Vantage Point is the one movie that I have consciously told myself that the next time I hit the Library, I would pick up a copy. And yet, I always kept forgetting to do just that. It didn't even help that I had it on my Hold List (on paper and here at Penny Can). And this was about 2 years in the making. Sheesh. There was always something else that caught my attention if I was grabbing something off the shelves at the Library. Well, I finally grabbed my copy because it was staring me straight in the face and here I am. The reason why I wanted to check this out is that I'm a HUGE fan of 24 and thought it was be in the same vein, which it was. Kinda.

At the heart of the film, it's basically Rashomon on steroids. If you don't know what that is, just think of Vantage Point as Groundhog Day where the replay the Assassination of the President Of The United States over and over and over. The reason why they do this is to give the viewer a different.....you guessed it....Vantage Point of all the principal players that make up the story. The downside is that they go to this well one too many times and it does kind of bog things down a bit. It's not until the 3rd Act do they finally play past the assassination and let everything unfold as to who is behind the plot and how all the players will converge at the end. I can't really go any further than this as it would ruin it for those yet to see it. I will say that there are some big plot holes and some things are just never addressed at all and....well, I will keep it there and not spoil it.

Even with the replay of the same scene for the first 2/3 of the film and plot holes and motivation, I still found this one to be a good thriller. It was fun, especially how it all comes together at the end. It's not ground breaking nor is it even original, but it's definitely worth a Rent. I think adding In The Line Of Fire to the mix would make this a great double feature. Vantage Point has an all-star cast that includes: Dennis Quaid, Matthew Fox, Forest Whitaker, William Hurt, Sigourney Weaver, Bruce McGill, Zoe Saldana and Richard T. Jones.

I haven't seen this since it came out... it must have been a preview screening or something because I didn't know what it was about at all until my sister and I sat down to watch it.  I barely remember it.

Your issues about seeing the same thing start over multiple times, and needing to have all that information in order to understand the third act (which is WHY the rewinds are important)... that's the same issue people have with the new season of Arrested Development.  They both use it well, but it is a polarizing style.

I did like how the flashbacks were getting progressively longer, but I remember thinking (along with a lot of people in the theater, almost like a shared telepathy moment) "this movie BETTER NOT rewind again!"  Thankfully it didn't.

Oh yeah, the chase!

Thinking I SHOULD revisit this flick.

I will say this, I love these types of thrillers were the fun comes in trying to solve the mystery before it's revealed. I did have pretty much all of it figured out half way through the movie. Well, as much as I could "write it" in my head. The only reason why I was off in some places was due to the plot holes, i.e. the screenwriter failed to fill in said holes, which I did myself anyway. So, suck it screenwriter that didn't do his job!