Vanishing Point

With a pregnant wife and very little money in the bank, former Ranger and race driver, James Kowalski needs cash to pay for a hospital place during labour. He is on a job several states away when he learns his wife has gone into a dangerous labour and sets off a full speed to get home to his wife. Pulled over early on his journey, Kowalski makes a break for it and manages to evade the police across a couple of states. However as talk radio pick up on this "outlaw hero", his profile rises and he draws the attention of an equally gung-ho cop and the power of those not bound by state boundaries. Meanwhile Kowalski tries to focus on his wife and future child.

There is no doubt that the producers of this remake never expected to win any friends among those who consider the original Vanishing Point to be a classic cult film. I am not one of those people but I can understand why they would hate this film because it loses whatever strange appeal the original had and replaces it with more story but nothing really that good. The casual viewer may appreciate the more meaningful plot here but really it doesn't make it a better film – just a better structured one. With more of a plot, the remake could have done something different by making this more of a character-driven story or at least, although clichéd, made more out of the relationship between Kowalski and his pursuers or even made comments about the little man versus the Man. Instead what it does is produce a simple story where Kowalski meets people along the road in between car chases.

If you want an idea of what you're getting into, if they had added a few laughs here and there then this could easily have been Smokey & The Bandit 5. The car chases lack any imagination or special effort and, although noisy, are certainly not anywhere near special enough to justify essentially building a film around them. The whole thing smacks of television movie budgets but I suppose for some people this is enough for them – some people just like to see cars drive fast and crash (and before you accuse me of being a snob, please remember that I actually bothered to watch this film). The cast don't really help although, looking back, Mortensen looks like an attraction. Sadly he isn't because he plays the role right down the middle and didn't emotionally engage me or produce anything else of interest. Like the film itself, he more or less does what he was asked to do and isn't bad but certainly isn't any good. The same goes for the rest of the cast and the only distraction was the presence of familiar faces like David and Priestly.

Overall, if you like the original then you will rip at your hair all the way though this because it simply doesn't compare (and remember when I say this that I didn't really like the original all that much). If you have never seen the original or even heard of it then you're still not off the hook because this is a simple, basic affair that relies on cardboard characters, a join-the-dots plot and lots of average car chases that are noisy but lack excitement. Not really worth it all round.

I'll start by stating that I have not seen the original 1971 "Vanishing Point", yet. I only picked this movie up from the library because the title stood out after I had remembered it mentioned several times in "Quentin Tarantino's Death Proof", and it was the only copy there. No original. So I took a look.

First off the whole religion/spirituality theme underlying the whole movie was very unnecessary and forced. Several people are seen performing the signs of the cross, Kowalski's conversion to Catholicism is very prevalent, and even the doctor he contacts at the hospital his wife is at, is named Nazren. Sounds a lot like Nazarene or Nazareth. So the whole religious side of the film was unnecessary.

The Flashback/Dream sequences were edited very poorly. It takes a second before you realize it's really a flashback/dream because they are edited into the current scene like it's similar scene or parallel moment somewhere else.

And finally the action. I love car chases in film. Movies like Death Proof and Gone in 60 Seconds have amazing car chases, with lots of crashes, side by side collisions, all the fun stuff. This film has some decent car chase sequences but they are split apart too many times to make way for the drama that it really tarnishes the adrenaline rush they should be evoking. Not only that but they are not spectacular. The first few are a bit of a rush because you he has his "mission" and he means to fulfill it. But after a while, with all the stops and drama, the action not only feels less engaging or tense but the action itself feels a little tired, as in the stunts and speedy feeling become less and less powerful and amazing.

The story was simple but with all the "hero" messages and religion "advertising" it started to feel too contrived and mixed up. Finish it off with a poorly written and COMPLETELY unnecessarily ambiguous ending and you get 1997 "Vanishing Point".

Again I have not seen the original (something I will get on top of ASAP), so I can't decided for myself how it holds up but my experience with this film has strengthened my powers of clairvoyance and they say: "It doesn't..."

What made the original Vanishing Point a classic was that everyone was free to read their own meaning into it... or read no meaning at all and just watch the Challenger roar through the desert. What motivates Kowalski? Decipher it from his actions and flashbacks, or just ignore the question entirely. The film is still magnificent either way.

But the studio thought this uncertainty made it too esoteric back in 1971, so it was cut and given a limited release in the expectation of a quick death. But far from vanishing, the original Vanishing Point became recognized as one the GREAT road movies of all time.

This remake shows that Hollywood hasn't changed much. They love remaking a classic (hopefully guaranteeing an audience), but they still think that everything needs to be made both very obvious and very very simple. So they get rid of all the classic elements and turn it into a generic chase movie. They give Kowalski a really REALLY simple, obvious reason for his drive, making his flashbacks and encounters purely superfluous. And being superfluous they are populated with trite two dimensional caricatures... boring fluff that could be disposed of without diminishing this movie at all, slight though it is. This is entirely unlike the original which had interesting, unusual people that added to the story and gave context to the nature and character of Kowalski.

And that clunky, mass market mysticism thrown into the remake? ANY film is better off without that!!!

They also decided to make a federal case out of Kowalski's run... literally. It's not enough that state cops will naturally chase people who run from them (as in the original, and assign a symbolic meaning - or not - to that if you wish). In the remake they pound you again and again with a clumsy blunt-object polemic about the government and militias, with the FBI, ATF etc ultimately all ganging up on Kowalski.

The people who spawned this remake obviously read their own meanings into the original... that's the quality it has that makes it great. But instead of opening up any meanings we might find in their new version for us to discover ourselves, they forced on us that single reading of theirs alone. Unfortunately, that one narrow focus vastly shrank the appeal of the remake to something less than a vanishing point. The end result wasn't worth the wasting of either the Charger or the Challenger, let alone the both of them.

A film that shouldn't have been made. If you've seen the original 1971 movie you'll know what I'm talking about. The atmosphere is gone, the story which tries to explain everything totally demystifies the film. I won't lose a word on the soundtrack ;) And Viggo Mortensen isn't half as cool as Barry Newman. The only reason to watch this movie is the white Challenger. Only that lovely Challenger :)

Watching this movie on TV was just painful.A sham that fed off the legendary film from 1970 that bears the same title.The 1970 Challenger is there (albeit a Hemi this time,and with sport mirrors and quick fill gas cap...not in the 1970 movie)and a lead character named Kowalski but not much else.Lousy acting that was only offset by some fast action chase sequences,and a 1968 Charger named "beast".Implausable getaways,finding a 426 Hemi oilpan in a junkyard (sure....right),and a ridiculous crash at the end (180 mph into dozers and no dents on the "crash" car).Jason Priestly acted like an idiot with an accent (as opposed to Cleavon Little's excellent "hip" portrayal in 1970).His radio station manager was kinda cute but there wasnt much else.....although it was TVs first real glimpse of "La Femme Nikita's" Peta Wilson out in the desert.I dont know whatever happened to Barry Newman's (1970 Kowalski) plans to remake VP before this travesty (he was planning to buy the movie rights and do a back story into Kowalski's past life),but you can bet he has now washed his hands of any further VP comebacks thanks to FOXs coffin-nailing finale to the cult classic.Hopefully they wont ever release this on VHS/DVD.If you missed it,thank your lucky stars you did.