Thanks to the writers strike, many die-hard action fans that usually get their fix from 24 are scrambling for something to quench their adrenaline appetite. While Vantage Point looks like a good Jack Bauer substitute, its premise and short-winded plot will have viewers wishing it could have been a bit more traditional.

Vantage Point tells the story of an assassination attempt from a variety of different perspectives. Each new “vantage point” reveals a new part of the puzzle and often manages to show the audience a new perspective of an event they have already seen. Nice idea, right?

Unfortunately, the execution of this nifty premise doesn’t quite work. There are a total of five points of view in this movie and each one rewinds the clock back to its original starting point. This means that you get to see all of the exposition five times, which ruins the movie’s pacing since each perspective ends in some sort of intense action cliffhanger. By the time the movie rewinds for the fourth time, you will be wishing it would just keep moving forward.

First-time writer Barry Levy, who was a high school religion teacher before selling this script, doesn’t offer a whole lot of story to go through. This gets more apparent with each new viewpoint since, more often then not, you are watching the same thing over again. The movie could have easily been hacked down to an hour long if not for its gimmicky format. In fact, Vantage Point would probably be a pretty good movie if it didn’t follow the so-called Rashomon style storytelling.

The movie eventually abandons its premise for a more traditional, multi-perspective format. With the change in storytelling comes a change in style, from a thriller to a straight up action flick. It starts with some special forces-like action and ends with a car chase through the streets of Spain. The momentum continues until the end where all of the loose ends are tied up in a relatively satisfying and coincidental ending.

The cast assembled for the movie is top quality, with Matthew Fox of Lost and Forrest Whitaker being the standouts of the bunch. Fox makes for a great secret service officer who will be smiling one moment and taking a guy down in another. Whitaker, meanwhile, plays a tourist of no great importance that gets a chance to be a part of the action. Even though both actors only get a handful of minutes, they make them count. And Dennis Quaid isn’t half bad either.

Vantage Point has its moments, a few plot twists, tense action sequences and great performances from its ensemble, but the dull middle of the film, which unfortunately falls on Whitaker’s lap, is almost unforgivable. I wish they would have ditched the gimmick and gone for a good old-fashioned action thriller.