PINK CADILLAC

Do you know what a pretty dame and a pink car both have in common? Yes. That's correct. You can see them both in the following 122 minute film released in 1989. It was directed by Buddy Van Horn and stars Clint Eastwood, Bernadette Peters, and Geoffrey Lewis.


Pink Cadillac


THE STORY:
What would you do if you were the skip-tracer, Tommy Nowak (Clint Eastwood), and you just managed to capture your beautiful young target, Lou Ann (Bernadette Peters), with a sack load of money and a pristine, conditioned Pink Cadillac?

[Think Here]

Huh? What's that you say? You'd help Lou Ann retrieve her baby from her sisters place? Despite her husband, Roy (Timothy Carhart), being a member of a Nazi klan who she stole the money from in the first place!

Nah! I wouldn't do that, pal. I'm sure Roy plus one of his pals would beat you to the punch. Prompting Tommy to do what he does best and attempt to swap the cash for the kid. 

Well, Tommy is a skip-tracer, and he can outsmart them with every single move they make. For a start, he can tracks down the general location of the klans base camp by finding a forged ID in the glove compartment of the Pink Cadillac. Then, he can show it to the forger of said ID, Ricky Z (Geoffrey Lewis), who will inform him where to go to penetrate the camp in question, and piss off the head of this group, Alex (Michael Des Barres).

Still, that's most probably why what next transpires all kicks off when things don't go according to plan. As baby's go boom - klans go doom - attacks go zoom - and at the end of the day adventures really do bloom.

THE REVIEW:

I am afraid to say that 'Pink Cadallac' is what I would call a mixed film. No, the plot isn't mixed. That’s pretty simple to follow, with a basic premise about a bounty-hunter who has to find a pretty-prey. Before long, the bounty-hunter finds the pretty-prey, the bounty-hunter feels sorry for pretty-prey, and after falling in love... they... errr... do ‘something’ together to cement their relationship... the end.

All of that's pretty simple, right? So what's so mixed about it? The acting. That's what. Whenever Clint or Bernadette are on screen together – this is good. But whenever anyone else is on screen, with only one or two minor exceptions – this is bad. And the bad in this case has to do with the bad... the bad-guys!

They're just sh*t! I was more scared that they actually got a job in the film industry than how they performed on screen! It’s as if they inhabited the keystone cops whilst pretending to be macho and gruff.

Admittedly, I don't want to be too critical. It’s just that’s precisely what this film is lacking – a decent protagonist who can make you generally worry about the situation that Clint and Bernadette’s characters are in. Also, another thing that's a bit ‘off’, is Clint’s mimicry skills. Well, when he has to pretend to be quiz show host to dupe a suspect into capture... ermm... his strained voice just does not sound right to me.

Still, whilst saying that about Clint, all in all this latter point is only a minor quibble, and generally speaking, both Clint and Bernadette are the two main reasons to watch this film. That, and the Jim Carrey cameo.

 

Good film, yet sloppy in places. Nuff said. 

THE RATING: B-