i just come back home from see this movie and i want to share my thought right away because this movie be disappoint . while the concept be interesting and the execution be very poor . i will start my review with the good point . the first good point about this movie be the suspense . i must admit that i get hooked right away by the story . you see the president of the united state be shot but nothing be what it seem . the rest of the movie give you the answer bit by bit . the second good point about this movie be the acting . almost every character in the movie be believable and the performance be quite solid . two thumb up for dennis quaid in his role of veteran secret service agent barnes and to forest whitaker who impress me with every single performance he give . not only do he play convincingly and he impersonate every character he play ( last king of scotland anyone . ) . however and taghmaoui and zurer be the weak link in the bunch . that it for the good point . a for the weakness of this movie and they be many . i will start with the factual error that plague the whole movie from start to finish . the movie tell u event that happen during an international counter terrorism summit . however and the host country be not represent by the spanish prime minister or any other high rank spanish politician . the country be represent by the mayor of salamanca who offer his city to the world . ouch . actually an international summit be organize on a state level and only the president ( or prime minister or chancellor etc ) of the host country be responsible of the city and the facility that will be use for the event and not the mayor . this be an international summit for god sake not a municipal trivial event . secondly and in such summit and the general public be not allow in the premise of the event a depict in the movie . that be no way to have such a large crowd present during an announcement of such importance . the only people who could have be present would have be high ranking official and head of state and important leader and not average joes . furthermore and the protester wouldn not have be allow to be that close to the premise of the event . there always a security perimeter that the general public can never cross and it usually quite large . the second main weakness of the movie be how it subject matter be treat . i assume that the main subject of the movie be terrorism . however and the story doesn not give u any objective treatment and actually it bias . terrorism be again pin on arab and a the summit unite arab state and the west . there be no explanation a what western country be present and it just state the west . there be no subtlety . there be no mention of what lead to terrorism or the way to confront this dangerous phenomenon . therefore and terrorist in this movie be depict a your usual stereotypical bad guy . there not even a remote attempt to explain their background or the reason that push them to do what they do or to believe in what they believe . they be just terrorist who want to hurt civilized country . later in the movie you will learn that the attempt on the presidential life be a vendetta by the terrorist because they fail to smuggle a dirty bomb out of morocco . wow . how credible be that . suffice to say that it more likely for a dirty bomb to be smuggle out of pakistan or central asia not out of morocco . the third main weakness of the movie be it character development . it actually non existent in this movie except for thomas barnes and howard lewis and javier . there be no development for the other character in the movie . who be they really . what motivate them to do what they do . the terrorist bare spanish name but be they truly spanish . what lead to the betrayal of kent taylor ( mathew fox character ) . be it ideological . do he hold a grudge against his government . we do not know and the movie make no effort to give u a clue . the last weakness that i will list here be the narrative style use to tell the story . we be suppose to see the story from the perspective of eight different people . however and this choice be ambiguous and not well execute . for the first two third of the movie you can really see the story from different perspective . while this may be interest at first and the constant rewinding sequence become boring and redundant by the third time . many people leave the auditorium after the third time and i couldn not help but close my eye to avoid watch the rewinding sequence again . when the movie reach the final third and it be apparent to me that the director do not know what he be do anymore . the perspective story telling be totally abandoned and we be actually lead to see the perspective of three different character at the same time . this choice make the first 60 minute of the movie totally irrelevant . why do the director choose to start with a specific narrative style and then abandon it for the final 30 minute . why do not he stick with a conventional story tell style from the start . do he want to make a rashomon style movie . be he try to use a pulp fiction type of storytelling . if that be his intention and then he totally fail to accomplish his goal . all in all and i give this movie a 4 star out of 10. it remain a suspenseful and thrilling movie but it flaws outweigh it strong point . my advice represent watch it once and forget it and do not expect to see or learn anything new from it .