We went to see Vantage Point last night. Our esteemed local Inquirer reviewer gave it 3 stars in Friday's paper, so that was pretty encouraging. We were a little skeptical though because we've seen the previews for this film for about a year on and off in the movies. I was thinking that it was so bad the makers had to take it back to editing room for a lot more work before they released it. But 3 stars! That's a good recommendation. Geez, they gave Michael Clayton 3 stars.
The story revolves around a threat to the President of the United States who is speaking at a rally in a Spanish square. Of course that's definitely the best place to put him because the whole square is surrounded by tall buildings and there only seems to be one way in or out. But they have sharpshooters up on the roof, so that's okay. However, the decision is made to substitute a double for the President due to the unrest in Spain and the serious nature of the threats. Now, here's the hook. The President (well, actually the double) is indeed attacked and chaos ensues and the audience gets to see it over and over again. From different "vantage points" --get it? So you watch about 10 or 12 minutes of the action and then the screen goes black and the clock resets to before the attack and you get to watch it again . . . and again . . . and again. By the third time they do this, the audience was chuckling; by the fifth time they were outright guffawing. This raises the question of this being a very effective plot device. The movie wasn't billed as a comedy.
The iPhone and the Sony video cam got great air time though. It's amazing what technology can do these days. Press here to fire.
The story revolves around a threat to the President of the United States who is speaking at a rally in a Spanish square. Of course that's definitely the best place to put him because the whole square is surrounded by tall buildings and there only seems to be one way in or out. But they have sharpshooters up on the roof, so that's okay. However, the decision is made to substitute a double for the President due to the unrest in Spain and the serious nature of the threats. Now, here's the hook. The President (well, actually the double) is indeed attacked and chaos ensues and the audience gets to see it over and over again. From different "vantage points" --get it? So you watch about 10 or 12 minutes of the action and then the screen goes black and the clock resets to before the attack and you get to watch it again . . . and again . . . and again. By the third time they do this, the audience was chuckling; by the fifth time they were outright guffawing. This raises the question of this being a very effective plot device. The movie wasn't billed as a comedy.
The iPhone and the Sony video cam got great air time though. It's amazing what technology can do these days. Press here to fire.
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