The greatest movie ever!

Brilliant and touching

Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.

Mostly, the movie is committed to the value of a good time.

SPOILERS THROUGH: I really am in the minority on this one but I liked this movie. It's not a classic but it's definitely involving and quite an adrenalin fueled ride. I definitely thought it was worth at least a 7 rating.Perhaps the reason I liked it is because I haven't seen the original.Something tells me that with a movie like this it's strongest fans will be the people who have not seen the original version and thus, have little to compare it to. This was not a masterpiece but I did get into it quite a lot and it actually made me want to see the original.There were a few things I liked about it. One was the casting of Kowalkski. Viggo Mortenson was superb and really brought a lot of charisma to the role. Since the bulk of the movie fell on his shoulders, he really needed to be excellent and he was. This was a great role for him.Another interesting thing about Vansishing Point was the fact that it's made for television. I had no idea this was the case when watching it. It sure seemed like a major motion picture and I would never have guessed this was not a big screen release.I also found the story to be very absorbing. I'm not one for action movies but I got sucked into this. Plus it was a lot more then an action movie in that there was drama, mysticism, a love story, quirky people every which way you turned. (I didn't even recognize Priestly.) And it was touching. This was not a great movie but it is watchable.And then there's the ending. It packs a strong punch and if one's been involved in the story up to that point, it's very difficult not to be transfixed at the very end. I am not sure how I feel about the ending. The implication was that Kowalkski survived and though I'm highly skeptical of HOW that would be possible, it is a movie and realism isn't an ingredient that's always in the mix when making a movie.So I'd have to say I found the end incredibly unrealistic but very touching in a manipulative kind of way, which I don't usually like but for some reason, is almost forgivable in this movie. Admittedly, a lot of things were just props for the plot(could the villains have been anymore stereotypical?) But the makers got a lot right even if they got many things wrong as well. However, having said that, I will admit I can understand why someone who's a major fan of the original would hate this version because, though I have not seen the original, I have seen many original movies I loved being remade with terrible results. (My big dislike is actually sequels.) But I can understand the low ratings if the original is of that high a quality.People have compared this to Smoky and the Bandit. How about a road version of "Legends Of The Fall" meets "Thelma and Louese" as well? I sure felt touches of both films(both of which I'm a fan of.) I do not think however, that this was a great film. It was better then average to me but far from great. But it was an absorbing, adrenalin fueled, touching movie with excellent casting of the main character. My vote is 7 of 10.

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.

Sure this was a remake of a 70's film, but it had the suspense and action of a current film, say Breakdown. He's running, desperate to be with his hospitalized wife, the police are the least concern. The chases were very good, the part with him beingcornered at a rest stop was well done, the end of the movie was a great cliffhanger. This is better than Bullitt, a boring movie with what, a muscle car chase that was filmed badly? Vigo's character knew what he had to do to escape Johnny Law, few movies had the effects-night vision, CB radio-okay I forgot the name of the movie, guy has 76'Caddy souped up, toys with guy he upset. The ending is great, you can't tell if he fakes his suicide or not, a very good did-he-make-it-or-not.

The premise of both the 1971 version and the 1997 TV-remake seem the same; a guy with a fast car leads police on a long-distance chase driving through the Rocky Mountains on a fight against "the man." In the first one, Barry Newman is a speed-addicted driveaway man hired to take the car from Denver to San Francisco, who intends to do so in merely 15 hours. The remake has Luke Perry racing cross-country to get some experimental medicine for his ailing wife and child. In the original, his sympathizers are mostly left-wing radicals, and in the remake they're right-wing radicals. In both versions they're cheered on by local disc jockeys who make heroes out of them. Both Cleavon Little and Jason Priestly present their respected heroes as a backlash against what they hate about the modern world. And both versions are complete pieces of garbage. I remember reading about the original and how it was praised as an anti-establishment cult-classic, but after I rented it I found it lame, incoherent, and utterly mind-numbing. Ditto for the FOX remake. So what if the central characters each drive a cool Dodge Challenger? Cool cars don't always make cool movies, and neither do road trip movies. In my review of ROAD TRIP(2000), I mentioned that shooting a movie on the road is no guarantee of success or quality, and this as well as it's original version are two prime examples.The only reason I can think of to see this movie is to make comparative notes with the original and vice-versa. Other than that, forget it.