Jul 27 2008
Vanishing Point vs. Vantage Point
These films have actually nothing to do with each other I just happened to watch the two of them in the same night. The only thing that I can say about them is that one was good and one was bad.
VANISHING POINT, was the good. A very art house film even thought it’s about a car chase. Barry Newman plays a driver who has to deliver a car in less than twenty-four hours. However, he breaks the traffic rules early on that the police are obsessed with catching him. The story is told through a string of flashbacks, which tells further of Barry Newman’s character that was a cop and in love. An African American Disc Jockey played by Clevon Little, who talks to the main character over the radio, also fuels the story’s narrative. Clevon Little’s character is a blind man whose voice leads the Barry Newman character to safety. It’s actually artsy and a well-acted script. For stunts and action there’s plenty of it to go around, at this time in the seventies it seemed all the car stunt guys were getting their fills (Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry was also around the same time). This is great sure-fire entertainment.
Now, to VANTAGE POINT. The film that I was so excited to see. THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SOME SPOLIERS SO PLEASE IF YOU STILL WANT TO SEE THE FILM, DISCONTINUE READING.
The film is about the president of the United States being assassinated in front of millions of people in a Spanish Square.
VANTAGE POINT’s premise is a good one, seven different people’s perception of the same event. Great idea. What went wrong was the plot turned less cerebral, less a mystery of the events, and more of an action film. There was a car chase scene that looked exactly like the one in the BOURNE IDENTITY. Once they lost the cerebral and were concentrating on stunts and explosions it lost everything for me. HERE ARE THE SPOILERS: When things shifted for me was when William Hurt playing the president of the United States, had a story, and his story was to be switched with a “double.” That just doesn’t make sense to me or this would have been more shocking at the very end of the film, yet it was released forty five minutes in when there was still a remainder of forty five minutes. All the suspense drained and my suspension of disbelief dried up completely. A double seemed weak and left too many questions as to be a major plot point of the story.
The story of the top assassin being blackmailed to kidnap the president was also week. As a motive, kidnapping a brother just doesn’t make everything hold water; I feel that it should’ve been a child or a spouse, which would be the fuel for the assassin to do what he did. And I’m sorry, the president would not be that easy to grab to begin with.
Impossible to believe and the wrong information given at the wrong time made this wannabe suspense thriller, into a dumb action movie. Very disappointing film where with its all-star cast could have been an “A” plus effort.
