Vantage Point

IMDb

I went to the theatre yesterday.

What's going on?

The president of the US visits a summit in Salamanca, Spain. First he is shot and then a bomb explodes. We see the same events from 8 different POVs. 8 different people that are either directly or indirectly involved in the events.

I am often applying double standards. Personally I believe most people do that whether they admit it to themselves nor not.

If I like a movie I can turn a blind eye to (smaller) weaknesses. If I don't like it, then this weaknesses are included in the judgement.

Spoilers follow!

The same happened to Vantage Point. During a great deal of the movie I felt well entertained. But the car chase and the end blew it for me.

1)
The characters of Dennis Quaid (Dragonheart) and Matthew Fox (Lost) are racing through the city of Salamanca. Dennis drives a compact car and gets a full hit by another car. Result: Some dents in the car, the chase goes on. Then he has to drive on a sidewalk and when it ends he has to break through two parking cars with little to no space between them. Result: Scratches on the bumper. The he gets a full hit by a track which smashes him into the corner of a house. Result: The car is totally destroyed, Dennis has a scratch. Of course he continues on foot and when Fox has a (in comparison) minor crash he is badly wounded and bleeds to death.

2)
The terrorists have shot several people and blown up a countless number of spectators. But thei evil plan fails because the bad terrorist avoids to hit a little girl on the middle of the street instead of running her over. And of course all main characters meet on exactly the spot where the crash happened.

Nothing against a happy end, but aren't there smarter solutions? Has it to be that dumb?

And then the minors that I usually wouldn't mind:

3)
The old, corpulent Forrest Whitaker (The Last King of Scotland) follows the Secret Service agents on foot with a video camera. And he has practically no problems to keep their pace. To be believable, they should have taken Jackie Chan for this - he even would have fulfilled the cliché of the japanese camera tourist (I know that JC is no japanese).

4)
Are they really trying to tell me that some of the Secret Service men don't know that they are currently guarding a fake president?

I had the same problem with The Kingdom. The movie was ok in general, until one of Foxx's men was kidnapped and they started this stupid rescue mission.