Dolan's Cadillac (2009)

Really Surprised!

It is a performances centric movie

Good movie, but best of all time? Hardly . . .

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Locked as it is in the "Stephen King adaptation" genre, this movie had little chance of being more than a workmanlike piece of suspense, but it is well done and gets lots of little details right. Bentley and Slater are, of course, the real reasons to watch this movie, and they really get into their roles and make you believe they are their characters. That's a little more impressive with Slater, of course, since he once was a "A" list celebrity, but you have to respect the craft and intelligence of the two actors, and it's obvious the director knew how to get what he wanted out of them. The story itself is a neat, satisfying little revenge fantasy with a good visual setup. One caution: this one builds quite slowly, and you might find the first 30 minutes or so a bit dull. But the first part of the screenplay sets things up quite nicely for the payoff,and it is quite a payoff. Glad I picked this one up for a remaindered price - if I had paid the usual "new" copy price when it came out, I still would have been happy.

I didn't need to see this movie. I don't think anybody did, but I read the short story many times over the years. It's one of my favourite Nightmares and Dreamscape shorts from Stephen King and I was intrigued to see how they stretched the plot to make it into a feature length film! You don't need a synopsis from me, not on IMDb. Jimmy Dolan is a criminal living and operating out of Las Vegas. When keeping his nose clean means dispatching of Robinson's wife, it destroys his life and leads him to act out on the urge for revenge as the authorities fails to pin the crime on Dolan and his goons.What I liked about the King story was that there was nothing to like about any of the characters, all but Tinker. He wrote it from Robinson's perspective and it was nothing short of psychopathic, which is refreshing compared to most revenge stories.In the movie, the likability factor pretty much stays the same, but the makers seem to have made a point of giving Dolan and his crew all the entertainment value and most of the screen time. Personally, I'd have watched an hour and a half of Robinson planning and executing his revenge trip, but we're given snippets of him going through his trauma and falling apart and, sorry to say, it bored me.Wes Bentley has never been one to watch, for me at least. It might just be the angry kid scowl permanently etched into his face, but here he does a great job and pulls off some very natural but often overlooked acting.Christian Slater is just Christian Slater as always. I'm not saying he's incapable of acting because he puts some great energy into his role, but he's one of those actors that isn't cut out for defining different personalities. His face is incapable of change, it seems.The most important part of the movie, now that my problems are out of the way, is Bentley's Robinson giving up school to join the road crew in the Nevada desert. That's when King's storytelling really transfers well, and the addition of Tink and Danny really add texture to this film's character.The revenge plot itself and how Robinson goes through with it are superb. I found myself smiling most of the way through it and feeling satisfied by the end credits. Odd that a film can be so generic and run-of-the-mill until the final half hour blows you away, right? If you ever give it a try, read the story first and just skip to the end, that's my advice!

The film „Dolan's Cadillac" addresses the sad issue of the traffic of illegal immigrants in the United States, in this case women destined for prostitution rings. Jimmy Dolan is one such trafficker. The part is played in a masterful way by Christian Slater who manages to appear as a particularly vicious and spiteful character. He is especially brilliant in the last scene. The film uses the old time narrative favorite of taking a Mr Everybody, in this case Wes Bentley in the part of a school teacher, placed in a situation he is not cut for, thus ensuring viewer identification with the main protagonist. A short thriller – unlike some other material by Stephen King – with good montage and music.

Elizabeth witnesses the execution of two coyotes and an illegal immigrant by the human trafficker Jimmy Dolan and decides to report the incident to the police.However, she loses her cellular and Dolan finds it, tracks her address down and threatens her.Elizabeth goes to the FBI with Robinson and they move to a safe house under the protection of two agents.When Elizabeth sneaks from the house to buy pregnancy tests, her car explodes and she dies.Robinson decides to avenge Elizabeth's death....Another year and another King adaptation. This one borderlines the good and the average. Slater who hasn't aged since Kuffs, is the main draw here, whilst he doesn't really fit the bad guy role, there is some anarchy to be enjoyed in his rantings.But Bentley, proves that American Beauty was a one ff, as he is as wooden as ever before, spending the majority fthe film looking perplexed and imitating his life in the 2000's. He brings the film down and and causes scenes that should be intense, to be lethargic and overdrawn.The script is unintentionally funny with some great one liners, and the set up of revenge is executed greatly, but we have to endure Bentley for an hour to get to it.As I have pointed out, if you are a Slater fan, it's a great showboat for him, but all in all, it's a pretty, but pointless affair.