Vantage Point(Blu-ray) (2008)

"...a terrific thriller...The setup is so riveting, the suspense so carefully prolonged...  Lawrence Toppman, Charlotte Observer
"Hold your breath. Vantage Point is a nonstop thrill ride!  Rex Reed, The Observer
"An intelligent and intense thriller! Vantage Point is a first rate action movie.  Shawn Edwards, FOX-TV
"...a slick and exciting film...  Shawn Levy, Portland Oregonian
"...exciting and original...the action is never mindless and it is full of marvelous surprises every step of the way.  William Arnold, Seattle Post-Intelligencer

Editor's Note A presidential assassination attempt is told from multiple points of view in Pete Travis's directorial debut, VANTAGE POINT. U.S. president Ashton (William Hurt) is in Salamanca, Spain (though much of the film was actually shot in Mexico), to announce plans for a major global summit on terrorism. But as he stands behind the podium in front of an adoring crowd (with protesters blocked off from the stage), he is shot twice, followed shortly by a small explosion and then a massive blast. Secret Service Agents Barnes (Dennis Quaid), Taylor (Matthew Fox), and Holden (Richard T. Jones) immediately jump into action, trying to find the terrorists responsible amid all the chaos. The thriller first shows the events through the eyes of television news producer Rex Brooks (Sigourney Weaver), and then the film rewinds, replaying the action from a different point of view. Each perspective reveals a few more clues, then rewinds again, taking the audience through the assassination attempt and its aftermath again. VANTAGE POINT has the feel of the 1950 Akira Kurosawa classic RASHOMON, told with the speed of the television show 24. The all-star cast also includes Forest Whitaker, who gives another fine performance, playing an American tourist recording everything on his video camera. The rewind device--reminiscent of the Bill Murray comedy GROUNDHOG DAY--could have been gimmicky, but instead Travis and first-time screenwriter Barry L. Levy make it work, as more details are revealed with each flashback, leading to a pulse-pounding chase and surprising finale.

	Bruce McGill
	Dennis Quaid
	Forest Whitaker
	James LeGros
	Matthew Fox
	Sigourney Weaver
	William Hurt
	Zoe Saldana
	Amir M. Mokri - Cinematographer
	Atli Orvarsson - Original Music By
	Barry Levy - Writer
	Brigitte Broch - Production Designer
	Callum Greene - Executive Producer
	Marcelo Del Rio - Art Director
	Neal H. Moritz - Producer
	Pete Travis - Director
	Stuart Baird, et. al. - Editor

Empire
3 stars out of 5 -- "The high concept of VANTAGE POINT is 24 meets RASHOMON....With good performances and some smarts." 04/01/2008 p.60

ReelViews 7 of 10
At first glance, Vantage Point looks like it might be inspired by Rashomon - different points-of-view of an incident leading to some greater revelation about the nature of truth. However, while the decision to reveal the story like a puzzle through varying perspectives has a plot-driven reason, it is not to provide a philosophical lesson...It's a fast-paced motion picture that fails the "reality test" but maintains a certain intensity for its entire running length. It's entertaining in the same way that an episode of 24 is entertaining, but without the lead character shouting "dammit!" every five minutes...Vantage Point doesn't push a political agenda, although there is a scene in which the President overrides his hawk advisors. The setting of an anti-terrorism summit is merely a convenient way to establish the setting outside of the United States. The motives of the attackers are murky; they have something to do with nationalism and revenge, but the specifics are never revealed. The conclusion is contingent upon a ridiculous coincidence, although the plot is constructed in such a way that it doesn't feel like an afterthought. Vantage Point offers a modicum of entertainment but it requires viewers to react more forcefully from the gut than the mind. It's viscerally effective but lobotomized. - James Berardinelli

The Village Voice 6 of 10
Vantage Point, which was directed by Pete Travis, wants to be the Rashomon of presidential assassination thrillers, but it's more like an entire season of 24 stripped down to its freeze-frame cliffhangers and recaps of last week's episode...Here is a movie to stop the auteur theory dead in its tracks. Clearly, the British-born Travis was recruited for Vantage Point on the basis of his excellent 2004 debut feature, Omagh, which restaged the events leading up to and following a devastating 1998 car bombing on a crowded retail street in the titular Northern Irish town. Produced by Paul Greengrass, and conceived as something of a companion film to his own Bloody Sunday, there wasn't a moment in Omagh that rang false. There's not a single one in Vantage Point that rings true...The multiple perspectives are all foreplay, it turns out, for an orgiastic third-act car chase during which the movie's story threads converge in a way that makes Paul Haggis seem like a master of Balzacian realism. As car chases go, it's not half bad; but nothing in Vantage Point quickens the pulse as much as the realization that, with each successive turn of the wheel, we come one step closer to the end. - Scott Foundas