Dolan's Cadillac

The harmless school teacher Robinson (Bentley) seeks revenge on a cold and greedy crook (Slater) who had his wife killed. The plot is familiar, the details of the revenge rather ingenious.

This is actually a rather solid and effective chiller, based on Stephen King's memorable short story. Instead of adding countless new themes in an effort to show the audience that they are not "merely" making a horror flick, the filmmakers have added scenes that actually foreshadow and strengthen the ending.

This hardly classifies it as a classic, but I found surprisingly little to gripe about and actually one or two additions that I found impressive. Christian Slater seems to be enjoying his part without turning it into camp and Besley manages to convey some real human emotions without seeming to reach for the Oscars. In this sort of (short) movie, restraint is just as important as ideas, seeing as how countless thrillers just go overboard on a desperate quest for "impact".

The cinematography and sound engineering stand up to scrutiny and the minor parts are well executed. In short, this one works.

The movie is certainly worth a watch.It is the tale of a revenge seeking spouse's determined efforts to kill an almost untouchable criminal.It is based on a short story by Stephen King.There are a few changes,but it is true to the original story and the few changes in the story are effective.

The movie could be worth a rating of 9 or 9.5 if not for the first 15 to 20 minutes of the the movie.Emmanuelle Vaugier's dialogs are really bad and her acting is not great either.Wes Bentley as the protagonist was disappointing for the first 20 minutes but he is excellent thereafter as a determined,disoriented revenge-seeking monster. Christian Slater makes a lasting impact every time he is on the screen.

The music,editing,dialogs(barring the first few minutes),cinematography and performances are pretty good. Though the first 20 minutes of the movie are not noteworthy the last 20 minutes are in complete contrast and stand out.

Robinson (Wes Bentley) and his wife Elizabeth (Emmanuelle Vaugier) are fellow school teachers. Elizabeth is horse riding in the desert and runs across human traffickers. The fans in the truck broke down killing some of the girls. Elizabeth witnesses gangster pimp Jimmy Dolan (Christian Slater) killing the drivers and one girl trying to escape. She rides away but loses her phone. The couple reports it to the police but he is uninterested in the illegals. They go home to find one of the dead girls in their bed and they go to the FBI. She's committed to testifying but is killed in a car bomb. Robinson falls into a deep depression and then aims to take revenge. Meanwhile Dolan is disagreeing on payment with the Snakeheads.

Christian Slater is chewing up the screen. He is a good bad guy. Wes Bentley has crazy eyes. He looks like he's permanently tense. It doesn't allow him to change his character's feelings and the character goes through a lot of changes. It's one of the big problems. The other problem is the general lack of production value. I assume it's due to a lower budget and won't fault the movie for it. It has the basis of a good psychological thriller but Wes is not able to deliver it completely.

I liked this movie. Though its not a brilliant movie that blows your mind away, this still is a good watch. Its not the usual revenge flick with lotsa action and nothing more. This movie had originality in showing the revenge seeked by a husband whose wife got murdered by criminals because she was a witness of murders in a desert. I liked the way our hero was not shown as a superman who just walks and throws people away as if they were pieces of rough paper. This man is a normal guy who is scared of criminals but still wants revenge. He gets defeated by the villain quite a few number of times, but still does not give up. Realizing he can't win over them by just using guns and trying to kill them, he hatches a plan to seek revenge. And boy, what a method it was !! This movie really has one of the best climax in recent times. And the last scene is one of the most original scene I have seen in a long long time. Of course you know what would happen in the end but still you would like to watch it. Definitely recommended !!!

I feel I should start the review by saying whether I had previously read the Stephen King short story before watching this movie. As a matter of fact, I had. I didn't find it one of his better stories, namely because the story early on reveals exactly what the protagonist is planning, and subsequently does it. No surprises or twists. The screenplay for this movie does fix this, not revealing what the protagonist is planning until it happens (though there are a few hints along the way.) However, the screenplay does still have some flaws. It runs too long, a pitfall many movies adapted from short stories have. There are many scenes with Dolan that don't seem necessary. And there are some plot holes, like how the protagonist got Dolan's cell phone number.

Another flaw is with Slater. He tries REALLY hard, enough that he deserves an "A" for effort. But he's still the last person you'd imagine to be a gangster. Had someone older and more weathered been in his role, I think the movie would have worked better.

Still, there is some merit to be found. The production values are really good - this is one shot-in-Canada movie that actually manages to make you think it was shot in the United States. And the last half hour of the movie is very good, tense and gripping. If you can't find a better movie, and have the patience to sit through a so-so first hour for a really good last half hour, then I would recommend this movie.