Product Details

• Actors: Dennis Quaid, Matthew Fox, Forest Whitaker, Bruce McGill, Edgar Ramirez
• Directors: Pete Travis
• Format: AC-3, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
• Language: English (Dolby Digital 5.1)
• Subtitles: Cantonese, English, French, Korean, Spanish
• Dubbed: French, 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 .
• 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 (186 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B0012QCZ5O
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #31,119 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• Learn more about "Vantage Point (Single-Disc Edition)" on 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

Dennis Quaid and Forest Whitaker star in this $71.9 million-grossing movie about an assassination attempt on the U.S. president.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

29 of 31 people found the following review helpful

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

By Raider Jack VINE™ VOICE

Format: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.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Vantage Point December 12, 2008

By Tracy Brown

Format:DVD|Amazon Verified Purchase

Good who done it movie. Goes a little fast so you have to pay attention. Good cast of actors.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars BEST VANTAGE POINT IS YOURS July 26, 2008

By Mark Turner

Format:DVD

VANTAGE POINT was a movie whose preview seemed to play nearly every time I went to the theater. So much so that by the time the movie was released I was tired of seeing it. A major mistake on my point as this was one of the most thrilling movies I've seen in years.

The film revolves around a visit by the US President (William Hurt) to a conference on terrorism in Spain. Several countries have agreed to back his proposal in and effort to stop the killing. As the President walks to the podium in an open air square where the conference is taking place, he is shot by an assassin's bullet. This starts the film.

But there is more to it than that. As the title states, the film is offered from various vantage points of the same scene. The opening scene is offered via a news network's truck as it watches the carnage that happens when the President is not only shot but a bomb blows up in the public square.

Through them we are introduced to Secret Service Agent Thomas Barnes (Dennis Quaid) and lead Agent Kent Taylor (Matthew Fox). These are the agents in charge of protecting the President, a job Barnes knows well as less than a year earlier he took a bullet while protecting him. On edge and looking for signs of trouble, Barnes' sharp eye and instincts kick in just before the shot is fired.

But Barnes' perception is not the last we are offered. We are also given the viewpoint of Enrigue (Eduardo Noriega), a policeman who becomes suspect by the Secret Service when he rushes the podium to protect the President. Another view is offered through the eyes of vacationer Howard Lewis (Forest Whitaker) who is filming all he sees with his new camcorder. An important view is that of the President himself when we learn it was not him but his double who took the bullet! The last view offered is that of the terrorists whose job was to kill the President...or was it?

Each section takes a 23 minute time period and condenses it to offer the varying viewpoints of each character. And with each differing viewpoint we as viewers ourselves are offered more clues as to just who is behind the assassination attempt. Until the last view offered I had no firm idea.

Movies have been called white knuckle rides but this movie fulfills that line to a T. The breakneck pace of the film, while showing us the same basic scene over and over, holds you in its grip not just for the carnage that ensues but because of the action that follows. Leads are discovered and agents set in motion as they try to capture the person responsible.

Many people have claimed that THE FRENCH CONNECTION or BULLIT or lately the Bourne films have offered the greatest car chases of all times. I think that title can now be taken by the stunt drivers in this film. Moving at breakneck speed through tiny streets that are little more than alleys filled with pedestrians and cars takes your breath away.

All performances are top of the line. While Quaid's might seem one note, that is actually the demeanor of Secret Service agents. Their job IS to protect the President and nothing more. It happens in this film. High speed, explosive and breathtaking are all apt descriptions of this movie. If your palms aren't sweating by the end, you weren't paying attention.