W. (2008)

2/5

Oliver Stone's W. claims to be an honest representation of the former President in the hopes of dismantling years of misconceptions, both positive and negative, but is instead a ludicrous farce filled with exaggerations and caricatures. The movie goes back and forth between history and the present, starting with his time in office and intercutting with past events that led him there (including random, unrelated ones). I can imagine this was done for no other reason than to make up for lacking transitions and storyline inconsistencies. There is no progression or escalation, merely event after event after event, which makes the 2 hour runtime laboriously slow. (I thought it was nearing the end before 90 minutes in.) And each vignette is only hinted at, nothing is fleshed out, so we are left with a frustratingly inadequate and incomplete picture of a man nobody really cares about anymore. Not only that, but the rest of the screen is filled with people who are more focused on their horrific accents than their characters, which turn out to be flatter than their real counterparts (and those I've only seen in stilted TV announcements).

The one redeeming factor is the humor that is infused in this film, although I'm not sure it was all intentional. Because everything is so extreme, it is also preposterous to the point of comedy. The movie cannot be taken seriously anymore. Dick Cheney is a raving, power-hungry, egomaniacal lunatic--weren't we trying to dispel myths and prejudices? Condoleezza Rice is, for some bizarre reason, an uglier, female version of Neil Goldman from Family Guy. Below I have included a clip with Neil Goldman; as you watch it, just imagine Thandie Newton in disfiguring makeup prosthetics talking to Bush, and you have the movie W. Don't watch this movie; it's a waste of time.



IMDb link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1175491/

Vantage Point (2008)

4/5

Vantage Point is a movie Sameer and I light-heartedly made fun of for its over-the-top action and cliched dialogue while simultaneously watching the trailer again and again in anticipation of its release. We decided not to see it in theaters due a slew of bad reviews, but I am happy to announce that all those reviews were wrong! This movie met and exceeded all my expectations. The plot follows an attempted assassination on the President while at a counter-terrorism summit that continually gets more and more unnecessarily convoluted and never actually reveals the terrorists' true motivations. And yet, by the end of the movie, you don't care at all. Because it set up a series of small mysteries and revealed them incrementally such that you finish the film feeling satisfied. It is remarkably successful at getting you to suspend your disbelief from beginning to end.

Dennis Quaid was an actor whom I (and Hollywood) had forgotten about. But he gives a strong, convincing performance that anchors this entire movie. The cinematography was alright, but the real visual star was the locale. The shots were beautiful, although the rapid-fire editing made it somewhat difficult to see at times. The dialogue was not as awful as the trailer made it seem--they picked the worst sentences for the trailer, which magnified their stupidity. The action, however, was incredible. I'm generally not a fan of car chases, but this one had me sitting on the edge of my seat. It is absolutely amazing. This entire movie emanates a feeling of cool. Think Lost meets 24. And watch it.

IMDb link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0443274/