Vantage Point

Reviewed by: - 05.04.07

Oye! Kellvin’s ruthless hit man El Mayimbe here! Some publicists haven’t been nice to us recently. But that’s ok. We’re not haters. Just make sure you close your curtains at night. This hit man has an itchy trigger finger and I’m ready to give some future scripts a nasty head-shot.

My first bullet fired is a shoulder shattering hit of Sony’s confusing as hell upcoming fall movie VANTAGE POINT which should really be called Flashbacks Galore.

The script starts off present day and takes place in la lovely Madrid, Spain. The story in Madrid is taking place at an international summit where the US President ASHTON is to meet with leaders from European Countries to bring peace amongst the countries blah blah. Of course that sounds boring. I guarantee the script has lots of Ka-booms for those pyromaniacs out there and for all you actionistas! The way the script is written it is told through the eye’s of all the main characters. And there are a lot of main characters in this script. Although they’re not necessarily flashback scenes; the script tells the same story over and over but from the viewpoint of each character. I have to say I hate flashback scenes. If it were like three okay, but there were like 10-12 scenes this way telling the same story but in each time it is told, you get a key piece of information that slowly starts to weave the whole plot together. It’s cleverly written and Levy must have done a lot of research on government protocol. So let’s begin…

To me it starts off as one of those Left Behind series books. There are just oo many people. Here you have President Ashton who had intended to meet with the Spanish Prime Minister as he gives a speech to the open public outside. Unfortunately this is like a Secret Servicemen’s nightmare. It’s all open space and a lot of windows that need to be covered. There is tons of media covering the event. One media crew’s coverage becomes crucial in the story because they are able to point out something in their footage that one of the key Secret Service man THOMAS BARNES (Long time Secret Service to the President and had saved the US President from previous assassination). I’m going to spare you all the flashback scenes but basically give you a summery of what I have figured out. As what seems to be the President arriving and stepping onto the podium tons of protestors are there. There are two main people covering and recording this event (LUIS who allegedly works for the CNN TV crew). Covering for CNN is Annie and HOWARD LEWICKI (40 something, divorced, mid-life crisis out in Madrid on adventure). Then we turn to TAYLOR, another secret service agent who works with Barnes. Barnes starts to survey the whole territory communicating with other agents to see if they have swept all the surrounding locations. There is one spot Barnes cant get his eye off which is one window that keeps a blowing curtain from afar (JFK’s assassination). ASHTON steps onto the podium. Within minutes a shot rings out hitting ASHTON to the ground. The story turns to another person named ENRIQUE. He looks as if he is an undercover cop but he isn’t. What’s really happened is there is a political activist group called wanting to make a statement to the US. The Master of this group and the assassination plot is TEHUEL SUAREZ. He controls this whole group. Under him is his sinister bitch Veronica (why she’s a bitch? You’ll see), ENRIQUE, LUIS, TAYLOR (yup the agent) and JAVIER (an ex operations specialist whose brother was kidnapped by TEHUEL’s group to get him to cooperate in the assassination). Veronica is every man’s nightmare, sexy and very convincing. She gets Enrique to fall in love with her and follow her in a jealous rage. She gets Javier to comply with what she wants by dangling the life of his little brother in front of him. Do what I say or he dies. And lastly she is the lover of TEHUEL the mastermind.

Going back to the assassination, Veronica is nearby keeping on contact with Tehuel. As soon as everyone’s attention is on the shot President…she tosses a bag on the same stage. Barnes sees it and knows a bomb will go off. Within seconds a major explosion goes off killing others and causing major pandemonium. He also spotted Enrique who claims to be an officer. Barnes approaches him to question him. Meanwhile, Barnes is trying to put two and two together. Taylor the other agent turns out to be working for the mastermind group and feeds lies, and throws cold trails to Barnes by throwing him off. Taylor convinces Barnes he will canvas the area and see where the other agents and their commander post are. Annie the CNN reporter is too shocked to try to cover this. Her supposed cameraman is Luis but what happens is the coverage he is providing is also linking back to the mastermind group. Lewicki is trying to understand and comprehend what he recorded. At the same time he see’s a little girl name Annie who separated from her mommy in the madness of all the sirens and chaos. He tries to get her so she doesn’t get hurt.

Now back to 15mins right before and till present, we flashback to the hotel room with what we see is this President. Turns out the US government received and intercepted an email planning the attack on the US President. With that in mind, they put a double to attend the summit and speech given outside where we saw the assassination. The real Ashton is watching all this as it happens on TV. He panics and wants to leave.

Meanwhile making his way to into the building and getting the go-ahead is Javier. He enters the building and with the assistance of Taylor the other agent they take out all the agents guarding the room where the real President is being held. Once Javier enters the room, he throws a gas of some sort putting down the other agents and puts on a mask. He knows and spots the President taking him hostage. Meanwhile he has Tehuel, Veronica, and others waiting in a fake ambulance. Veronica immediately grabs the President and drugs him. They whisk him off and think they are scott free.

Flashing back to the assassin site, Barnes is starting to realize something is not making sense. He tries getting in contact with Taylor. He goes back and meets Lewicki; grabs his camera to look at footage. The other agents there have Enrique. Just as they are about to take him for questioning he gets away. Barnes also looks at the camera crew that was there and their footage and spots something that doesn’t make sense. He then realizes why Taylor doesn’t answer…he’s part of what’s going on.

Now on to where Enrique is running to. What we don’t know till later on is of course Enrique is part of this plot he also doesn’t know that Veronica was just using him. Fast forwarding and sparing the tedious details. Javier who was the same one who had handed the President off to the la loca Veronica (she’s like the evil Latina in the novela). Javier is driving with Taylor because he thinks he is finally going to get his little brother back since he has done his part, but once they spot Enrique, they get to him and Javier realizes he’s not getting his brother. With that he shoots Enrique. Javier jumps back in the car with Taylor. Taylor must realize this is ridiculous and dead weight and shoots Javier. SO on goes Taylor but he soon realizes things are not quiet for long he has Barnes following him! In a hot pursuit (maybe this is something like from the Italian Job) Taylor tries to steer him away but with that CHOCA! Boom! Taylor gets sandwich in his car after being hit with a truck. Barnes catches up and pulls Taylor out but it’s too late for Taylor.

Back to the ambulance scene, what Tehuel doesn’t realize is he is driving right into this madness of bad drivers where Taylor had his accident. The President tries to get himself up from this drug induced sleepiness when he grabs an IV pole from the ambulance and POW hits Veronica right in the face but you know she’s evil so that wont work. After being hit she shoots the President in the leg! Anyway the ambulance keeps driving to get away; they end up smack in the middle of where the assassination took place. They’re trying to weave thru the whole crowds and Tehuel who’s driving with the shot President. As they’re getting through he sees a little girl at the last second and tries to veer the car but was going so fast when he put his foot on the brakes instead of hitting the girl, the ambulance flips over killing Veronica (por fin), Ashton is in pain and Tehuel is still alive! Barnes makes it back to this scene. Spotting what happened and being the brilliant dude he is, he runs up to the ambulance and sees the President. Trying to break him out, Tehuel is not dead yet, he pulls for his gun but before he can Barnes spots it and kills him right there. And that’s it Barnes saves the day. Saving the President again…and he gets his nice thank you. Aw!

I believe this film can have potential, I just hope the film itself is not as confusing as the script with all the going back and forth every 15 minutes to tell everyone’s side of the story. Of course there were some more details but it still has the same ending. A lot of action, a villain, a bitch and of course the hero. Can’t go wrong with that, right? Whatever…

HASTA EL PROXIMO CAPITULO…

…YO SOY EL MAYIMBE!

mayimbe@latinoreview.com

Next week, we take a look at the script for a superhero movie that comes out next summer! Believe me, you don’t want to miss this!

DISCLAIMER: We don't have the script nor don't care to either and this is merely an opinion piece (ever heard of the first amendment: FREEDOM OF SPEECH and FREEDOM OF PRESS?) so if you need to reach Kel, his response will be "Dude, I am busy."