This movie has been hyped for the last two months now. And I was hooked ever since I saw the first trailer for Vantage Point, the newest film from Sony Pictures starring Dennis Quaid and Sigourney Weaver. The setup is that there is an assassination attempt made on the President of the United States, and 8 different people, all with different perspectives and vantage points, each have a piece of the puzzle. I simply couldn't wait for Feb 22 to arrive. When I did finally get to see it, on Feb 23, I was not disappointed.

This movie's strength is clearly its story. The script, by Barry Levy, is unique, action-packed, and full of mystery. It felt kind of like a cross between JFK and Groundhog Day. But it was simply fascinating. The story begins from the point of view of Rex Brooks (Sigourney Weaver), producer for a fictitious television news station, GNN. From the production truck, she watches as the President is shot and two explosions occur, causing panic and mayhem. Just as we start to recover from the shock of what has happened, the story is rewound and we go through the same 15 minutes of action from the point of view of Thomas Barnes (Dennis Quaid), a member of the Secret Service. This process repeats itself as new clues are revealed with each new character's perspective until, at last, the truth is revealed. I was simply spellbound by this movie and felt that I couldn't look away, even for a second or two to glance at my bag of popcorn, lest I miss something important.

There were a couple of things which, in my opinion, detracted from the excellence of the story. These were things that reminded me that this was a made-up movie and prevented me from being completely immersed into another world. First of all, we never see any bullet holes in anyone when they are shot. Most notably, some flashback footage of Quaid's character as he takes a bullet for the President a year prior shows his white-shirted chest with no blemishes whatsoever...no blood, not even a hole in the shirt! Secondly, while we're on that topic, no one in this film wears a bullet-proof vest. No one! Not the Secret Service agents, not the President, and not any of the terrorists. The third and final thing that sticks in my mind that questions this film's credibility is the overacting by Forest Whitaker who portrays a US tourist who brings his camcorder along for the summit speech. He was so overly emotional at everything that I felt that I was watching a comedy featuring Jim Carrey.