It's curious, in the past fortnight I've watched District 9, Drag Me To Hell, Michael Clayton, State Of Play and the superlative In The Loop, yet here I am, writing a review for an obscure car chase movie from the Seventies that no one's heard of.

Vanishing Point is a movie about a man and his car. Except the man's ex-rally driver, Kowalski, the car's a Dodge Challenger, and there's about a thousand police on his tail as he tries to drive from Denver to San Francisco in record time to win a two-bit bet. A moody Barry Newman stars and his journey takes in typically contemporary references of the day. An old dude who collects rattlesnakes, a blind, black DJ, a hippy on a chopper, and a naked chick on a motorcycle. A'right...

However, although it's very much of its time and was apparently a big hit on release, it hasn't aged well. It's just slightly silly, and the fact the car's the star goes against it when you realise its dialogue is restricted to broom, broom...

All in all, it's pretty interminable stuff and the denoument, when it finally comes, is the only climax I've ever known where I've been thinking about the shopping.

Still, my car-crazy toddler loves it. I appear to have inadvertently fathered James Dean.

Vanishing Point: 3/10.