"Pink Cadillac" is one of those films which seem to owe their existence to a scriptwriter or studio executive noticing a catchy song title, thinking it too good to waste on a mere song and concocting a film script to fit it. (See also "Pretty Woman", "Sweet Home Alabama", "Addicted to Love", "Jumping Jack Flash" and others). At least the film does actually feature a pink Cadillac.
The film also served another purpose, that of finding another role for Clint Eastwood who had recently made his fifth and final "Dirty Harry" movie, "The Dead Pool". Having tried "tough cowboy" and "tough cop", with occasional forays into "tough soldier" and "tough trucker", Clint decided to try "tough bounty hunter". His character here is Tommy Nowak, a "skip-tracer", that is to say a bounty hunter who specialises in tracking down people who skip bail. (The name "Nowak" is pronounced either in the authentic Polish way as "Novak" or as the anglicised "Noack", depending on who is speaking). His latest target is a young woman named Lou Ann McGuinn who has run off in her husband Roy's pink Cadillac. This was, however, an unwise choice of getaway vehicle because Roy is a member of a violent white supremacist movement and the car contained a large quantity of counterfeit money belonging to the group. Now Lou Ann is being chased not only by Tommy but also by a scary gang of Neo-Nazi fanatics. Let's just hope he gets there first.
Although Eastwood was nearly sixty when he made the film, he could not resist the chance of an on screen romance with an attractive younger woman (in this case Bernadette Peters), so when Tommy finally does find Lou Ann it is inevitable that they will fall in love and join forces to fight the evil white supremacists.
The film was not generally popular with the critics. The New York Times called it the "laziest sort of action comedy" and predicted that it "will probably settle comfortably near the bottom of the list" of Eastwood's movies. There is probably some justice in that criticism. The plot could have been taken straight from the "Lazy Screenwriter's Guide to writing- by-numbers, and the film will never rank alongside the likes of the first "Dirty Harry" or "Pale Rider" or "Unforgiven" or "Gran Torino" in the pantheon of Eastwood's work. I have always found Eastwood more effective in serious drama than in comedy, and "Pink Cadillac" is essentially an action-comedy rather than an action-adventure.
That said, however, it is not altogether bad. Eastwood and Peters make a likable couple, despite the age difference, and although the bad guys are predictable and stereotyped, that is probably inevitable in the context of an action-comedy, a genre which operates under different laws from those which govern serious action dramas. "Pink Cadillac" may be lazy, but it is also fairly amiable. 5/10
The film also served another purpose, that of finding another role for Clint Eastwood who had recently made his fifth and final "Dirty Harry" movie, "The Dead Pool". Having tried "tough cowboy" and "tough cop", with occasional forays into "tough soldier" and "tough trucker", Clint decided to try "tough bounty hunter". His character here is Tommy Nowak, a "skip-tracer", that is to say a bounty hunter who specialises in tracking down people who skip bail. (The name "Nowak" is pronounced either in the authentic Polish way as "Novak" or as the anglicised "Noack", depending on who is speaking). His latest target is a young woman named Lou Ann McGuinn who has run off in her husband Roy's pink Cadillac. This was, however, an unwise choice of getaway vehicle because Roy is a member of a violent white supremacist movement and the car contained a large quantity of counterfeit money belonging to the group. Now Lou Ann is being chased not only by Tommy but also by a scary gang of Neo-Nazi fanatics. Let's just hope he gets there first.
Although Eastwood was nearly sixty when he made the film, he could not resist the chance of an on screen romance with an attractive younger woman (in this case Bernadette Peters), so when Tommy finally does find Lou Ann it is inevitable that they will fall in love and join forces to fight the evil white supremacists.
The film was not generally popular with the critics. The New York Times called it the "laziest sort of action comedy" and predicted that it "will probably settle comfortably near the bottom of the list" of Eastwood's movies. There is probably some justice in that criticism. The plot could have been taken straight from the "Lazy Screenwriter's Guide to writing- by-numbers, and the film will never rank alongside the likes of the first "Dirty Harry" or "Pale Rider" or "Unforgiven" or "Gran Torino" in the pantheon of Eastwood's work. I have always found Eastwood more effective in serious drama than in comedy, and "Pink Cadillac" is essentially an action-comedy rather than an action-adventure.
That said, however, it is not altogether bad. Eastwood and Peters make a likable couple, despite the age difference, and although the bad guys are predictable and stereotyped, that is probably inevitable in the context of an action-comedy, a genre which operates under different laws from those which govern serious action dramas. "Pink Cadillac" may be lazy, but it is also fairly amiable. 5/10