'Vantage Point' is good actioner

Directed by Pete Travis

Rated PG-13

(two and one half stars)

By Bruce Bulloch

Can a film that opens with Sigourney Weaver, as a hard-bitten cable news director browbeating a young reporter for having too much journalistic integrity, possibly steer you wrong? I don't think so.

Weaver is running the show from a mobile control room that is covering a presidential visit to Spain. As the presidential motorcade pulls up to the crowded plaza who should step out of the limousine? Why it's the always-interesting William Hurt shadowed by Dennis Quaid as his Secret Service escort.

Welcome to "Vantage Point," a standard-issue political thriller ramped up by an outsized plot gimmick and a bevy of first-class actors determined not to let it stumble into silliness.

As Hurt begins to speak to the crowd, shots ring out and bombs go off. The scene dissolves into chaos. It's hard to tell who has survived and who the bad guys are. Suddenly the scene stops and rewinds itself and plays out again, but from the vantage point (hence the title) of Quaid's character, agent Thomas Barnes.

Watch out, you're about to be treated to d