanca, Spain to give a speech on global terrorism efforts and ties with Spain to improve them.
The terrorists are entirely new faces, which is no real surprise.As the film first presents the vantage point concept, the first thirty or forty-five minutes develop a redundancy.
I really enjoyed this movie, because of it's editing, wonderful actors and full packed action.The movie tells the same story from 8 different persepectives, most of them from a character view, makes the puzzle clear till the end.
They all culminate at about the same point and once we've seen all of them the action continues from there into a perfect ending.This film really gets going right away and there is no time for a potty break.
At the end new vantage point is shown revealing additional details, which definitively completes the flick of what really took place during the incident and who was involved in the conspiracy.Stirring as well as exciting film packs noisy action , thrills , suspense , explosions , violence , twits and turns .
The cast includes: that includes Sigourney Weaver (the only one who does not annoy), Forest Whitaker (dude, you just won an Oscar and this is what you come up with next?), Matthew Fox (if you're gonna be picky about movies at least pick something worthwhile), Dennis Quaid (how many times do we have to see a way-passed-middle-aged man play the action hero who saves the world?), Said Taghmaoui (just look how impartial the filmmakers are that they cast an Arab to play a terrorist leader!), Eduardo Noriega (as the Spanish police who had no clue before it was too late), Ayelet Zurer (a hot she-terrorist who's obviously there for eye-candy), Zoe Saldana (the annoying reporter for whom we're supposed to feel sorry because of her untimely death)Edgar Ramirez (the typical innocent-guy-who's-forced-by-circumstances or else terrorists will kill his brother) and William Hurt (the American president who can do no wrong).
While you do not need and in depth character study for all films, usually there is someone you emphasize with.As I watch the film, the fourth time the story rewound, the scoffs in the theater had become out-loud laughs, and not the good kind, the kind that tells you the rest of the audience agrees with your own thought of how stupid the film really is.In the end, there is no real story and surprisingly mediocre performances from actors who usually perform rather well.
Inside Plaza Mayor in Salamanca, Spain the president (William Hurt) is preparing himself to make a speech on the anti-terrorism international summit For months, President Ashton has been working with leaders from five continents to take a stand against global terror Security services were on high alert But suddenly agent Thomas Barnes (Dennis Quaid) saw something like a flash of light and two shots were heard The president appears to have been hit It also appears there was a mysterious woman with the name of Veronica (Ayelet Zurer) throwing 'something' underneath the podium But soon Barnes discovers that something has gone rogue and there's something else going on It's like somebody has been set up It's like this war will never end Viewed through different points of view and multiple perspectives, "Vantage Point" is an extremely energetic motion picture featuring the best I've seen of car chases used to maximum effect by director Pete Travis.
The real problem is that the eight perspectives of the 'event' are all from people that were at the same place & time and the audience must suffer through eight dull recounts of the same story with the added bonus of a little piece of the puzzle thrown in at the very end of the eight separate segments.
Vantage Point" attempts to show a violent day in Spain from several view points: an American tourist with a video camera, a Spanish police officer, A CNN-like news network, an American president, the a secret service agent who took a bullet for him, and the terrorist plot to attack him.
I think the ending was satisfying because the "good" people survived, and the "bad" were exposed, and the secret service agent played by Dennis Quaid was victorious.
Dennis Quaid and William Hurt star in this action thriller with a twist (or better yet, gimmick): the events leading up to the attempted assassination of an American president who is visiting Spain are told from several individuals' points of view.
The movie follows the events of the president getting shot and goes through several different characters or different points and shows the event as they see it and what happens to them.
The cast includes Denis Quad, Mathew Fox, William Hurt, Forrest Whitaker and Sigourney Weaver.This movie was well under the radar for me as I didn't hear of it until seeing the trailer on a DVD for some over movie; I think it was "The Assignation of Jesse James by The Coward Robert Ford." So once seeing the trailer I automatically thought this looked like a ripper of a movie and I wasn't let down.The story is greatly written and intertwined, i couldn't help but wonder how awkward and mind bending it would be to have read it on script.Great acting by all in the cast, except for Mathew Fox, for me he just seemed like a less talkative Jack.
I also though the two less Hollywood actors Edgar Ramirez and Said Taghmaoui did great job in portraying their characters and were stern on screen.The movie was put together and shot great, when you just think you're about to find out something from the plot the rewind happens the camera angles are lined up great to keep you guessing.I quite enjoyed this movie and found nothing at all bad about it.
After the disappointment I have been through after many movies, this movie give me a good feeling about this year, I hope that this year will be much better than the last one, hoping to see new thrillers that will make anyone shock about it stories and conclusion, Vantage Point is really a good start for the year, I know this movie is not awesome or even great ,but I found it a worth movie to watch.Vantage Point: Good story, good visuals, amazing acting, high class of entertaining, I think this movie deserve a chance especially it is in the beginning of the year.
The plot on this one wouldn't even hold water as a first-person shooter video game.And the ridiculous multiple "vantage points" just makes it all the more obvious how ludicrous the story is.Dennis Quaid spends the entire movie looking like he's constipated - or at least completely confused about what the movie is about (along with the rest of us).There are no characters, so there can't be any character development.Who would be stupid enough to greenlight something like this?Everyone associated with this film should be blackballed from Hollywood..
In this case, it is NOWHERE near as good ...A compelling premise with the star power of this effort (William Hurt, Forrest Whittiker - both Best Actor award winners - as well as Sigourney Weaver, Dennis Quaid, Matthew Fox and Bruce McGill, among others) should have brought forth a fascinating motion picture.It didn't.Director Pete Travis (in his feature film debut) chooses to bog the movie down by actually rewinding each scene after it takes place, forcing us to view a presidential assassination from the viewpoint of seven different people.Actually, it's not a viewpoint, but rather a separate sequence for each person involved, and, by the third rehash, the group I attended the screening with was openly disdainful.The plot of "Vantage Point" has President Ashton (Hurt) attending an anti-terrorist summit in Spain, only to be shot.
When the sequence centered on a little girl that Howard bumped into at the summit, all hope of recovery was lost.We later find out that Javier's brother has been kidnapped, the president isn't who he is supposed to be, dozens of Secret Service agents are really easy for one man to kill, news director Sigourney Weaver is one of the few characters not to get her own plot line, there's a traitor in the Secret Service, it's relatively simple to execute a wild car chase down the crowded, narrow streets of a Spanish city and terrorists - no matter how evil - have a soft spot in their hearts for little girls who wander onto busy highways.Yes, that last little item put this movie over the top and into the dumpster for me.
A violent, heartless terror cell willing and able to kill hundreds, if not thousands, is brought to its knees by a small moppet who never learned how to cross the street properly.So, after all of the slayings (most EVERYONE dies in this misadventure), beatings, explosions and rehashed sequences, there's really no vantage and no point to this film at all.In fact, it's the paying audience who will be at a real disadvantage here, having to sit through seven bad short films which add up to one big turkey shoot..
I thought the movie had a good plot the only problem i had was them going back and showing the event from a different point of view about 5 times.
But any film that is this pisspoor in terms of production value and also features crap performances by the likes of Forest Whitaker, Dennis Quaid, and Sigourney Weaver can only be blamed on one person: the director.Not even a studio could f up a flick this bad..
My advice is if you haven't seen this yet don't bother you wont of missed anything worth watching ,And if do go see it don't be surprised if you come away from the cinema wishing you had spent your hard earned cash on something more worth while.I would by no means recommend this movie to anyone the whole movie is a complete disaster from start to finish, what was the director thinking continually repeating the same scene,s again and again, it did nothing to help the storyline at all, & the shame of it is that with such fine actors to work with they didn't achieve much well not unless you want a movie to bore you to sleep!!..
While I could have seen him used a bit better, he was a hero in his own right and played the part to a "T".Quaid may be showing his age but he played his part without a flaw and I loved his "Cape Walk".A very good use of multiple plots, multiple views - very effective and built the suspense to the boiling point!
I never have seen Rashomon, but from seeing this movie, I can say it is well made, not just because of its intense action sequences but also from its unique story.Vantage Point is about the president's assassination attempt told through the eyes of eight strangers.
From the first scene itself, it makes use of its premise and introduces the plot, and from there on, the movies starts going into a loop, revealing other characters, and with each loop, revealing important new secrets, which change how you look at the plot.You might think, or must have read that it is grating to see the same thing happening all over so many times, but believe me, each time, the story focuses on a different character, and doesn't just show the same thing all over again, but instead, adds new angles and details to the plot.As for performances, almost everyone involved did a good job in the movie, and deserve credit.
The movie tells the same story from 8 different perspectives, most of them from a character view and finally adds up to make a great ending.
A great Concept turned out Well (NOT THE BEST BUT GOOD ENOUGH )............overall its a film for action movie lovers.
While it's an innovative premise, the film doesn't really offer any variety; each character sees essentially the same thing, so a great deal of the movie is just you being forced to watch something you've already seen from a slightly different perspective.My second biggest issue with the movie: Dennis Quaid.
Vantage Point is not a film it's merely a series of repetitive action sequences cleverly edited together with little in the way of plot or story to glue everything together.
It got me literally on the edge of my seat, sweating, and my heart was actually beating hard in anticipation, which sadly I rarely feel while watching other action movies.Some people might think that the scenes where they show different point of views are repetitive, but for me, someone who is perfectionist and tend to over-analyze, I actually love it because just like reality, life doesn't have one exact linear storyline.
There's a few faces like Dennis Quaid and Forest Whitaker (and to a lesser extent Sigourney Weaver, but only because she doesn't get much screen time) that you know to expect a decent performance from, but the less known folks mostly put up a decent showing as well.Overall, the film puts together some conventional and less conventional elements in a convincing manner, backed up with nice overall acting, directing and story-telling.
The way Forest Whittaker, Sigourney Weaver and other play is excellent, but the only weak point in the movie is the final moment when the main terrorist sees a child, Ana, and doesn't run her over in his car This sudden act of mercy does totally contradict his character and makes a final a bit too syrupy.
I have been looking forward to seeing this movie for months now,, and finally got around to watching it,, Dennis Quaid was just great in this one,, i wish that Sigourney Weaver had more to chew on in this one,, but she was also very good, for the limited time that she was on,, Forest Whitaker's character,strange indeed, i don't think it's like anything i've ever see him play before,, the rest of the cast is pretty much unknown to me,, all of the Spanish actors / actresses and all,, i like the plot,, about the Presidential Assassaination,, but then again i'm a conspiracy theorist, about Kennedy as well,, the grassy knoll, the lone assassain,, dream on, magic bullet,, anyways,, in this one,, someone is gunning for the president of the united states,,we don't know why in the beginninng,, now this one keeps rewinding itself,, to show you the different points of view, from the 8 major players in here,, i thought that that was very unique of the director to do that for a big budget film,, i felt like it was unique,, and a big risk,, all the action was plausible,, but only reason not giving it a perfect score is the ending,, nuff said..