Durante un summit in Spagna, un attentatore spara al presidente degli Stati Uniti, mentre alcune esplosioni seminano morte nella piazza.
Immediatamente i servizi segreti indagano sull'accaduto, ed identificano alcuni personaggi-chiave che si sono trovati loro malgrado nella posizione di osservatori privilegiati dell'evento. Il guaio è che le loro versioni non coincidono granché, ed ognuno ha visto qualcosa di completamente diverso dagli altri.
Raccontando la storia più volte, da diversi punti di vista, si scopre man mano chi c'è dietro l'attentato.
Il punto di forza del film è la velocità: niente interrogatori o momenti di riflessione: tutto si svolge di corsa nei minuti immediatamente prima e dopo l'attacco; dall'inizio alla fine si è nel vivo dell'azione, senza tregua.
Il difetto è che la situazione nel suo complesso è del tutto inverosimile, ed il complotto che viene messo in atto ha del prodigioso - oltre al fatto che troppe cose restano non dette o poco approfondite.
Cast mica da ridere, con un fortissimo Dennis Quaid, Matthew Fox, il sempre ottimo Forest Whitaker ed un piccolo ruolo anche per Sigourney Weaver; un William Hurt bolso come non mai fa il presidente.
Pete Travis alla sua prima regia seria non fa neanche un lavoro malvagio, anche se le pecche (di sceneggiatura e regia) ci sono e sono ben visibili.
Voto: 6.
Tags: thriller, azione, drammatico, attentato, presidente degli Stati Uniti, Stati Uniti, Spagna, summit, piazza, discorso, pace, medio-oriente, assassinio, fucile, pistola, bomba, esplosione, morte, piazza, albergo, sosia, ferimento, fuga, inseguimento, rapimento, travestimento, infiltrato, vendetta, suicidio, punti di vista, telecamera, conduttrice, tv.
Travis, Pete
Ultimi lavori:
- Vantage Point (2008) .... [regista]
- Omagh (2004) (TV) .... [regista]
- Henry VIII (2003) (TV) .... [regista]
- "The Jury" (2002) .... [regista]
- "Other People's Children" (2000) .... (unknown episodes) [regista]
Filmography links and data courtesy of IMDb.
Vantage Point (2008)
Prospettive di un delitto
Regista: Pete Travis
Scrittore: Barry Levy
Genere: Action, Drama, Thriller, Action
Valutazione: 6.7/10 (6236 voti)
Durata: 90 min
Paese: USA
Lingua: English
Cast:
- Dennis Quaid .... Thomas Barnes
- Matthew Fox .... Kent Taylor
- Forest Whitaker .... Howard Lewis
- Bruce McGill .... Phil McCullough
- Edgar Ramirez .... Javier
- Saïd Taghmaoui .... Suarez
- Ayelet Zurer .... Veronica
- Zoe Saldana .... Angie Jones
- Sigourney Weaver .... Rex Brooks
- William Hurt .... President Ashton
Trama:
With a Rashomon narrative style, the attempted assassination of the president is told from five different perspectives.
Trivia random: As the shooting was moved to Mexico, the production design department was forced to build a replica of the Plaza Mayor of Salamanca in Mexico. The replica is slightly smaller and simpler than the original.
Citazione random: Thomas Barnes: Why the fuck did you do this?
Filmography links and data courtesy of IMDb.
Quaid, Dennis
Nome di battesimo: Quaid, Dennis William
Data di nascita: 9 April 1954
Altezza: 6' (1.83 m)
Coniuge: Kimberly Buffington::(4 July 2004 - present) 2 children, Meg Ryan::(14 February 1991 - 16 July 2001) (divorced) 1 child, P.J. Soles::(23 November 1978 - 23 January 1983) (divorced)
Ultimi lavori:
- G.I. Joe (2009) .... General Hawk [attore]
- The Express (2008) .... Ben Schwartzwalder [attore]
- The Horsemen (2008) .... Aidan Breslin [attore]
- Shame on You (2008) .... (writer) [scrittore]
- Smart People (2008) .... Lawrence Wetherhold [attore]
- Vantage Point (2008) .... Thomas Barnes [attore]
- Terra (2007) .... Roven (voice) [attore]
- American Dreamz (2006) .... President Staton [attore]
- TimeShift (2006) (VG) .... Colonel Michael Swift (voice) [attore]
- Yours, Mine and Ours (2005) .... Frank Beardsley [attore]
Biografia:
Dennis Quaid was born in Houston, Texas, the son of an electrician. He studied drama in high school and in college, but dropped out before completing his studies, moving to Los Angeles to pursue a career. His brother, Randy Quaid, had already began to build a successful career, but Dennis initially had trouble finding work. He began to gain notice when he appeared in Breaking Away (1979) and earned strong reviews for his role in The Right Stuff (1983). Aside from acting, Quaid is also a musician, and plays with his band, the Sharks.
Trivia random: Dennis and his wife, Kimberly, became the parents of twins, a boy and a girl, on November 8, 2007 in Santa Monica, California. Thomas Boone weighed in at 6 lbs. 12 oz. and Zoe Grace weighed in at 5 lbs. 9 oz.
Citazione random: "Well, a couple of times I had people come have a talk with me, but I was operating, for the most part, on two hours of sleep a night, and I realized, "I can't do this and last very long." So I cleaned up (in the early 90's) and THEN the jobs stopped coming. You clean up your life and think you're supposed to be rewarded for it, but things actually got worse. On the other hand, if I hadn't sobered up, I probably wouldn't be alive today." - On his recovery from cocaine addiction.
Salario massimo: $60,000, per Playing by Heart (1998)
Filmography links and data courtesy of IMDb.
Hurt, William (I)
Nome di battesimo: Hurt, William M.
Data di nascita: 20 March 1950
Altezza: 6' 2" (1.88 m)
Coniuge: Heidi Henderson::(5 March 1989 - 1992) (divorced) 2 children, Mary Beth Hurt::(1971 - 1981) (divorced)
Ultimi lavori:
- The Countess (2009) .... [attore]
- Beast of Bataan (2008) .... Gen. Jonathan Wainwright [attore]
- The Incredible Hulk (2008) .... Gen. Thaddeus 'Thunderbolt' Ross [attore]
- Vantage Point (2008) .... President Ashton [attore]
- Yellow Handkerchief (2008) .... [attore]
- Into the Wild (2007) .... Walt McCandless [attore]
- Mr. Brooks (2007) .... Marshall [attore]
- Noise (2007/II) .... Mayor Schneer [attore]
- Beautiful Ohio (2006) .... Simon Messerman [attore]
- The Good Shepherd (2006) .... Philip Allen [attore]
Biografia:
Twenty years ago, William Hurt seemed destined for a career as a screen legend, as one of those actors like Spencer Tracy, Marlon Brando, and Jack Nicholson who were movie stars who could also act. Though he won a Best Actor Oscar for Kiss of the Spider Woman (1985) and appeared in many interesting films in the 1980s, Hurt never lived up to his promise. Unable or unwilling to consolidate his claim as a leading-man, he failed to establish himself as either a character-lead or a character actor. After eight years of building up an A-List career, from his appearance in Ken Russell/Paddy Chayefsky's Altered States (1980) through The Accidental Tourist (1988), his light failed. He had three straight Best Actor nominations from 1986 through 1988, winning on his first nod for "Spider Woman," then racking up kudos for Children of a Lesser God (1986) and Broadcast News (1987). Eighteen years passed before he got another Oscar nomination, for Best Supporting Actor for a small character role in A History of Violence (2005).
Trivia random: Attended Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts.
Citazione random: "All I know is that my best work has come out of being committed and happy."
Salario massimo: $1,250,000, per The Village (2004)
Filmography links and data courtesy of IMDb.
Weaver, Sigourney
Nome di battesimo: Weaver, Susan Alexandra
Data di nascita: 8 October 1949
Altezza: 5' 11½" (1.82 m)
Coniuge: Jim Simpson::(1 October 1984 - present) 1 child
Ultimi lavori:
- Avatar (2009) .... Dr. Grace Augustine [attrice]
- Baby Mama (2008) .... Chaffee Bicknell [attrice]
- Be Kind Rewind (2008) .... Ms. Lawson [attrice]
- Gypsy and Me (2008) (TV) .... (executive producer) [produttore]
- The Tale of Despereaux (2008) .... The Narrator (voice) [attrice]
- Vantage Point (2008) .... Rex Brooks [attrice]
- The Girl in the Park (2007) .... Julia Sandburg [attrice]
- Happily N'Ever After (2006) .... Frieda (voice) [attrice]
- Infamous (2006) .... Babe Paley [attrice]
- Snow Cake (2006) .... Linda Freeman [attrice]
Biografia:
Sigourney Weaver was born Susan Alexandra Weaver, on October 8, 1949, in Leroy Hospital in New York City. Her father, TV producer Sylvester L. Weaver Jr., originally wanted to name her Flavia, because of his passion for Roman history (he had already named her elder brother Trajan). Her mother, Elizabeth Inglis, was a British actress who had sacrificed her career for a family. Sigourney grew up in a virtual bubble of guiltless bliss, being taken care by nannies and maids. By 1959, the Weavers had resided in 30 different households. In 1961, Sigourney began attending the Brearly Girls Academy, but her mother moved her to another New York private school, Chapin. Sigourney was quite a bit taller than most of her other classmates (at the age of 13, she was already 5' 10"), resulting in her constantly being laughed at and picked on; in order to gain their acceptance, she took on the role of class clown. In 1962, her family moved to San Francisco briefly, an unpleasant experience for her. Later, they moved back east to Connecticut, where she became a student at the Ethel Walker School, facing the same problems as before. In 1963, she changed her name to "Sigourney", after the character "Sigourney Howard" in F. Scott Fitzgerald's "The Great Gatsby" (her own birth name, Susan, was in honor of her mother's best friend, explorer Susan Pretzlik). Sigourney had already starred in a school drama production of "A Midsummer Night's Dream", and, in 1965, she worked during the summer with a stock troupe, performing in "A Streetcar Named Desire" and "You Can't Take It With You" (she didn't star in the latter because she was taller than the lead actor!). After graduating from school in 1967, she spent some months in a kibbutz at Israel. At that time, she became engaged to reporter Aaron Latham, but they soon broke up. In 1969, Sigourney enrolled in Stanford University, majoring in English Literature. She also participated in school plays, especially Japanese Noh plays. By that time she was living in a treehouse, alongside a male friend, dressed in elf-like clothes! After completing her studies in 1971, she applied for the Yale School of Drama in New York. Despite appearing at the audition reading a Bertolt Brecht speech and wearing a rope-like belt, she was accepted by the school but her professors rejected her, because of her height, and kept typecasting her as prostitutes and old women (whereas classmate Meryl Streep was treated almost reverently). However, in 1973, while making her theatrical debut with "Watergate Classics", she met up with a team of playwrights and actors and began hanging around with them., resulting in long-term friendships with Christopher Durang, Kate McGregor-Stewart and Albert Innaurato. In 1974 she starred in such plays as Aristophanes' "Frogs" and Durang's "The Nature and Purpose of the Universe" and "Daryl and Carol and Kenny and Jenny", as Jenny. After finishing her studies that year, she began seriously pursuing a stage career, but her height kept being a hindrance. However, she continued working on stage with Durang (in "Titanic" [1975]) and Innaurato (in "Gemini" [1976]). Other 1970s stage works included "Marco Polo Sing a Song", "The Animal Kingdom", "A Flea in Her Ear", "The Constant Husband", "Conjuring an Event" and others. However, the one that really got her noticed was "Das Lusitania Songspiel", a play she co-wrote with Durang and in which she starred for two seasons, from 1979 to 1981. She was also up for a Drama Desk Award for it. During the mid-70s she appeared in several TV spots and even starred as Avis Ryan in the soap opera "Somerset" (1970). In 1977 she was cast in the role Shelley Duvall finally played in Annie Hall (1977), after rejecting the part due to prior stage commitments. In the end, however, Woody Allen offered her a part in the film that, while short (she was onscreen for six seconds), made many people sit up and take notice. She later appeared in Madman (1978) and, of course, Alien (1979). The role of the tough, uncompromising Ripley made Sigourney an "overnight" star and brought her a British Award Nomination. She next appeared in Eyewitness (1981) and The Year of Living Dangerously (1982), the latter being a great success in Australia that won an Oscar and brought Sigourney and co-star Mel Gibson to Cannes in 1983. The same year she delivered an honorary Emmy award to her father, a few months before her uncle, actor Doodles Weaver, committed suicide. That year also brought her a romance with Jim Simpson, her first since having broken up two years previously with James M. McClure. She and Simpson were married on 1 October 1984. Sigourney had meanwhile played in the poorly received Deal of the Century (1983) and the mega-hit Ghost Busters (1984). She was also nominated for a Tony Award for her tour-de-force performance in the play "Hurly Burly". Then followed Une femme ou deux (1985), Half Moon Street (1986) and Aliens (1986). The latter was a huge success, and Sigourney was nominated for both a Golden Globe and an Oscar. She then entered her most productive career period and snatched Academy Award nominations, in both Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress categories, for her intense portrayal of Dian Fossey in Gorillas in the Mist: The Story of Dian Fossey (1988) and her delicious performance as a double-crossing, power-hungry corporate executive in Working Girl (1988). She ended up losing in both, but made up for it to a degree by winning both Golden Globes. After appearing in a documentary about fashion photographer Helmut Newton, Frames from the Edge (1989), and reprising her role in the sequel Ghostbusters II (1989), she discovered she was pregnant and retired from public life for a while. She gave birth to her daughter Charlotte on 13 April 1990, and returned to movies as a (now skinhead) Ripley in _Alien3 (1992)_ and a gorgeous Queen Isabella of Spain in 1492: Conquest of Paradise (1992), her second film with director Ridley Scott. She starred in the political comedy Dave (1993) alongside Kevin Kline, and then a Roman Polanski thriller, Death and the Maiden (1994). In 1995 she was seen in Jeffrey (1995) and Copycat (1995). The next year she "trod the boards" in "Sex and Longing", yet another Durang play. She hadn't performed in the theater in many years before that play, her last stage performances occurring in the 1980s in "As You Like It" (1981), "Beyond Therapy" (1981), "The Marriage of 'Bette and Boo'" (1985) and "The Merchant of Venice" (1986). In 1997 she was the protagonist in Grimm's Snow White: A Tale of Terror (1997), The Ice Storm (1997) and Alien: Resurrection (1997). Her performance in "The Ice Storm" got her a BAFTA prize and another Golden Globe nod. She also gave excellent performances in A Map of the World (1999) and the sci-fi spoof Galaxy Quest (1999). Her next comedy, Company Man (2000), wasn't quite so warmly welcomed critically and financially, however. She next played a sexy con artist in Heartbreakers (2001) and had a voice role in Big Bad Love (2001). Her father died at the age of 93. Sigourney herself has recently starred in Tadpole (2002) and is planning a cinematic version of The Guys (2002), the enthralling September 11th one-act drama she played on stage on late 2001. She remains a remarkable and enormously talented actress, and at the age of 52 is still one of the world's great beauties.
Trivia random: Her performance as Ellen Ripley in the "Alien" quadrilogy is ranked #8 on Premiere Magazine's 100 Greatest Movie Characters of All Time.
Citazione random: These deep sea trawlers are operating beyond the reach of the law. It's up to all of us to change that.
Salario massimo: $11,000,000, per Alien: Resurrection (1997)
Filmography links and data courtesy of IMDb.
Whitaker, Forest
Nome di battesimo: Whitaker, Forest Steven
Data di nascita: 15 July 1961
Altezza: 6' 2" (1.88 m)
Coniuge: Keisha Whitaker::(4 May 1996 - present) 2 children
Ultimi lavori:
- Repossession Mambo (2009) .... Jake [attore]
- Where the Wild Things Are (2009) .... Wild Thing (voice) [attore]
- Dewmocracy (2008) (VG) .... (producer) [produttore]
- Patriots (2008) .... Al Collins [attore]
- Powder Blue (2008) .... (producer) [produttore]
- Street Kings (2008) .... [attore]
- Vantage Point (2008) .... Howard Lewis [attore]
- Winged Creatures (2008) .... Charlie Archenault [attore]
- The Air I Breathe (2007) .... Happiness [attore]
- The Great Debaters (2007) .... Dr. James Farmer Sr. [attore]
Biografia:
Forest Whitaker has packaged a king-size talent into his hulking 6' 2", 220 lb frame. The athletically-inclined Whitaker initially found his way into college via a football scholarship. Later, however, he transferred to USC where he set his concentration on music and earned two more scholarships training as an operatic tenor. This, in turn, led to another scholarship at Berkeley with a renewed focus on acting and the performing stage. Whitaker made his film debut at the age of 21 in the raucous comedy Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982) wherein he played, quite naturally, a footballer. He went on to play another student pigskin player in his second film Vision Quest (1985). He gain experience on TV as well with featured spots on such varied shows as "Diff'rent Strokes" (1978) and "Cagney & Lacey" (1982), not to mention the TV-movie Civil War epic "North and South" (1985) (mini) and its sequel, the movie that truly put him on the map The Color of Money (1986). His one big scene as a naive-looking pool player who out-hustles Paul Newman's Fast Eddie Felson was pure electricity. This led to more visible roles in the "A" class films Platoon (1986), Stakeout (1987), and Good Morning, Vietnam (1987), which culminated in his breakout lead portrayal of the tortured jazz icon 'Charlie "Bird' Parker' in Clint Eastwood's passion project Bird (1988), for which Whitaker won the Cannes Film Festival award for "best actor" and a Golden Globe nomination. While his "gentle giant" characters typically display innocence, indecision, and timidity along with a strong underlying humanity, he has certainly not shied away from the edgier, darker corners of life as his various hitmen and other menacing streetwise types can attest. Although in only the first section of the film, he was memorable as the IRA-captured British soldier whose bizarre relationship with a mysterious femme fatale serves as the catalyst for the critically-lauded drama The Crying Game (1992). Always a willing participant to push the envelope, he's gone on to enhance a number of lesser films. Among those was his plastic surgeon in Johnny Handsome (1989), gay clothing designer in Robert Altman's Prêt-à-Porter (1994), alien hunter in Species (1995), absentee father confronted by his estranged son in Smoke (1995), and Mafia hitman who models himself after the samurai warrior in Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai (1999), among many others. As would be expected, he's also had his share of epic-sized bombs, notoriously the L. Ron Hubbard sci-fi disaster Battlefield Earth: A Saga of the Year 3000 (2000). On the TV front, he was the consulting producer and host of a revamped Rod Serling's cult series classic "The Twilight Zone" (2002), which lasted a disappointing one season. In the early 1990s, Whitaker widened his horizons to include producing/directing and has since developed respect name behind the camera. He started things off co-producing the violent gangster film A Rage in Harlem (1991), in which he co-starred with Gregory Hines and Robin Givens, and then made his successful directorial debut with the soulful Waiting to Exhale (1995), showcasing a legion of distaff black stars. He also directed co-star Whitney Houston's music video of the movie's theme song ("Shoop Shoop"). Most recently, he scored with audiences helming the fluffy romantic comedy First Daughter (2004) with Katie Holmes and Michael Keaton. He is married to former model Keisha Whitaker and has three children with her. His younger brothers Kenn Whitaker and Damon Whitaker are both actors as well. Whitaker's multimedia company, Spirit Dance Entertainment, includes film, television and music production. Whitaker works closely with a number of charitable organizations. He has also given back to his community, serving as an Honorary Board Member for Penny Lane, an organization that provides assistance to abused teenagers, the Human Rights Watch and The Hope North organization.
Trivia random: He and his daughter, True, have recorded a public service announcement promoting vegetarianism on behalf of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA).
Citazione random: "As a kid, I never had dreams of becoming an actor or director. Even when I was already working professionally, it took me a long time to know whether this was what I really wanted to be. Now I feel comfortable about what I'm doing, but I see that I can continue to make it better, that I can create a deeper balance in my life, and I'm still working on that. I didn't plan for things to turn out this way at all. But I have to say, I feel good about it. I do." - 1998 quote on his career.
Filmography links and data courtesy of IMDb.
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