Vantage Point Review

President assassination stories make for interesting viewing, thats what the movie-maker probably thought. They sure as hell cant make for good bedtime stories, simply because the movie is PG 13 and kiddies just love violence. Bang, bang, kapow, bang, you’re toast, yummy!

The movie plot instantly reminds you of an old movie by the name of ‘The Day of the Jackal’ which starred Edward Fox which dealt with the assassination of the then President, Charles de Gaulle. There are differences of course. The 1973 movie was flawless and this one’s quite the opposite.

The problem is the storyline. It revolves only around the assassination and its as if the writer frantically looks at as many factors as possible to overwhelm and confuse the living daylights out of the audience. As the tag line suggests, the story unfolds through the eyes of 8 people, so you have just as many flashbacks. And I just hate god-damned flashbacks.

At some points, I actually found myself groaning “Have mercy”, “for heavens’ sake” and other such sympathy garnering lines to what I thought would be an edge-of-the-seat thriller. The plot at times feels amazingly predictable and loosens off at many places after the rather tight start.

But for the worst part, the movie seems well-researched because the portrayal of the security protocol was pretty authentic. The performances by Dennis Quaid (Thomas Barnes, secret service chief to the President of US) and Eduardo Noriega (Enrique, undercover Spanish cop) are pretty moving and so is the action. Other performances are not really worth a mention and are average.

It should do well to satisfy pyrotechnic loving action fans because there are loads of explosions (and you can see them over and over again), some brilliantly shot car-chase sequences and those aforementioned ‘bang-bang-you’re toast!’ scenes. I almost jumped out of my seat once or twice, the direction is that good.

Verdict :- The plot isn’t half as good as the execution and it feels rather pointless and draggy at times. But nevertheless, it might just make for a good one time watch.

SatishSays dot Com rating 5/10

A big Thank You to JAM magazine for sending me for the press preview. You rock!