40/50x2: Platoon

This film has one of the most robust casts I have seen in a long time.

Platoon follows Chris Taylor (Charlie Sheen) as he drops out of college and volunteers to fight in Vietnam. He is dropped near the Cambodian border and immediately is thrust into combat.

Exhaustion overcomes him one night while he is supposed to standing watch. He asks another soldier to take over for him and he falls asleep - but so does the soldier who has taken over for him. And, the enemy is able to sneak up on them and ambushes them.

Taylor is yelled at by Sgt. Barnes (Tom Berenger), but he is taken under the wing of Sgt. Elias (Willem Dafoe), who doesn't get along with the more crazed Barnes.

The film follows Taylor through his experiences and also shows the other troops and how they are dealing with the war. Some are able to handle it, while others show the effects of war and each one deals with it in a different way.

The movie itself was decent, but not the greatest of war movies I have seen. Still, it was pretty much non-stop action, and the characters were very interesting.

It was also cool to see some of the bigger stars of the day like Johnny Depp, Forest Whitaker, John C. McGinley, Kevin Dillon and Keith David - some of which were very young and had very small roles.

Overall, enjoyable. And with most war films coming in rather long, here it is just two hours, which was nice. The ending of the film was also pretty powerful - something I was not expecting, but also understood.

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Vantage Point

Our second movie that we took in this weekend was Vantage Point.

Vantage Point is a thriller, terrorist movie that shows a single moment from a handful of different perspectives.

The film opens from the view of GNN (Global Network News) and their team. The President of the United States is set to give a speech against terrorism. There is an assassination attempt on the president, which is followed by multiple explosions.

The film then rewinds and shows you the point of view of Thomas Barnes (Dennis Quaid), who had previously taken a bullet for the president and was just returning to duty.

Basically, the film begins to unwrap more and more with each perspective that you are able to see. Forest Whitaker, William Hurt, Matthew Fox and Sigourney Weaver co-star in this action-packed film.

The film had a lot of great moments, and it was pretty fun to follow as each perspective was shown - and little-by-little the information was given to you - until you find out who is behind the attack, and how they are going to be brought down.

I would give this movie a better grade, however, if it wasn't so predictable. I told my wife right away, I believe from the second perspective, who was involved in the attack. It was far too easy to figure out. But, it was definitely a fun watch and fun to see how things went together.

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