Product Details

• Actors: Dennis Quaid, Matthew Fox, Forest Whitaker, Bruce McGill, Edgar Ramirez
• Directors: Pete Travis
• Format: AC-3, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Language: English
• Subtitles: Cantonese, English, French, Korean, Spanish
• Region: Region 1 encoding (US and Canada only)
  PLEASE NOTE: Some Region 1 DVDs may contain Regional Coding Enhancement (RCE). Some, but not all, of our international customers have had problems playing these enhanced discs on what are called "region-free" DVD players. For more information on RCE, click here.
• Aspect Ratio: 2.40:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Studio: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
• DVD Release Date: July 1, 2008
• Run Time: 90 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (166 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B0012QCZ5O
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #18,020 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "Vantage Point (Single-Disc Edition)" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Vantage Point, which aspires to be a cunningly twisted thriller, comes equipped with plenty of hurtling action, handheld camerawork, what-was-that? editing, and a plot that has multiple, contradictory agendas writhing like a nest of snakes. It's all set a-boil within a few blocks of a town square in Spain where a U.S. President is targeted for assassination. Although the movie lasts 90 minutes, the events it depicts are mostly over with in a quarter-hour or so--but seen, rewound, and reseen from half a dozen different (you guessed it) vantage points. The first line in the credits reads "Original Film," apparently the name of the production company. "Gimmick Movie" would be more accurate; the opening reel, effectively jolting, affords an initial overview of the events through the eyes, lenses, monitors, and dueling sensibilities of a TV news producer (Sigourney Weaver), her activist-minded reporter (Zoe Saldana) and crew. Everybody’s in Salamanca (actually, Mexico City) for the start of an international conference to reaffirm Arab-Western commitment to the fight against terrorism. Terrorism, of course, sees this as an ideal moment to break out. As gunshots and explosions reduce everything to chaos, the clock is reset to zero and we proceed to revisit the scene as experienced by several Secret Service agents (namely Dennis Quaid and Matthew Fox), an American tourist with camcorder (Forest Whitaker), sundry locals--including three who may be caught up in a love triangle or a conspiracy or both--and even the President himself (William Hurt).

For a while, this is mildly diverting: that guy, or that gesture, so sinister when glimpsed across the plaza in one run-through, now appears harmless in close-up--or vice versa. But there's no real ambiguity (so stop with the careless comparisons to Kurosawa's Rashomon)--this is a shell game in which the peas aren't worth tracking. Despite decent actors, the characters might as well be holograms (although poor Forest Whitaker is saddled with "motivation" of surpassing sappiness), and the casting telegraphs several twists: one redoubtable good guy practically gives a wink-wink, nudge-nudge that he's really bad, etc. The movie declines to specify which nutjob philosophy the terrorists espouse, and their numbers are multi-ethnic. There's also a laborious suggestion that they have bloodthirsty, reactionary counterparts among the President's inner circle, which perhaps qualifies as redeeming socio-political comment and prompts a meaningless declaration of deep meaning from the Prez. The whole megilleh finally comes down to an extended car chase through impassably claustrophobic streets that would mark a lurch into unintentional self-parody--if only that point hadn't been passed a couple of rewinds earlier. --Richard T. Jameson

Stills from Vantage Point (click for larger image)

Product Description

During an historic counter-terrorism summit in Spain the President of the United States is struck down by an assassin's bullet. Eight strangers have a perfect view of the kill but what did they really see? As the minutes leading up to the fatal shot are replayed through the eyes of each eyewitness the reality of the assassination takes shape. But just when you think you know the answer the shattering final truth is revealed. VANTAGE POINT is a mindbending political action-thriller starring Dennis Quaid Matthew Fox Academy Award® Winner Forest Whitaker (Best Actor 2006 The Last King of Scotland) with Sigourney Weaver and Academy Award® winner William Hurt (Best Actor 1985 Kiss of the Spider Woman).System Requirements:Running Time: 90 minutesFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: ACTION/ADVENTURE/THRILLERS Rating: PG-13 UPC: 043396216167 Manufacturer No: 21616

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Groundhog Day on Steroids!!!!, July 23, 2008

By 

Raider Jack "Jackie D Gray-Romeyn" (San Francisco, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Vantage Point (Single-Disc Edition) (DVD)

Vantage Point is an ingenious action thriller surrounding the attempted assasination of the U.S. President attending an international conference in Spain. The movie is actually 'about" 15 minutes but is seen from the "vantage point' (sorry) of about six different people. Each perspective presents a tad more about the swirling espionage associated with the conference until you realize that nothing is what you thought it was (AT ALL) in the beginning.

Perhaps I am not sophisticated enough to dwell on the supposed GLARING shortcomings of the film. I suspect some "critics" are conditioned/programmed to be oh so discerning that they can't see the forest for the trees - this was a thrilling, action-packed, and rather clever way of looking at an intense incident and is an excellent example of the age-old adage that truth is relative. Six people can look at exactly the same thing and see six different things.

Fun movie. Great action flick. I indeed recommend.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Great idea, unfulfilled, August 1, 2008

By 

B. Smith "Educator" - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Vantage Point (Single-Disc Edition) (DVD)

What a conderful concept - the same situation from several 'vantage points'. Dennis Quaid is fun to watch put the pieces together, leaving you hanging in-between changing 'vantage points'. An overdone chase scene adds action someone must have felt was needed. In spite of that, this is entertaining and keeps you pondering (if not wondering) what the next scene will bring.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Confusion and Terror from Multiple Vantages, July 2, 2008

By 

Grady Harp (Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Vantage Point (Single-Disc Edition) (DVD)

The story line of VANTAGE POINT is a brief one: a summit meeting on terrorism aimed at addressing the differences between the Arab world and the Western world is taking place in Salamanca, Spain and the arrival of the President of the United States is greeted with assassination attempts, terrorist explosions, and car chases. The difference in this thriller from the many others of the same genre is the use of telling the story from at least five different vantage points - the news reporters (Sigourney Weaver, Zoë Saldana and Staff), the CIA (Dennis Quaid, Matthew Fox, et al with William Hurt as the President), a group of terrorists, an American bystander with camera (Forest Whitaker), and the viewing public. Things are not as they initially seem and the more times the story is rerun through repetition of the incident, the more information is added.

Based on a story by Barry Levy and directed by Pete Travis the film could become tiresome in its use of repeated reruns, but given the quality of the cast and the twists and turns as the 'plot' is further elucidated makes the story more of an investigation of Intelligence forces from all involved countries and drives home the reason 'terrorism' is so terrifying. Some of the peripheral cast members are particularly fine - Bruce McGill, Edgar Ramirez, Saïd Taghmaoui, Ayelet Zurer, and Eduardo Noriega among others. It is a film that takes patience on the part of the viewer, but staying with it until the end results in some very fine entertainment. Grady Harp, July 08