"whilst not being made entirely with the yellow stuff, Vantage Point has a sufficient topping of cheese to leave a slightly bitter taste in the mouth"

Cheese goes well with lots of things. Macaroni. Pickle. Toast. These are all things improved with a spot of cheddar. When it comes to films however, cheese is very difficult to get right, and very often makes things worse.

Whilst not being made entirely with the yellow stuff, Vantage Point has a sufficient topping of cheese to leave a slightly bitter taste in the mouth. Peel off this topping however, and what you get is a very clever thriller that leaves you wishing you could rewind the film to check what just happened.

Unravelling the film from 8 different perspectives, director Pete Travis manages to build the suspense layer on layer. Each perspective brings sheds new light on the assassination attempt of the president of the Unites States (William Hurt), and the attempts of his minders (Matthew Fox and Dennis Quaid) to find the gunman, assisted by an incredibly convenient American tourist with a video camera (Forest Whitaker), and all documented by TV news producer Rex Brooks (Sigourney Weaver).

The concept behind the film is great - and there were some really great twists in there. The problem was that EVERY ‘vantage point' is introduced in the same way - rewinding from the end of the previous to the same black screen with counting clock. Once was great, twice was fine, but after that it was met with repeated groans - too much cheese between the layers.

Too many of the characters suffered from an excess of dairy product. Hurts president takes such an elevated moral high ground it's simply unbelievable, and Quaids terminatoresque resilience and deep emotional attachment to the president a little too much to take.

That said, it's not an unenjoyable film, and there some really clever touches. In all it depends how fussy you are - if you're happy to pick out the cheese you'll have a ball, but if you try to eat it whole you may just end up spitting it out.