My Thumb Up: Vantage Point

Starring: Dennis Quaid, Matthew Fox, Forest Whitaker
Co-Starring: Sigourney Weaver, William Hurt

I chose the above abbreviated version of the trailer for Vantage Point because this is a thriller with plenty of plot twists that the longer trailers spoil.

The premise here is the shooting of the President of the United States told from the "vantage point" of 8 (?) different characters. Other theater-goers moaned when the same scene would start again with different camera angles as seen by someone else. Of course, depending on the character, different parts of the whole mystery are revealed.

The movie builds to an extended car chase full of harrowing near-misses, crashes, and crazy driving through crowded city streets.

What I Liked
• Sigourney Weaver starts things off in a great way playing a news director in "the truck" covering the event that becomes the shooting. It seemed like she'd been doing that job all her life. She was channeling a little Ripley from Aliens. "Hudson, pan left!"
• You have to think to solve the crime but not too hard.
• Action, action, action.
• Incredible car chases.
• Interesting plot twists that I didn't see coming.

What I Didn't Like
• The action is non-stop with little time to catch your breath.
• Matthew Fox isn't featured nearly enough and he never takes his shirt off.
• The story could have been more developed with more revealed in each replay of the incident. Each vantage point was a bit too similar.
• While the car chases are incredible, they are unbelievable. Most people can't navigate a parking lot and these folks can speed through a city crowded with cars and pedestrians, smash and crash, and keep on going. It was a bit like a Terminator movie where everyone seems unstoppable only these people aren't machines.

Notice: If hand-held camera movement like what was used in Cloverfield gives you motion sickness, that could be an issue here as well.

My thumb is up for Vantage Point. If you're looking for an action thriller, this is a good one.
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