Have you heard the one about the angst-ridden body guard who failed in his mission, and almost decides to give up, but is searching for another chance to redeem himself? Well, in case you missed it, here it is again! I reserve my lowest rating for movies that are really, really bad, yet inexplicably take themselves seriously. The acting in this movie was actually quite good for the most part, which makes it even worse... because it makes you think, "Why would they go to such trouble, and waste so many people's time,to make such a colossally bad movie?" There are cartoons that defy the laws of physics and they're funny. This movie took until the last 30 minutes or so before I started laughing out loud at it... But then I start feeling depressed, and start thinking about other imponderables, like Budweiser beer, and country music, and Donald Trump, and the people who rated this movie with more than one star. And then I think that if this movie can even exist, then humanity is doomed, and no secret service agents are going to come to the rescue to bail us out. -

Vantage Point (2008) is a very exciting film that is full of interesting twists and turns. All the actors do very well in it as well. Sigourney Weaver does a great job here, she gives a very dramatic and focused performance, even though her appearance in the film is rather brief. Dennis Quaid, the star of the film, does a pretty good job too, he is very believable in the role. I love how this film was shot, it was shot very beautifully, the setting was very pretty too, I loved the scenery in Spain. The script was well written as well, good dialogue between characters. Now there were a few scenes where the acting was just a little on the cheesy side, but like I said, it was just a few moments where the acting seemed a little wooden. This film is a good time to sit down and watch for a lot of fun action and an interesting plot. 7/10 for vantage point.

Columbia Pictures' Vantage Point introduces a new and unconventional take on the action/thriller genre. The multi-viewpoint perspective introduces a fresh form of story telling. The plot revolves around eight witnesses with eight different points of view trying to unlock the truth behind an assassination attempt on the President of the United States.While in Spain at a landmark peace summit against the global war on terror, President Aston faces a life-threatening assault as he takes to the stage. This is followed by a huge blast killing hundreds. Throughout the movie, one revisits this event through the eyes of several witnesses with their own set of stories and experiences. The story rewinds multiple times, each time portraying a new perspective. As you feel that the plot is clearing up, there is yet another dimension added to it and you realize that nothing is what it seems to be. However, after 3-4 occurrences of rewinds, one might get bored seeing the technique monotonously and the upcoming rewinds often become expected. One's patience drops as the story keeps revolving on the same scene instead of moving ahead.The experience is like putting a puzzle together, piece by piece, but just when you think you have figured out the real scene, the entire scenario changes. It is beautiful to see how the various events described throughout converge to the same point. The innovative way of story telling and the clean editing surely deserves commendation. Have a little patience, and you will be enthralled by the engrossing mystery that slowly unwinds.

U.S. President Ashton (William Hurt) is in Spain for a counter terrorism summit. Before he can begin a speech, he is felled by an assassins' bullet. But is that what really happened? The gimmick of this political action-thriller is that ultimately we get several different perspectives on the events leading up to the event, the event itself, and the tumult that follows. We see things through the eyes of a Secret Service agent (Dennis Quaid), a tourist (Forest Whitaker), a Spanish cop (Eduardo Noriega), the terrorists themselves, and a man being made to assist the terrorists because they've kidnapped his brother.This is all really quite senseless. The final third is almost wall to wall action, and it becomes so over the top, with Quaid turning into an indestructible superhero, that it eventually loses its way. The multiple stories do help to make it reasonably absorbing. Director Pete Travis and especially the top notch veteran film editor Stuart Baird do their able best to keep a hold of our attention. This thing moves so damn fast (and clocks in at just over an hour and a half), that Travis and Baird are able to distract some viewers from the more ridiculous aspects of Barry L. Levy's script. On location shooting in Mexico and slick widescreen photography help to make things watchable.Certainly some of the actors give this everything that they've got, performing with admirably straight faces. Joining Hurt, Quaid, and Whitaker are Matthew Fox, Bruce McGill, Edgar Ramirez, Said Taghmaoui, Zoe Saldana, James Le Gros, and Sigourney Weaver.These filmmakers may well keep their viewers on their toes throughout, but eventually the whole thing just becomes silly. Some of the plot twists are reasonably amusing, and all in all "Vantage Point" is able to run on a fair bit of adrenaline.Seven out of 10.