S07E05: Vantage Point

[NB: Due to file-corruption issues, this episode's sound isn't stellar; apologies for any inconvenience!] For a third-choice star in a first-draft action movie, Dennis Quaid's quite good in 2008's Vantage Point, a fridge-magnet-poetry "thriller" script whose "what if In The Line Of Fire + 24 + Dave gave DQ the adrenaline trots" logline invited multiple weary comparisons to Rashomon in (uniformly negative) reviews. Despite dialogue some film student shook out of the Michael Bay Presents: Boggle cup, a Frogger algorithm used as a car chase, inconsistent blocking, an inert title, and Quaid adopting the wrong posture for a Secret Service agent, we did find a handful of things to enjoy, like William Hurt doing an imitation of that flappy dude outside the car wash while getting shot, and imagining Niles Crane listing budget rental-car models. The president is a clone, but there's a Quaid In Full episode to distract you, so: who cares!

Overall score: 4
QQQ score: 6.5
Days since a lost Kuffs accident: 419

SHOW NOTES

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• Stephanie Zacharek's review at Salon
• Kipp Gonzalez LLC's at Slant
• Manohla Dargis does a bit at NYT