Vantage Point

The supposed assassination of the U.S. president (William Hurt) at an anti-terrorism summit in Spain is shown from several different points of view—chiefly those of a stressed-out Secret Service agent (Dennis Quaid), an American tourist (Forest Whitaker) and a Spanish cop (Eduardo Noriega). Writer Barry Levy and director Pete Travis (both making their first feature) rerun their opening scene a full eight times, each time adding some house-that-Jack-built complications, but even with all the repetition and a modest 90-minute running time, they run out of ideas before they run out of film. It all winds up—or dribbles down—to yet another chase through crowded streets in commandeered cars, with an ending meant to be ironic but simply providing a crowning howler to all the Rube Goldberg nonsense.