Vantage PointMovie Reviews

Poster art for "Vantage Point."

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Avg. Critic Score: 40 out of 100 Mixed or average reviews Metascore® based on all critic reviews
Information for Parents:
14 Iffy for 14+
Read Common Sense Media review

Critic scores range from 0 to 100, with higher scores indicating more favorable reviews.

  • 58
    Entertainment Weekly | Owen Gleiberman

    Vantage Point starts to slide off the rails when it tracks a tourist (Forest Whitaker) and his trusty camcorder; instead of Zapruder-like intrigue, the episode has him running around like an agent in a rote thriller. Read full review

  • 50
    USA Today | Claudia Puig

    Turns out to be a tepid thriller that promises more than it delivers. Read full review

  • 50
    The New York Times | Manohla Dargis

    This is competent if completely impersonal filmmaking of a familiar type that finds the usual allotment of famous, or at least famous enough, actors. Read full review

  • 40
    Los Angeles Times | Kenneth Turan

    The truth is that two other films with Greengrass' name on them, "The Bourne Supremacy" and "The Bourne Ultimatum," have spoiled us for this kind of thriller filmmaking, and stacked against that, Vantage Point doesn't have a chance. Read full review

  • 38
    Rolling Stone | Peter Travers

    By the end, Vantage Point is such a unholy mess of drooling sentiment and sloppy loose ends that you'll hate yourself for being suckered in. Read full review

  • 30
    Washington Post |

    Although it was held back by the studio for about a year, someone apparently came to the inevitable conclusion that no amount of ripening time was going to help this gimmicky and ultimately harebrained movie. Read full review

  • 30
    The Hollywood Reporter | Sheri Linden

    Straight out of the slice-and-dice school of filmmaking, Vantage Point fractures chronology and perspective in a vain attempt to disguise its flimsiness. Read full review

  • 25
    San Francisco Chronicle | Mick LaSalle

    Vantage Point has nothing going on. There's no artistic, philosophical or even jolly entertainment reason for adopting this strategy. It's just arbitrary, a gimmick. Read full review

  • 10
    Wall Street Journal | Joe Morgenstern

    Why, beating the audience about the ears, eyes and brain with essentially the same sequence of events from eight characters' points of view, none of which adds much more than deafening hysteria and identically dreadful music. The filmmakers seem to have missed the point that each re-enactment in "Rashomon" provides new and conflicting information. It makes you wonder if they studied the wrong movie. Maybe they rented "Rush Hour," or a video on Rosh Hashanah. Read full review

  • 10
    Variety | Justin Chang

    A 23-minute movie dragged out, via some narrative gimmickry, to a punishing hour and a half. Read full review

View more reviews for Vantage Point on Metacritic

Information for Parents
Common Sense Media says Iffy for 14+ Disappointing action flick centers on terrorism.
What Parents Need to Know Parents need to know that some teens may be drawn to this political action adventure by its all-star cast of popular/award-wining actors (including Matthew Fox of Lost, Dennis Quaid, Sigourney Weaver, and Forest Whitaker). The film revolves around a terrorist attack on the U.S. president and features scenes of explosions killing a crowd of people, a suicide bomber detonating in a posh hotel's lobby, high-ranking officials being shot at execution-style, and other bloody deaths. Language includes words like "s--t" and "bitch"; it's worth noting that there's markedly less commercialism and drug/alcohol use than in comparable films.
  • Families can talk about how the movie portrays the United States, the president, and terrorists. Are there parallels to modern U.S. politics? How so? Is it common in recent films for the American government and its leaders to be shown negatively -- especially in films that take place abroad? Why or why not? What message do you think the movie is trying to send?
The good stuff
  • message true0 Positive messages: Secret Service agents act courageously in the aftermath of a terrorist attack abroad. An American tourist bravely puts his life in danger to save a young girl. Although most of the movie's terrorists are Muslims from the Middle East, there are American ones, too.
What to watch for
  • violence false5 Violence: The U.S. president is shot at during a speech. Crowds of people die in an explosion set off by a terrorist; a suicide bomber detonates himself in the lobby of a hotel; terrorists kill several people execution-style and kidnap the president. A Cabinet member tries to force the president to bomb Morocco for harboring terrorists.
  • sex false0 Sex: A woman seems to be in a romantic embrace, but she's actually being handled roughly. She then kisses and hugs another man.
  • language false3 Language: Language includes `s--t,` `ass,` `bitch,` and `bulls--t.`
  • consumerism false0 Consumerism: Nothing overt, except for an obvious CNN-like news channel called `GNN.`
  • drugsalcoholtobacco false0 Drinking, drugs and smoking: The president is sedated so he can be kidnapped.
An independent nonprofit dedicated to providing families the information they need to help kids thrive in a world of media and technology. © Common Sense Media Inc. 2010. All rights reserved.

Looking for more reviews? Movies.com Critics Say:

Dave White

3.5

Dave White Profile See Dave White's Profile

… somewhat idiotic, manic, gimmicky … Read full review See Dave White's on MOVIENAME on Movies.com

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