Vantage Point

There is a really good film in Vantage Point but somehow it just wasn't quite realised.

I don't know whether the filmmakers were trying to be too clever with the very interesting concept, which isn't exactly new but nevertheless isn't often used.

The film centres around an assassination attempt on the US President and is told from several different characters' `vantage points', including the Pres himself, a tourist, a bodyguard, and a couple of the people involved in the shooting.

The cast is solid with Dennis Quaid, William Hurt, Sigourney Weaver, Forest Whitaker and Matthew Fox among them.

It's a little bit 24, a little bit Lost with some Bourne camera work thrown in. There are some twists, some surprising, some not so surprising, I thought Fox wasn't bad and Quaid kind of remided me of Kevin Costner in the Bodyguard - whether or not that's a good thing I'm not sure.

They overused their concept a bit and this is where some of the problem lay. One or two people in the session I was in remarked `not again' or words to that effect at about the fourth rewind to start a new vantage point. One could argue they should have expected it but I still stay the concept was overdone.

In all, there are far worse films out there and this wasn't bad at all. Less critical people than myself will say it's a solid action movie. And it is. I just expected more. There was a really good film that went begging here but what they came up with is passable. A 7 out of 10.