Pink Cadillac

"Pink Cadillac" is a fairly dull action comedy (long on runtime, short on laughs), but it's worth a look-see for Clint Eastwood in a comedic role. He really goes all out in those goofy disguises and it's always something to see when he plays against type. Also, for the very cute Bernadette Peters and the curious bit parts (James Cromwell, Jim Carrey and Bryan Adams).

But I don't see myself coming back to this; I don't remember making with any ha-has. If you want to see a movie star in the sick-of-bounty-hunting role, stick with "Midnight Run", no question.

5/10

Pink Cadillac has Clint Eastwood playing a skip tracer who most assuredly is not Dirty Harry. But he's a guy who's good at his job and is most clever at arresting subjects, catching them off guard with all kinds of cons and disguises.

He also likes a challenge so he's not terribly thrilled with getting an assignment to track down Bernadette Peters who simply has the bad misfortune to be married to a real loser in Timothy Carhart. He's done some jail time and made some real friends with the birth righters, a white supremacist neo Nazi gang who work on the outside as well.

And what they're into is counterfeiting and when Peters walks out on Carhart taking their baby and the Neo Nazi loot with both real and bogus bills, she's got them after her as well.

This film which will please die-hard Clint Eastwood fans didn't rise to any occasion for me. I just could not quite accept the neo-Nazis as even comic villains. And the film seemed to be a one note joke about the Pink Cadillac that hovered over the film. That no one would expect Clint Eastwood to be driving in such a conspicuous and flamingly effeminate ride. Even if it is Peters' car which they have to use out of necessity.

Clint and Bernadette never quite connected either. Funny thing that with a different leading lady and a more serious treatment this might have been an Eastwood classic.

But they would have to get rid of the Pink Cadillac as well.

This was supposed to be a comedy, a bridge between the "Clyde" movies and his later, more serious movies. Here, Clint is beginning to show his age. HE just cant be as rough and tumble as he was in the 60's & 70's. Ms. Peters wasn't a very good actress in this movie, Its painful to watch the baby bomb scene. She's better suited to Broadway.

Here, Clint played down his character. This was more of a parody of his "Gauntlet" role, just as the last Dirty Harry movie was a parody of the entire Dirty Harry series. The Caddy gets ruined much like the bus. The Brotherhood gang isn't as scary as the Black Widows, but they are as goofy, and they serve the same purpose: just a group of outlaws to give Clint someone to contend with. Clint had better adversaries in his Spaghetti Westerns.

The scenery is nice though. I graduated high school not long after this movie came out and it was an encouraging factor in all the road trips I took all over the American Southwest. I still haven't made it to the Sierras though.

The lesson learned here is, its better to make fun of yourself and have fun doing it before someone else does and possibly does it with venom.

Like most people I guess, I'd never heard of this movie (it not getting a theatrical release in the UK). But I like Clint so when it came around on late-night TV...

The leads are excellent, the script is witty, but the direction plods. The first third is so slow it almost had me reaching for the off switch. (A Pink Cadillac that runs on Valium, is no fun ride, me thinks.) Still I hung on in there and am not disappointed that I did.

Eastwood's attempt at playing "characters" was vaguely cringe-worthy. Let's face it, his best role is playing Clint Eastwood. Even so, he still has enough charm to get away with trying. Bernadette Peters adds subtlety, humor and integrity to her role. The film is well made. It hangs together. It was just never worth a special trip to the cinema. But fine on DVD or video with wine and a pizza.

Someone who, as the result of long military deployment at the end of the Cold War, saw nearly every theatrical release of the time is familiar with the Eastwood Mayoral Late Bubblegum Period. Scholars define this as Clint's tenure as mayor of Carmel, between the Marine anthem "Heartbreak Ridge" in 1986 and Clint's Western opus "Unforgiven" in 1992. In 1988 he put a belated end to Dirty Harry in the "Dead Pool," in 1990 he had a PG-13 bondage scene with Sonia Braga in "The Rookie," and in between there was this streetwise chase caper that was, to our loss, his only work with Bernadette. Bounty hunter Tommy (euphemistically a "skip tracer" since he's chasing a girl) captures bail jumper Lou Ann in Las Vegas and becomes caught up in the chase for a cash stash hidden in her pink '59 Caddy convertible by her drug-addict husband & his white supremacist, counterfeiting friends. Clint is at his most likable in these average-Joe tough-guy roles, men who survive only by their wits in seedy jobs (bounty hunter, bank robber, detective, street boxer) & take their lumps when they fall for lost causes or damsels in distress. Peters is fantastic in a humdrum role, going from sullen to sassy to sexy to sensitive without letting us down for an instant. The film is pure fun for its first two thirds, featuring little besides the two stars (Clint mimicking Bernadette's unique soprano is not to be missed). Geoffrey Lewis, an essential in all Eastwood movies like this, is entertaining as ever, this time as an addled hippie forger. The story follows the formula of several movies of this period, the best of which was "Midnight Run" (Cop/bounty hunter finds initial quarry, who's a patsy holding the key to bringing down a really nasty criminal/terrorist outfit). Unfortunately, the bad guys are too psycho-nasty for the light-hearted script, which also features Lou Ann's baby as a hostage. The pre-"Sopranos" mob bad guys of "Midnight Run" brought just the right amount of humor to distill their menace, but if you can find anything funny about neo-Nazi redneck drug addict survivalist militiamen who kidnap babies, please seek therapy. Clint actually gives it a shot near the end, so never let it be said he's not up for a dramatic challenge. "Pink Cadillac" isn't worthy as the only vehicle for the Broadway star and the greatest tough guy of his day, but it was a pleasant way to spend a couple of hours at sea. Compliments to "Speed Channel's" Lost Drive-in for bringing this & other forgotten car movies back to the small screen.