Vanishing Point - cult action as delivery driver Kowalksi (Barry Newman) attempts to drive a 1970 Dodge Challenger from Denver to San Francisco in under 15 hours. It's a chase movie at heart and it's in the scenes which focus on this that the movie comes into it's own. The first half an hour or so is particularly exciting. In many ways this plays out like an automotive Easy Rider as Kowalski's trip brings him into contact with the police, nubile young women, hippies, religious nuts and so on. It's in these encounters that the pace sometimes slows and the film loses focus. Newman's Kowalski is an enigmatic anti-hero. We see brief flashbacks into his past as a race drive and cop and get hints as to why he's ened up where he is in life, but his motivations for the drive and his determination in completing it are never really explained, aside from some perfunctory business about a bet. I actually rather like that - 3/5
Cane: Brotherhood - excellent fifth episode of this rapidly improving series. The scene with Alex and Santo being good cop/bad copped by the police was genuinely tense. Unfortunately, CBS hasn't shown any signs of renewing it for a second season, which is a shame because it seems to be finding it's feet after an uneven start - 5/5
The Human Spider - documentary about French urban free climber Alain Robert, who specializes in climbing skyscrapers without ropes or any safety equipment. For someone like me who finds man-made heights absolutely terrifying, it was a programme to be watched through ones fingers, but still very interesting all the same - 4/5
Boston Legal: Rose Vs Wade: The Musical - the Jerry and Leigh storyline is a bit tedious, but overall, Boston Legal always delivers. Meredith Patterson's Missy Tiggs was notably amusing - 4/5
Doctor Who: The Sontaran Stratagem - part one of a two-parter in which the soldier-race Sontarans seemingly set out to conquer Earth. Marks the very welcome return of Freema Agyeman. A pretty good episode with great pace, but the show still feels a bit like pricier children's TV - 4/5
Phaedra Parks Reacts to MAGA 'Housewives' Idea, Would Be 'Very Volatile'
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Phaedra Parks is weighing in on whether the 'Real Housewives' franchise
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3 comments:
I love Vanishing Point. I've been meaning to rewatch it again, so I might do that soon. You should watch the remake for comparison purposes. I'd be interested to see what you make of it... :)
Interesting, I didn't know there was a remake... [goes to IMDb]... TV movie, 1997, 5.0 rating, Viggo... hmm, it seems wrong to give Kowalski a forename. The attraction of the character lies in him being enigmatic.
Yeah, that's why I'm curious to see what you think of it. It's not *terrible*, but seems to be a mostly pointless film. They've removed the bits that made the original great, so you're left with a decidedly average car chase movie...
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