- As portrayed by William Hurt ("A History of Violence" and "Tuck Everlasting"), the President of the United States ("POTUS") isn't a ninny...for a change...Whew!
- I always like Forest Whitaker ("The Last King of Scotland" and "The Great Debaters").
- Dennis Quaid ("The Parent Trap"-1998 and "Frequency") looks appropriately edgy; his character took a bullet for POTUS a year ago and he is just now back at work.
- For a welcome change, Sigourney Weaver ("Snow Cake" and "The TV Set") portrays a character who is highly focused and demanding, but not a conniving bitch!
- I enjoy seeing a situation from different points of view ("Vantage Points," get it?).
- I love arguing with movie critics; this is NOT a "Rashomon"-type movie because there are no conflicting stories, just the same story seen over and over but through different sets of eyes (and video equipment).
- I am in awe at the amount of digital technology that is brought into play in contemporary movies.
On the other hand...
- I HATE suicide bombers!
- Laughable coincidences...over and over and over and over...
- Implausible high-speed car chase...in narrow, crowded European city streets and sidewalks, yet! (But no fruit cart was damaged in THIS movie!)
- Quaid's character is 2008's Terminator...Indestructible! Explosions, gun shot wounds, car wrecks...and he just keeps going; he's a regular Energizer bunny.
- Too much (to quote my grandson James) "Blowie Uppie Stuff." (In all honesty, it is just the same two explosions, viewed five or six times apiece.)
- Claustrophobic camera work, extreme close ups, lots of loading of guns, passing of secret items, eyes disclosing each new epiphany as plots and counter-plots unfold.
- Betrayals by trusted individuals.
- Cold-blooded murders.
As happy endings go, this is as close as we can hope for these days, given current world politics and the single-minded determination of religious zealots.
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