Based on a short story of the same name by Stephen King, Dolan’s Cadillac is an okay movie. Considering the fact that the budget was just $10 million, they really did wonders. Especially when we’re talking about cinematography, with beautiful and mesmerizing shots of the desert, oozing that “King atmosphere”. We will be following a married couple who witness a murder and now have to run from a ruthless crime boss. Revenge movies are always fun. However, if you already know what they’re going for, the whole thing kind of losses its momentum.
Instead of focusing on the characters we’re just going through the motions, trying to get to the next cool scene. Just compare Dolan’s Cadillac to Breaking Bad or Better Call Saul, two tv shows featuring similar plots. We already know that something big is about to go down (usually Mike doing some cool shit), but the show distracts us with a sneaky scene before the big one. The camera hangs on a certain scene and you slowly immerse yourself into this thick atmosphere full of excitement and anxiety.
In this movie, however, you get the sense they glossed over these scenes, anxious to get to the “good ones”. Still, I want to make something perfectly clear: Dolan’s Cadillac is a movie worth watching. You can consider it a guilty pleasure or a B movie but what you cannot do is underestimate it. The story feels eerily true and like something that actually might happen. And in classic King fashion, there are a lot of subversive elements. On top of all of that, this is quite a short and pacey movie with a running time of just eighty minutes.
Tom Robinson and his wife Elizabeth are living a peaceful life in Las Vegas. However, everything is about to change as Elizabeth accidentally sees one of the most ruthless criminals in the city casually executing three guys. They do the right thing and go to the police to tell them everything. From this moment on, the chase is on. The bad guys are after them and it feels like it’s only a matter of time before they catch them…
I will spare you the details because this movie is already a bit stretched, being adapted from a short story and all. Christian Slater, busy as always, was phenomenal here. I just loved him as this ruthless criminal with a twisted personality. Wes Bently was too tight here, good, but too tight. I’m guessing his raging drug addiction had something to do with this. At this point in time, he was accepting roles to fund his drug habit.
Moving on, I would also like to point out that this is a movie featuring a story about human traffickers. It’s just so fucked up to see all those young women and even children literally forced into slavery at gun point in the 21st century. Featuring a realistic and juicy atmosphere, diverse characters and a solid story, Dolan’s Cadillac is a must if you’re a Stephen King fan.
Director: Jeff Beesley
Writers: Richard Dooling, Stephen King
Cast: Christian Slater, Emmanuelle Vaugier, Wes Bentley, Greg Bryk, Al Sapienza
Fun Facts: Sylvester Stallone was originally going to play Dolan, something that I think would turn out disastrous.
Rating:
IMDb Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0963965/
