Vantage Point

Vantage Point has such dynamic direction that I momentarily forgot about my prejudices toward action movies and even considered giving it five stars. But as the minutes went by, the simplicity of the film started to surface, with the script piling up one cliché after another and logical holes appearing in the plot. The moment when the kidnapped American president bravely started fighting with terrorists ultimately led me to give it a mere three stars. Nevertheless, it's not below average, as the film has a fast pace and offers a number of thrilling scenes. Overall impression: 65%. (24/04/2009)

For a dime-a-dozen commercial product, this movie is well thought out and engaging from the first minute to the last. In the end, it doesn’t really leave the audience with anything deep and doesn’t invite repeated viewing, but it will keep your eyes glued to the screen for those 90 minutes. And the only people irritated by the ending might be those who have never seen a single American mainstream action movie. (02/05/2008)

A very energetically filmed thriller where you feel like you’re assembling a jigsaw without the picture on the box. It’s full of surprises. Telling the same story from various points of view is not at all stereotypical and the mode of storytelling often reminds one of Kiefer’s Twenty-four and the Bourne movies will definitely spring to mind during the closing car chase. The actors (perhaps with the exception of the weird-acting Forest Whitaker) give very decent performances. You find yourself crossing fingers for Dennis Quaid right from the beginning and that Matthew Fox is very surprising again. I had a great time. 80% (04/06/2008)

All the characters look like templates: the heroic president, the cool bodyguard, the good natured black man, the cute little girl, the hardened terrorist and others similar to him. All of them take part in a interesting action flick whose subordination to the mainstream is indisputable, notwithstanding the good idea of repeating the same moment. If you can put up with that, you’ll have more than enough fun for an hour and a half. The final car chase looks good, but it felt a little like déjà vu… no wonder, yesterday I watched Bourne. If Vantage Point was less naive and more uncompromising and tougher, it could get five stars, I really like films that play with time. (01/09/2008)

I've been thinking about the rating for a long time, but in the end I'll be good again and give this film a thumbs up – Vantage Point doesn’t deserve to be slagged. It's true that from a filmmaking point of view it doesn't bring anything new and the serious premise is unpleasantly distorted by American exaggeration and jingoism, but for the ordinary popcorn viewer this film is a feast for which it's definitely worth making space and time. A big plus is the adequate runtime, which keeps the director constantly on his heels and forces him to keep a high speed, and then of course the actors around Quaid and Whitaker, whose roles may not have any great depth, but every viewer feels immediately more comfortable when looking at their faces. But I can say that I would have felt just as satisfied maybe even with a bunch of unknown actors, because Travis managed to create a very unpretentious and entertaining thriller that will probably make you change your mind if you ever want to be president. (21/01/2013)