Vanishing Point - Remake

[Beirut Taxi]

Whilst looking to buy a copy of Vanishing Point I noticed that there has been a remake in 1997.

I am guessing that like the remake of the The Hitcher, it isn't very good?


Has there ever been a remake of a classic which has turned out to be better than the original?

Edited by Beirut Taxi on Tuesday 9th February 20:08

[nonplussed]

The VP remake is a pointless irrelevance. Stick with the original.

Only good remake I can think of is Cape Fear. I'm sure there must be others but they're pretty rare.

[Dare2Fail]

You are correct, the remake is terrible. If I remember correctly they changed the main plot to make it more 'acceptable' to the masses. The driver is racing across country to get to his wife who has gone into labour, or some such rubbish. That change on it's own changes, and destroys, the film.

[FourWheelDrift]

Beirut Taxi said:

Has there ever been a remake of a classic which has turned out to be better than the original?

John Huston's "The Maltese Falcon" of 1941 was a remake of an earlier 1931 film.

And of course Eric Syke's 1967 "The Plank" a remake of his own film, "Eric Sykes & The Plank", which in turn was remade again as "The Plank" in 1979

[Beirut Taxi]

Dare2Fail said:

You are correct, the remake is terrible. If I remember correctly they changed the main plot to make it more 'acceptable' to the masses. The driver is racing across country to get to his wife who has gone into labour, or some such rubbish. That change on it's own changes, and destroys, the film.

What idiot came up with that! Enough to put me off even thinking about watching the remake.

Completely misses the point.

Edited by Beirut Taxi on Tuesday 9th February 21:57

[Uriel]

I reckon the remake is worth the couple of quid the DVD will no doubt cost.

Sure, it's a pointless remake and they've removed the Easy Rider serious cinema vibe from it. They also replaced Super Soul or whatever for some fight the man shtick, but for watching the car chases and stuff it's probably better. having the Charger in it too.

[Truckosaurus]

I think the whole remake is summed up by pointing out that the DJ character is played by Jason Priestley.

[Greg964]

I thought it was alright for a tv movie car chase flick. Viggo made a fairly good Kowalski and the chase scenes were ok.

[snowy slopes]

The remake missed a couple of things out for me, the whole desert thing was a bit weird, no drugs etc, and the dj didnt get a kicking like in the original film. Wasnt bad for a car film i guess, but the original was so much better.

[Spudler]

Worth watching just for the car....