Sunday, July 18, 2010

#9 Vantage Point (1971)

Normally I try to follow a 3 paragraph format. What the movie is about, why I picked it, and whether or not I think you should watch it. This would be the paragraph I tell you what the movie is about, but I'll be honest, I haven't a freaking clue. I mean, the broad strokes are this, a former cop and race car driver named Kowalski who works as a car transporter and he has a get a car from Denver, Colorado to Cisco, California in like 15 hours. On his way he comes across a number of obstacles and develops an ally in a blind radio DJ who provides him intel for his journey. What I can't tell you is why he has to get to Cisco, why the time limit. I also can't tell you why he got fired from the police force, or what the point of the damned movie was. I mean, if they had made the 70 Challenger he was driving be more of a character, at least there would have been that. It was a cool car, ok, a 1970 Challenger is an amazing car, but they never did anything with it. Ok...whatever.

A few years ago, Rodriguez and Tarentino did a set of movies called Grindhouse. In the segment Death Proof, one of the characters wants to test drive a white 1970 Challenger, just like the one used in Vanishing Point. Before that I'd never heard of it, and to be honest I wasn't very well educated on Challengers. Now I have an 09 Challenger, so I had to know this movie as well. While this probably doesn't fall anywhere near the same category as The Godfather or One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, but it is a classic none the less, so it made the list.

Alright, so unless you own a Challenger, I can't recommend this movie unless you just like movies with bad dialog, interesting chase scenes, and 1970's nudity. I know my fellow car guys are going to bash me for bashing this film, but I could have done without. I might however watch Death Proof again. And yeah....I'll probably get my license plate changed to OA-5599 next year. I'm kinda lame like that.

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