Pink Cadillac (1989)

Fresh and Exciting

The joyful confection is coated in a sparkly gloss, bright enough to gleam from the darkest, most cynical corners.

Watching it is like watching the spectacle of a class clown at their best: you laugh at their jokes, instigate their defiance, and "ooooh" when they get in trouble.

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

This movie has some rawness and grit, interesting story line, plot, and sub-plots, with Eastwood as a tough no-nonsense detective, Speer, and Reynolds as an ex-cop and Private Eye, Murphy, who butt heads with each other, in Prohibition-era 1933 (last year of Prohibition, in fact), but team up to investigate mob murder and corruption. It also has some funny lines and wittiness. And of course, Eastwood, with his intensity, as well as his piano playing, is in true form as usual. The costumes are great. The sets are delightful and the cars dazzling. The treat in the movie is Jane Alexander as Reynold's long suffering brilliant secretary. Worth watching just for the pleasure of her company.The plot is a good one and the story believable just poorly executed, despite good performances. There's not a whole lot of saving graces other that what has already been mentioned but at least you can see some different, although hollow, acting performances by Madeline Kahn, Rip Torn, Richard Roundtree, Jane Alexander, and Irene Cara. Clint didn't direct this film, but his production company produced it and Buddy Van Horn directed it. Van Horn is Clint's stunt coordinator and Clint surrogate, and has directed several Clint films (most notably The Dead Pool). Maybe that's the idea of this film, but it didn't succeed in delivering the camp factors. The whole film felt like a middling effort, but at least it had the grace of showing a young Jim Carrey doing stand-up, which showed how little he changed over the years.Overall rating: 7 out of 10.

I knew the leading actor was in this film because I had heard the title quite a few times, I didn't realise it was meant to be a funny as well as serious, and I had to see why it wasn't highly rated. Basically Tommy Nowak (Clint Eastwood) is a skip tracer, with a talent as master of disguise who fool a criminal on the phone or in person into thinking well of him, and then he makes his move to catch them for whatever crime they are wanted for. His latest target is Lou Ann McGuinn (The Jerk's Bernadette Peters) who has skipped bail, and she married to husband Roy (Timothy Carhart) who is Nazi inspired and has a stash of counterfeit money, which he hides in the pink Cadillac. Tommy does catch Lou Ann in Reno, Nevada, but he comes to like her with the time they spend, being chased by Roy's gang of thugs for example. It is when the bad guys kidnap her baby who was being looked after by sister Dinah (Frances Fisher), Tommy decides to help his new friend get her baby back and deciding to forget about her in to the police. While driving through the West and catching a few more criminals with the disguise tactic along the way, romance is blooming between Tommy and Lou Ann. Eventually after some adventure, they do eventually catch up to Roy and the other criminals, and in the end they do manage to get the baby back and Tommy and Lou Ann drive away in the pink Cadillac together seemingly as fugitives. Also starring John Dennis Johnston as Waycross, Michael Des Barres as Alex, Geoffrey Lewis as Ricky Z, William Hickey as Mr. Barton, Home Alone's Gerry Bamman as Buddy, James Cromwell as Motel Desk Clerk, Bryan Adams as Gas Station Attendant and young Jim Carrey as Lounge Entertainer. I will admit I did giggle a little at the moments where Eastwood was in disguise as the radio DJ, the rodeo clown, the casino hotshot and the trash pool player, Peters was also quite amusing as his female companion, and the car of the title is obviously nice, but the film is too long, the more serious side of the story is silly, and not all the jokes are funny, so all in all, a disappointing comedy drama. Adequate!

Like most people I guess, I'd never heard of this movie (it not getting a theatrical release in the UK). But I like Clint so when it came around on late-night TV...The leads are excellent, the script is witty, but the direction plods. The first third is so slow it almost had me reaching for the off switch. (A Pink Cadillac that runs on Valium, is no fun ride, me thinks.) Still I hung on in there and am not disappointed that I did.Eastwood's attempt at playing "characters" was vaguely cringe-worthy. Let's face it, his best role is playing Clint Eastwood. Even so, he still has enough charm to get away with trying. Bernadette Peters adds subtlety, humor and integrity to her role. The film is well made. It hangs together. It was just never worth a special trip to the cinema. But fine on DVD or video with wine and a pizza.

My dad and I went to see this film at Garden City. We were disappointed, and I saw it recently. A bit better than the first time I saw it, but do I like it? No! There is nothing special in this forgetable film, but not awful like Pale Rider! This film could be a sleep aid! 4/10.