Customer Reviews

The Dead Pool

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(27)
3 star:		(12)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is the last of five "Dirty Harry" films in which Eastwood stars as a San Francisco police detective. By the time of its initial release (in 1988), Eastwood had aged and times had changed but Callahan's non-negotiaable values and unorthodox methods had remained essentially the same. In this film, he investigates a pool which attracts bets on which of eight celebrities will be killed. (Several are.) Although this basic premise is implausible, Callahan takes full advantage of every opportunity to accuse the news media of glorifying, hence encouraging (albeit unintentionally) serial killings by focusing so much attention on them.

Samantha Walker (Patricia Clarkson) is a case in point. Given the power of her personality on television and the thrust of her ambitions for a career in journalism, she is an obvious "target" for Callahan's criticisms of the news media. (Of course, she and he become involved romantically.) There are humorous elements and moments such as Liam Neeson playing a horror film director and the remote control toy car which pursues Callahan for several blocks, obviously a parody of car chases in Bullitt and other films. Lalo Schiflin's musical score is quite effective. Other than Neeson, however, most of the cast members seem listless under Buddy Van Horn's direction. (Yes, that's Jim Carrey in the role of Johnny Squares, one of the victims.) The fact that much of this film seems tired or recycled suggests to me that it's time for the Callahan series to be retire. It has been commercially successful while enabling Eastwood to refine his acting and (in Sudden Impact, 1983) directing skills. People are still buying or renting one or more of the five films, all of which also appear on television, so it looks like Callahan will be with us for many years to come.

Among the many reasons I admire Clint Eastwood so much is the fact that, as he as become older, he has allowed that to be indicated on screen; better yet, he has played roles appropriate to his age and addressed aging issues in many of them. Most other actors (and yes, actresses) star in many films over a period of many years during which the aging process takes its toll on them. However, given the skills of make-up specialists and what new cosmetic technologies make possible, these actors (and actresses) continue to portray characters many years younger than they. Often, older male actors are cast opposite a romantic lead young enough to be their daughter. That is seldom true of older female actors. By the way, I still think Erica Barry should have selected Julian Mercer rather than Harry Sanborn in Something's Gotta Give.

Apparently Eastwood agrees with Harry Callahan: "A man's got to know his limitations." Consider the evolution of the Eastwood persona from Tightrope (1984) through Unforgiven (1992), In the Line of Fire (1993), The Bridges of Madison County (1995), and Absolute Power (1997) to True Crime (1999) and Space Cowboys (2000). Hopefully other roles appropriate to Eastwood's age await his talents as an actor. As Mystic River (2003) clearly demonstrates, his talents as a director are undiminished by the 31 years since Play Misty for Me. On the contrary, they are greater now than ever before.

This is the weakest of all the series but it is a little like the original. There is a male serial killer in this one as in the original but he is not half as interesting as Scorpio in Dirty Harry.
As well as trying to find this serial killer, Harry is in trouble for putting a mob kingpin in jail and the mobboss sends his soldiers out constantly to kill him-if you can believe that. But Harry visits the mob boss in prison and tells Lou Genero, the kingpin, that if anything happens to him, one of the other prisoners who killed a bunch of men with his teeth, will pay a visit to Genero and it won't be a friendly one.So the assassination attempts cease and Harry beats up two guys following him, thinking that it was another hit. He soon discovers that they were now his bodyguards and Harry has just beat them up.
In the meantime Harry is investigating the serial killings, suspecting a movie director of the murders. Harry also tells him he doesn't like being on his betting pool called the Dead Pool, a betting system where people bet people in high risk jobs or situations will die soon. The movie director is exonerated and it is later learned that someone who wrote to the director many times is the killer.This killer kidnaps Harry's girlfriend, a reporter and Harry goes after them. But this time he doesn't kill him with his Magnum.At the end when the authorities arrive one cop asks Harry where the killer is, Harry says, "He's hanging out back there."

There is a decidedly comic touch to this installment in the Dirty Harry franchise, the kind that makes it more eminently watchable than its otherwise strict formula of boilerplate action and escape sequences would have you believe.

Eastwood had visibly aged by this film, which he does well to display in his mature reserve as he takes potshots at the mafioso, television news, horror movies. His antics are strongly supported by an able lineup, including a very convincing Patricia Clarkson as a pesky news reporter with morality pangs, Liam Neeson as an avant-garde director from across the pond, and, surprise surprise, a young Jim Carrey as a rocker-slash-druggie. Probably the best cast of any Dirty Harry caper.

The plot is hardly an intrigue, but barring some cheesy ideas like a certain danger posed by a toy-car, the film has a good deal of suspense to keep you glued for its length.

Recommended rental.

Clint Eastwood has a little pop-culture fun in this somewhat cartoonish Dirty Harry outing. "The Dead Pool" (1988) is a slight improvement over the unpleasantness of "The Enforcer" and "Sudden Impact," but Inspector Harry Callahan no longer resembles the cinematic icon depicted in director Don Siegel's 1971 classic. Still, we get an inventive car chase, a few memorable Clint one-liners, and a stronger-than-average cast (Liam Neeson, Patricia Clarkson, Evan C. Kim, Jim Carrey). Running only 91 minutes, the film moves at a good clip until stumbling at the finish line. It's a ludicrous climax as Harry blows away his final psychopath with a hand-held harpoon gun. Though a commercial success, "The Dead Pool" lacked the box-office firepower of its predecessors and Eastwood wisely bid adieu to his most famous character.

This fifth and last entry in the Dirty Harry series has some crackling good scenes and an above-average plot, making it one of the best in the series. Clint Eastwood brings his square-jawed hero to life once again, this time paired with a Chinese-American, effectively underplayed by Evan Kim. He also finds himself somewhat enamored with a hot shot tv reporter (the talented Patricia Clarkson) in this case which involves a "dead pool", a list of celebrities who are predicted to die within the year. Harry is not too happy to find he's on the list, which was instigated by a movie crew as a game. Liam Neeson in one of his earlier roles plays the egocentric, deadly director who is one of the game's players and a suspect once several of the list's celebrities meet untimely deaths.
The movie is tightly wound, and you can even spot Jim Carrey in a small role as a drug-addled singer. The movie's highlight is an incredible chase scene between Harry and a deadly bomb-rigged electonically controlled car. It's a great parody of Harry's previous movies and it works well.
THE DEAD POOL let Harry go out in style and it's a fun ride.

The fifth Dirty Harry movie is probably the most curious. In it we find that there is a grade A psycho who is living a double life. Not only does he live his own life but he acts out the life of his favorite director, played by Liam Neeson. Harry is put on the case once the psycho starts to murder some San Francisco Bay area celebrities. The Dead Pool is probably the most tame of the Dirty Harry movies, but it resembles the first Dirty Harry better than any others. In the Dead Pool their is just one bad guy, just like the first. The other three had whole groups of bad guys such as the motorcycle cops in Magnum Force, the psycho killers from The Enforcer, and the pyscho killers from Sudden Impact. This movie may seem a little vague at first, but with a couple of viewings the cloud of confusion is lifted and the movie turns out to be a very enjoyable and fun movie expierience.

This one was a disappointment. Part of it is slapstick (the "car" chase scene) and it is just not a particularly good flick. I gave it the third star because I like Clint Eastwood so much and always enjoy his acting, but really, this one is a disappointment.

Okay, so you are in the mood for a "Dirty Harry" flick. which one to choose???? I'll save you the trouble, and unless you've already seen the other four "Harry" flicks, pick one of those instead. "The Dead Pool" is okay, but compared to what came before it in Clint Eastwood's iconic series, it's a huge letdown.

The basic storyline is that someone is targeting local San Fran celebrities, and using a B-movie director's Dead Pool list as targets. (For those who don't know what a Dead Pool is; it's when you take bets on which celebrities will pass away within a given time). Eastwood's detective somehow makes the list of celebrities who may not survive the year.

So this time around, Harry gets saddled with an Asian partner, and his love interest is a local journalist. Oh, and just to add to the mix, Harry has also been targeted by a local mafia boss. Sounds good right? Well for the most part it's not bad. I liked the idea of "The Dead Pool Killer", and the cast is fantastic, with Patricia Clarkson playing the journalist who catches Clint's eye, and Liam Neeson as a bad B-movie director. To top if off, if you've ever wanted to see Jim Carrey die in a painful manner, then "The Dead Pool" will deliver, as Carrey does his best to channel every over-the-top 1980's hair metal lead singer featured on Headbangers Ball.

But right into the middle of this mix, someone dropped one huge of a turd of a car chase that blows everything that came before and after in the film. How bad could it be you ask? Well, it's a car chase between Clint's Le Baron (or whatever unremarkable 80's sedan he was driving) and a remote control car. Yes, a toy. I know you have to suspend belief when watching a "Dirty Harry" flick, but this pushed the limit of credibility right out the window and you can almost hear the film come to a screeching halt. It's so genuinely awful, that it ruins what could have been a decent film.

So unless, you just want to see the Swan Song of Dirty Harry as you've watched the other films, or if you are morbidly curious to see Jim Carrey in a scene with Liam Neeson, then skip this lame entry in an otherwise great series.

This is the funniest of the Dirty Harry films. It has some of the best one liners in the series, and it's pretty obvious that the film is played for laughs. It was the last Dirty Harry film (I doubt there will be another one. Clint isn't one to repeat himself), and it has no pretensions on trying to be anything else. If you like the serious (yet darkly humourous at times) tone of the early films, you're probably not going to like this one. Many have said that Clint wanted to make Bird (one of his best films and one of the greatest films ever made about jazz), and in return for Warner Brothers financing Bird, he did one more Dirty Harry picture. It's a good tradeoff.

The film is actually quite funny (hilarious in fact), with funny lines and pointed jibes at Hollywood, police work, the media, and just life in general. Clint gives a good performance, and the film has very good performances for this kind of thing. Liam Neeson is excellent as a cheesy horror director, Jim Carrey (billed as James Carrey) is funny as a drug addled "musician", Evan C. Kim is good as Harry's partner, and Patricia Clarkson is good as the reporter who is "interested" in Harry. The film has some great dialogue, and it has one of the most unique (and exciting) chase sequences ever filmed. It also shot Guns and Roses to stardom with the use of one of their signature songs, Welcom to the Jungle (Welcome to the Jungle is the "music video in a film" that Neeson and Carrey are shooting). You can even glimpse most of the members of the original Guns and Roses at a funeral scene, and during one of Neeson's "shoots". While the film was directed by Clint surrogate Buddy Van Horn (Van Horn is a stunt coordinator that has worked on many of Clint's movies), it feels like Eastwood directed it himself (Van Horn's directing credits are only Clint movies). It's a good film, funny, never boring, but more of a parody of a Dirty Harry film than an actual Dirty Harry film. The other films took the character seriously, but this one doesn't. Still, it's pretty damn good.

The death by overdose of a rock star Johnny Squares on the set of a low budget horror movie seems routine, that is until a member of the production crew is killed in an unrelated crime. It turns out that the rock star was on a betting list of sorts, whomever has guessed the most celebrities to die during production wins the 'dead pool'. Police Inspector 'Dirty' Harry Callahan, thanks to his recent arrest and conviction of a high profile mafioso, is on the director's list and he is not amused, especially when a psychotic has decided to tilt the pool in his beloved/hated director's favor.

The Dead Pool seems to be the last Dirty Harry adventure, which is a good thing. It lets this series go out with an entertaining sleeper hit of a movie. It has its tongue lodged firmly in cheek and, on several occasions, it comes close to making fun of itself. Still the suspense and action level is quite high and the pathology of the psycho killer is refreshing in its realism. Being the shortest of the Dirty Harry movies, it does not over stay its welcome. Highly recommended.

Trivia - This is the only Dirty Harry film that was not shot in widescreen. The three film clips that are credited to director Peter Swan are From Beyond the Grave (not Time After Time as the DVD trivia states), The Pack (not Cujo as the DVD trivia states) and It's Alive III: Island of the Alive. Believe me, I have them on video and know my horror movies. This is also the only movie in the series in which Harry has actually arrested a suspect and but him behind bars.