Vantage Point (2008)

Cast includes:
CHARACTER	ACTOR/ACTRESS	RATING
Thomas Barnes	Dennis Quaid	½
Kent Taylor	Matthew Fox
Howard Lewis	Forest Whitaker
Phil McCullough	Bruce McGill
Javier	Edgar Ramirez
Suarez	Saïd Taghmaoui
Veronica	Ayelet Zurer
Angie Jones	Zoe Saldana
Rex Brooks	Sigourney Weaver	½
President Ashton	William Hurt
Ted Heinkin	James LeGros
Enrique	Eduardo Noriega

Review

After starting off as a seemingly authentic political drama-thriller, Pete Travis' Vantage Point develops into a slick and fairly enjoyable, but largely mindless action film. The direction ranges from masterful to remarkably shoddy; the former represented by the brilliantly realistic visualization of the events at the Salamanca peace summit, the latter by some inconsiderate, poorly explained, and overly patriotic plotting.

Some viewers might also find the film's structure to be strenuous, as it presents its narrative through the same timeline several times from different perspectives, but seasoned viewers will be more likely to find this refreshing. Not only are we reminded that there always are several sides to every story, but this narrative build-up also serves as an effective foundation from which to build tension and suspense and unfold the mystery.

Unfortunately, the mystery doesn't quite hold up from a political or dramatic point of view. Somewhere along the line, a realistic and potentially imminent scenario devolves into something Hal Needham once could have made – minus the humour. Humour which Dennis Quaid's sadly one-note and stiff performance definitely could have benefitted from. William Hurt, on the other hand, finds the right tone for his character and presents one of the best and most fun presidents on screen in a while, but that doesn't mean the filmmakers exhibit the same balance. The fact that the Arabs in the film criticise the arrogant Americans who always think they're one step ahead, only for the film to then present itself in the same conceited manner on behalf of the USA, becomes a vapid paradox.