"Vanishing Point" remake.....made me want to vomit....day-glo.....

Was up late one night this week and couldn't sleep and one of the cable channels had the "Vanishing Point" remake on. I watched it, and was pissed off from beginning to end. First off, don't try to top a cult classic. If they wanted to do a homage, they should have stuck to the original story. At least the Coen brothers didn't screw up "True Grit". No one can snarl "Fill your hand, you sonofabitch!" Like John Wayne. But Jeff Bridges didn't try to copy the Duke, he did Rooster Cogburn his own way, and although I still liked the original better, it was at least watchable and entertaining. Not so with the "Vanishing Point" redux. 1st off they totally changed the story. For those not familiar-in the original 1971 version "Kowalski" was an ex-Vietnam Vet, ex-cop, and ex-auto and motorcycle racer working as a delivery driver for a high-end auto dealer. He bets his drug-dealer the tab for some speed that he can make it from Denver to San Francisco in 15 hours in the 1970 Challenger R/T that he's driving. Along the way he's helped by a blind, clairvoyant outlaw DJ named "Super Soul" -brilliantly played by a young Cleavon Little, as part Stevie Wonder, and part Malcolm X. He also meets a snake charmer, beats up a gay couple that try to car-jack him, gets gas from some Jesus Freaks, and meets a naked motorcycle rider who's boyfriend gives him some speed and helps him beat a roadblock as he leads the police on a cross-country chase. Awesome car-chase action, and we see in flashbacks why he's not a cop anymore, and that his wife died in a surfing accident, which is why he doesn't give a shit about anything. He misses the timeline and dies in a blaze of glory hitting bulldozers on the California state line. A cool, existentialist story that's still cool today, and the soundtrack, featuring music by Mountain, Jerry Reed, Kim Carnes, Rita Coolidge, and Big Mama Thornton, is awesome. The smile on Barry Newman's face as he races toward the bulldozers is ethereal. To quote MC Hammer-"Can't Touch This". The producers shouldn't have. In the remake Kowalski as played by Viggo Mortenson ( "A History of Violence" "Eastern Promises" ) is a Desert Storm Vet-working as a delivery driver for a high-end car dealer that specializes in musclecars. And he's delivering a Hemi Challenger to a customer. ( Why that matters, I don't know-the original was a 440 Magnum ) That's all well and good. Then they get politically correct and stupid. His wife is nine months pregnant and suffers from Lupus. Ok, right here story ends after 15 minutes. Why take the job delivering the Challenger? If she's due any day, stay with her until the kid is born, and then take the next run. He leaves, and of course she goes into labor and has complications. That's the reason he's racing home. Much more politically correct than trying to beat a drug dealer out of a few hundred. Gag. And, excuse me? If your pregnant wife is dying, why wouldn't you park the car and get on a plane?  "Super Soul" not only isn't blind, he also isn't black, and isn't psychic. He's over-acted by Jason Priestley as an obnoxious right-wing DJ whose views are a little to the right of the Unabomber, and unlike Cleavon Little who steers him away from the "Blue Meanies", takes a beating from some racists, prays for Kowalski until the end, and screams "Stop!" as he's racing toward the bulldozers, Priestley rats him out to the cops. And for some reason he's chased by a Maniacal cop played by Steve Railsback-( "The Stunt Man" "Helter Skelter" ) who ditches his police car and joins the chase in his personal 1970 Charger R/T. He doesn't just want to catch Kowalski, he wants to kill him. Why? Because he's breaking the speed limit? Since when does reckless driving carry the death penalty?  The smokin' hot Peta Wilson ( "La Femme Nikita", "Mercy", "The League of Extraordinary Gentleman" ) is completely wasted as the motorcycle rider. Not only is she not naked, we don't even get a PG-13 shot of her say, barefoot in a bikini. No she's fully clothed in shorts and steel-toed combat boots. And her boyfriend just happens to have an E-body Hemi oil pan laying around in his pile of automotive junk that he gives to Kowalski after he springs a leak in the original one. That's much more politically correct and noble than her being naked, and offering him sex and a joint, and her man giving him speed, right? Gag. His wife dies in childbirth, and they imply at the end that he somehow bailed out of the car before it hit the bulldozers ( at 100 mph??!!! ) escaped the police and lived happliy ever after raising his kid. Gag, choke, retch. A colossal waste of time and money, desecrating a classic. The only worse case was when TNT cast 72 year old Tom Skerrit and 53 year old Maria Conchita Alonso in the roles of Sheriff Will Kane and the Mexican hooker who secretly owned the town originally played by 42 year old Gary Cooper and 28 year old Katy Jurado in "High Noon". If you can't improve on something ( which they usually can't ) then just leave it alone. Mastermind.