"Pink Cadillac" is, simply put, Clint Eastwood at his worst. Smug, coy, and far too dependent on his tired tough-guy persona, he's just going through the motions in this senseless and silly turkey burger.
We've seen Clint coast on charm before, and this type of film might have worked in 1979, but by the time the movie was made in 1989 it was sloppy and insubstantial, and it can't be saved even by Clint's frequent winks to the audience that imply there's a funny teddy bear beneath his bad-ass characters. Awww.... (vomit).
The plot throws everything into the mix: counterfeit money, crystal-meth amphetamines, the titular vehicle, kidnapped babies, grenades, Vegas and a militia training complex. It still doesn't make any sense. Perma-baby Bernadette "Booby-Dupe" Peters shows up to coo and gurgle while managing to conceal her prize-winning bazongas the entire time. Boo!
Clint definitely thinks he's funny here, impersonating a fast-talking radio DJ and pretending to be a dirt-stupid redneck in order to infiltrate a criminal gang. Our standard for Clint humor is usually set pretty low- if only because he's so stiff and dry that ANY comedy seems hilarious- but his routine here is corny and embarrassing. He comes off like your Uncle who believes he's funny enough for Saturday Night Live but- in an ironic twist- is nowhere near funny enough for Saturday Night Live.
The movie also features an awful cameo by Geoffrey Holder, as an aging hippie who can't stop saying, "whoa, man" and "oh, coooool!" This painful, anachronistic performance- only twenty years out of date- is further evidence of the arrogance that went into the film. When the bad guys burn Idiot Hippie's house down he responds by saying, "major bummer." Are you laughing yet?
I'm gonna go ahead and assume that the makers of this film came up with the title first and wrote the screenplay around it. Oh... just a hunch. I love Clint Eastwood- I truly do- and his Dirty Harry films and westerns are some of the most enjoyable action films ever made, but "Pink Cadillac" is a sloppy, contrived ride which goes nowhere fast. Miss it.
GRADE: D
We've seen Clint coast on charm before, and this type of film might have worked in 1979, but by the time the movie was made in 1989 it was sloppy and insubstantial, and it can't be saved even by Clint's frequent winks to the audience that imply there's a funny teddy bear beneath his bad-ass characters. Awww.... (vomit).
The plot throws everything into the mix: counterfeit money, crystal-meth amphetamines, the titular vehicle, kidnapped babies, grenades, Vegas and a militia training complex. It still doesn't make any sense. Perma-baby Bernadette "Booby-Dupe" Peters shows up to coo and gurgle while managing to conceal her prize-winning bazongas the entire time. Boo!
Clint definitely thinks he's funny here, impersonating a fast-talking radio DJ and pretending to be a dirt-stupid redneck in order to infiltrate a criminal gang. Our standard for Clint humor is usually set pretty low- if only because he's so stiff and dry that ANY comedy seems hilarious- but his routine here is corny and embarrassing. He comes off like your Uncle who believes he's funny enough for Saturday Night Live but- in an ironic twist- is nowhere near funny enough for Saturday Night Live.
The movie also features an awful cameo by Geoffrey Holder, as an aging hippie who can't stop saying, "whoa, man" and "oh, coooool!" This painful, anachronistic performance- only twenty years out of date- is further evidence of the arrogance that went into the film. When the bad guys burn Idiot Hippie's house down he responds by saying, "major bummer." Are you laughing yet?
I'm gonna go ahead and assume that the makers of this film came up with the title first and wrote the screenplay around it. Oh... just a hunch. I love Clint Eastwood- I truly do- and his Dirty Harry films and westerns are some of the most enjoyable action films ever made, but "Pink Cadillac" is a sloppy, contrived ride which goes nowhere fast. Miss it.
GRADE: D