Pink Cadillac

1989 "It takes a real man to bring in a lady in a pink Cadillac."
5.3| 2h2m| PG-13| en
Details

A bounty hunter helps out the wife of a bail-jumper after her child is kidnapped by neo-Nazi types.

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Reviews

GamerTab That was an excellent one.
Stevecorp Don't listen to the negative reviews
Chirphymium It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional
Marva It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,
James Hitchcock "Pink Cadillac" is one of those films which seem to owe their existence to a scriptwriter or studio executive noticing a catchy song title, thinking it too good to waste on a mere song and concocting a film script to fit it. (See also "Pretty Woman", "Sweet Home Alabama", "Addicted to Love", "Jumping Jack Flash" and others). At least the film does actually feature a pink Cadillac.The film also served another purpose, that of finding another role for Clint Eastwood who had recently made his fifth and final "Dirty Harry" movie, "The Dead Pool". Having tried "tough cowboy" and "tough cop", with occasional forays into "tough soldier" and "tough trucker", Clint decided to try "tough bounty hunter". His character here is Tommy Nowak, a "skip-tracer", that is to say a bounty hunter who specialises in tracking down people who skip bail. (The name "Nowak" is pronounced either in the authentic Polish way as "Novak" or as the anglicised "Noack", depending on who is speaking). His latest target is a young woman named Lou Ann McGuinn who has run off in her husband Roy's pink Cadillac. This was, however, an unwise choice of getaway vehicle because Roy is a member of a violent white supremacist movement and the car contained a large quantity of counterfeit money belonging to the group. Now Lou Ann is being chased not only by Tommy but also by a scary gang of Neo-Nazi fanatics. Let's just hope he gets there first.Although Eastwood was nearly sixty when he made the film, he could not resist the chance of an on screen romance with an attractive younger woman (in this case Bernadette Peters), so when Tommy finally does find Lou Ann it is inevitable that they will fall in love and join forces to fight the evil white supremacists.The film was not generally popular with the critics. The New York Times called it the "laziest sort of action comedy" and predicted that it "will probably settle comfortably near the bottom of the list" of Eastwood's movies. There is probably some justice in that criticism. The plot could have been taken straight from the "Lazy Screenwriter's Guide to writing- by-numbers, and the film will never rank alongside the likes of the first "Dirty Harry" or "Pale Rider" or "Unforgiven" or "Gran Torino" in the pantheon of Eastwood's work. I have always found Eastwood more effective in serious drama than in comedy, and "Pink Cadillac" is essentially an action-comedy rather than an action-adventure.That said, however, it is not altogether bad. Eastwood and Peters make a likable couple, despite the age difference, and although the bad guys are predictable and stereotyped, that is probably inevitable in the context of an action-comedy, a genre which operates under different laws from those which govern serious action dramas. "Pink Cadillac" may be lazy, but it is also fairly amiable. 5/10
Predrag This movie has some rawness and grit, interesting story line, plot, and sub-plots, with Eastwood as a tough no-nonsense detective, Speer, and Reynolds as an ex-cop and Private Eye, Murphy, who butt heads with each other, in Prohibition-era 1933 (last year of Prohibition, in fact), but team up to investigate mob murder and corruption. It also has some funny lines and wittiness. And of course, Eastwood, with his intensity, as well as his piano playing, is in true form as usual. The costumes are great. The sets are delightful and the cars dazzling. The treat in the movie is Jane Alexander as Reynold's long suffering brilliant secretary. Worth watching just for the pleasure of her company.The plot is a good one and the story believable just poorly executed, despite good performances. There's not a whole lot of saving graces other that what has already been mentioned but at least you can see some different, although hollow, acting performances by Madeline Kahn, Rip Torn, Richard Roundtree, Jane Alexander, and Irene Cara. 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). 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.Overall rating: 7 out of 10.
gottogorunning As mentioned in another comment, this film is very, very similar to the brilliant De Niro movie Midnight Run which came out a year before this one. This one pales in comparison unfortunately. I wouldn't have thought it was a deliberate move by Eastwood to cash in on the success of Midnight Run, because I don't think Clint has to ride on anyone's coat tails, and was Midnight Run a big hit anyway? Actually this must be one of Clints least known films, its very rarely shown on TV here in Great Britain, in fact I think it went straight to video, a Clint Eastwood film straight to video! It must be really bad yeah? well no, not really, but not exactly great either. Its a pleasant enough way to spend a couple of hours, and does show Clint doing different things. He takes on different persona's in his Bounty hunter role to catch the crooks including a DJ and a redneck, which I thought was hilarious, really funny. Bernadette Peters was really good in this I thought as well, bright and quirky. What really let it down was the gang of Nazi redneck bikers (or whatever they were meant to be), they bordered on comedy villains, in fact I kept waiting for Clyde the Orangatun to wander on screen and punch them out and drink all their beer! So one for Clint fans only I'm afraid (like me!) P.S See if you can spot Jim Carrey AND Canadian rocker Bryan Adams in the film.
buby1987 I didn't care for this movie when it first came out, but now it plays much better than most late 80's action flicks. There is great chemistry between Eastwood and Bernadette Peters. Eastwood has been canny about who he teams up with. Pink Cadillac is in the mold of Two Mules For Sister Sara, The Enforcer and The Gauntlet, in which Eastwood's macho character gets saddled with a female partner, and has to make the best of it. In fact, this plot device is used in Million Dollar Baby.Pink Cadillac is simply good old-fashioned Hollywood film-making, no fancy cinematography or special effects, just a simple but well-told story with two characters that we like and care about. Eastwood is gracious in allowing his female characters to live and breathe and have unexpected reservoirs of strength and resilience. This is evident in movies like Tightrope with Genevieve Bujold and The Enforcer with Tyne Daly.As for Eastwood, he makes it look effortless, but he is an underrated actor. Pink Cadillac gives him the opportunity to do some odd character acting bits, as he adopts eccentric accents and disguises in his job as a skip tracer. One gets the feeling Eastwood is enjoying himself immensely, and it is a joy to see him doing off-the-wall stuff, although it is also cool to see Eastwood being Eastwood during the action sequences.Pink Cadillac also shares with other Eastwood films like Bronco Billy, Thunderbolt and Lightfoot, A Perfect World and Honkytonk Man an affinity with American people living on the margins. While most filmmakers (such as the smug Coen Brothers) treat rural American characters with contempt, Eastwood views all people with a measure of respect and affection (except for the white supremacists).There is also a great sense of place in this film, as it captures off the beaten path locations in Northern California that are seldom used in film. Director Buddy Van Horn provides efficient craftsmanship that doesn't call attention to itself, but his eye always alert to the telling details of character and setting.In all, an unexpected pleasure, and an underrated road film.