Customer Reviews

Pink Cadillac

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

This movie was awful, my parents made me watch it with them for family bonding time and when the awful movie was over they admitted that they didn't like it either and actually apologized for making me watch it with them! I like Clint Eastwood and Bernadette Peters and think they deserved a better movie that didn't waste their talent!

In the annals of cinema history, Clint Eastwood is rightfully regarded as one of the greatest American filmmakers. He has made many great films, and will continue to do so.

This is not one of them.

This is Clint's worst film, one of his few real duds. It's a long movie at 121 minutes, but even if Clint had edited it down a bit, it still wouldn't be very good. I couldn't help but think that Clint didn't really care about this film too much, as he looks bored throughout, and while Bernadette Peters (I think this was the last starring role she had before she went full time on Broadway) tries to spice things up (and has good on screen chemistry with Clint), it's still a very poor film. There are major plot holes, the biggest of Clint's career. The tone of the film is rather jarring, switching from light comedy to crude one liners to harrowing gun fights with white supremacists. Basically, it's just a mess.

There are a few (just a few) good things. It's shot on location in the Sierras, there is a good chase scene at the end, Jim Carrey appears as an Elvis impersonator, and there is some funny situations at the beginning of the film (Clint's first arrest here is very funny). 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). So it's really Clint's film, and it's his worst. Most people agree that this film and The Rookie are Clint's worst, but The Rookie is a lot better than this one. If you are a fan of Clint, and you have to see everything he's done, watch this. If you aren't, avoid it.

Although I like GM cars, Pink Cadillac stands as being the worst movie of Clint Eastwood's career. He plays a modern-day bounty hunter by the name of Tommy Nowak that uses skill rather then a gun to catch his suspects, although he does carry a gun briefly here. Bernadette Peters plays this little curly-haired blonde who lives in a trailer with her dead-beat husband and his speed-freak friends. Her husband owns a pink cadillac and she drives off in it with her baby and a bag of money. Nowak is then sent to bring her back from a casino before her husband's gang finds her first. When they do, and kidnap the baby, Nowak and Peters bond when they give chase to get it back.

The movie is red-neck and full of trailer trash stereotypes in every way. It also helps define the classic example of the woman that takes the bad boy, but then learns her lesson when she finds Nowak. But the movie has poor acting. Clint's chessy impressions, including an imitation of a drunken red-neck, do little to raise any laughs. The gang of army wannabe's don't make the film any more dramatic. The whole concept of "Don't mess with a man's automobile" is literally worn out.

Despite the semi-colorful cast of Peters, Frances Fisher, and even Jim Carey, and an expansive soundtrack, this romantic comedy falls short of anything close to a classic. It's a good thing that Eastwood didn't direct this himself. Buddy Van Horn took the rap instead. This is the only film of Eastwood's career that did not receive a theatrical release in the UK, and it remains his lowest-grossing to date. Sorry folks, but Pink Cadillac never starts. If you are an Eastwood fan like me, get it to fill in the gaps of your DVD collection.

Throughout his long career, actor-director Clint Eastwood managed to avoid the pitfalls of Truly Bad Cinema. However, "Pink Cadillac" (1989) is a noted exception. This brain-dead romantic comedy, with an offensive white-supremacist subplot, makes "Every Which Way But Loose" look like a minor masterpiece. Clint registers zero chemistry with co-star Bernadette Peters. Not surprisingly, "Pink Cadillac" went straight to video in Great Britain (perhaps the only Eastwood film to receive that dubious distinction).

I cannot believe I have to give a movie that has the Man in it
one star,but if you go to buy this BEWARE! This is snore-bore
stage 101. And I love Eastwood films,even those bad ones that
are going thru your mind right now. This however is his worst
EVER! I mean while watching I defy you too not go a least once
ZZZZZ"HUH" WHAT,WHAT HAPPENED?Oh yeah thats right I have Pink
Crapillac on,yeah thats right..ZZZZZZZ=ZZZZZZZZ=ZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

clint eastwood as you have never seen him. hillbilly clint a part he played so well jethro could call him his brother. or at least a cousin. not much differance for hillbillys

Clint Eastwood is the man when he shows off his act of intimidation, whether he would be a traditional cowboy, a cop, a retired boxer, or a racist war veteran. "Pink Cadillac" proved to me that if he tries to be anything besides a silent brute, he's out of his element. Watching his attempt at being funny in a zany action-comedy is nothing short of embarrassing; not to say he's never been an amusing character for his other films, but his humor mostly stems from cynicism, and him trying to sash-talk his way against a spunky love-interest in this film didn't work for him. From dressing a rodeo clown and a casino king (who looks like a bleached John Waters) to mocking a woman's voice, his delivery towards these 'funny moments' are poorly handled.

The film is about a master-of-disguise bounty hunter named Tommy Nowak, though he called himself a 'skip tracer' but if he's off chasing criminals so he can sent them to court for cash, that sounds like work of a bounty hunter to me. He reluctantly goes after an escape fugitive named Lou Ann (Bernadette Peters), who was inexplicably involved in collecting counterfeit money which were actually responsible by her jerk of a husband and the Birthright, a type of Aryan brotherhood. The money's in her [movie title], which the Birthright was after, but Nowak found her first. He decided to protect her and keep her hidden from the law, presumably because she was cute in "The Jerk"; otherwise, he had no real reason to have a change of heart from being a typical stern bounty hunter besides romantic convenience. He gets involved in the Aryan's battles, leading into weak car chases and a haphazard conclusion.

Although this probably Eastwood's weakest film in his repertoire, the film is not bad. It's simply corny, particularly with the acting. Again, Eastwood's comedic performance didn't go in his favor and Peters tried to be compelling with her sugary lisp voice, and the result of that is quite sour. The biggest offense were the bad guys, who were reaching the expertise of B-level cinema. Malposo-produced films usually have cold and relentless antagonists, but the enemies in this movie are cartoonishly evil that they put me at a distance. The leader of the Birthright, Alex, is so over-the-top, it's like I'm watching an bad 80s action film. 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.

The first Clint Eastwood film not to be given a cinema release and go straight-to-video in most overseas territories is a lightweight but amiable enough star vehicle that casts him as a skip tracer tracking down Bernadette Peters, who has skipped bail and headed for Reno in her recidivist husband's pink Cadillac unaware that the boot contains $250,000 of his neo-Nazi friends' money. The presence of the star's green t-shirt and blue jeans outfit from Every Which Way But Loose clearly signposts it as one of his periodic redneck comedies, but unlike the superior Honkytonk Man and Bronco Billy, there's no depth of feeling here. It's all on the surface and ambles along predictably, but doesn't really have an ending, with action scenes that are decidedly tame and lame and a main villain who's decidely unthreatening (for all their posturing, the bad guys don't really do much more than waste their time on target practice).

A more restrained Peters than we're used to gives better than she gets from the script, but Clint is clearly having a whale of a time with a part that enables him to show a lot more range and extrovert good-humoured charm than much of the rest of his career put together. That said, some of his disguises are a bit hard to take - especially when he dons shades, spats, gold lame suit and Charlie Parker jive - although he does make a worryingly convincing inbred Southern gumby at one point. With the Malpaso stock company represented by Geoffrey Lewis (as a spaced-out hippy that really should have been played by Dennis Hopper), Bill McKinney and Mara Corday and with bit parts from Jim Carrey as a casino entertainer and James Cromwell as a none-too-bright desk clerk, this is clearly one for the money rather than one from the heart. If the script could have done with a tune up and the film benefited from tighter direction and a little pruning, this still just about passes as pleasant enough Saturday night fare for all that, though chances are the only thing about it you'll remember an hour later is the end title song.

Quite possibly the worst film Clint Eastwood has ever made (and I'm even counting "Revenge of the Creature"), "Pink Cadillac" still has at least one thing to recommend it: the star himself. Eastwood is quite funny at times in this otherwise dumb comedy, and his performance represents a stretch from his usually laconic manner. Not a must see by any means, but worth a look for Eastwood fans with nothing much else to do.

A major dud at the box-office when released in 1989, "Pink Cadillac" was perhaps the first serious sign that Clint Eastwood's career was in need of a comeback (which came in the form of "Unforgiven" three years later). If his Oscar winning western is his best film, "Pink Cadillac" may very well be his worst. As both an action film and a comedy, it's pretty lame most of the time, but it remains a must-see for Eastwood fans in that he has never before (and only rarely since) been so extroverted on screen. He's quite funny throughout, and his performance compensates for a script that is as ridiculous as it is cliched. Though a minor credit in Eastwood's impressive filmography, "Pink Cadillac" is worth a look for his fans.