MovieFreak.com - "Pink Cadillac" DVD Review by Dennis Landmann

"If my life were a movie, there'd be a sign on it saying: Caution: some scenes too intense for younger viewers." - Tommy Nowak

Skip tracer Tommy Nowak (Clint Eastwood) is tracking Lou Ann McGuinn (Bernadette Peters) for a bail bondsman in California. Lou Ann is also being chased by her husband Roy McGuinn (Timothy Carhart) and his birth right/neo-Nazi friends for taking their counterfeit money. Nowak eventually captures Lou Ann in Reno, but agrees to stop at her sister’s place on the way back to see her baby. There they find Roy and his vile friend. A struggle ensues and Roy takes off with the baby, leaving it up to Tommy to get the baby back.

Clint Eastwood is both a riot and a hard-knocks type of guy in Pink Cadillac. Directed by Buddy Van Horn, the film places Eastwood in some funny places and also gives him a chance to good off. Known for more violent, tough-guy roles, Eastwood is perfect in this average road-trip action comedy. He saves this film, to be exact.

As the film begins we meet him impersonating a radio DJ with a funny accent, which is really just an act to get a fugitive back where he belongs (in court to face charges). He catches another fugitive at a rodeo disguised as a clown. Later in the film he puts on a fake mustache, a cowboy hat, and dresses up in a golden suit as a Vegas casino owner to trick another fugitive. Much later in the film, towards the last half hour, he puts on a red cap and chews on tobacco to create a sort of drunken hippie with a lisp in order to infiltrate the group that holds Lou Ann’s baby. It’s when Eastwood does these impersonations that some pretty funny one-liners come out of his mouth, like the quote at the top. Eastwood is surprisingly good here.

Joining him in that rank is Bernadette Peters. She handles her material very well and is a good co-star to Eastwood. In fact, both share some genuine, even idiosyncratic chemistry. Also appearing in Pink Cadillac in small roles is Frances Fisher as Lou Ann’s sister, James Cromwell as a motel manager, and Jim Carrey in a very brief Elvis impersonation.

John Eskow’s script is a flawed affair mainly due to a somewhat flimsy plot. Despite an interesting main plot, which concerns Eastwood and Peters trying to get back the little baby, the neo-Nazi subplot is silly and downright dull. In fact, these people don’t have a life for all they do is hide out in the mountains and practice shooting at mock-up targets. Secondly, this subplot takes away any momentum from the Eastwood and Peters relationship. Bad guys are almost never as interesting as your main characters, and here they’re a downright distraction. Still, Eskow’s script finds time for a good amount of entertainment. He achieves this by combining some good comedy and decent action, including several good/mild car chases.

Overall, Pink Cadillac is an enjoyable road-tip action comedy mainly because of Clint Eastwood. He brings talent and credibility to a film that without him would be a pretty weak affair. Buddy Van Horn’s direction is amicable and he delivers a film that moves along well.

Warner Bros. presents Pink Cadillac in an all-new digital 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen transfer. This film looks pretty nice in widescreen. Still, some minor flaws persist. Dark and nighttime scenes contain quite a lot of grain. Daytime scenes, however, look pretty bright. Also, Reno looks all bright and vibrant here, which is cool. Colors are saturated to a good degree, though sometimes it appears the blue sky casts a shadow over a few outdoor scenes. Nevertheless, these are minor faults. Overall, the video presentation is decent.

Warner Bros. presents Pink Cadillac in remastered English 5.1 Dolby Digital Surround Sound. The soundtrack is mostly front-centered. The two front channels do a pretty good job of emitting dialog, sound effects, and songs. Dialog is clear and easy to understand. Surround usage is not evident, but I didn’t expect anything more. On some occasions the presentation offers good bass. Overall, the film sounds decent, nothing special.

You can also select to view the film in optional French, Spanish, and Portuguese dub tracks.

The only supplement included is the film’s Theatrical Trailer and Cast & Crew information (namely an Eastwood filmography). [The rating here is a 2 because of the four languages and eight subtitles available, which constitutes some effort in the output of this DVD.]

You can select to view the film with optional English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Japanese, Chinese, Thai, and Korean subtitles. That’s heavy! The DVD’s menus are not animated but easy to navigate. The 121-minute feature is organized into thirty-two chapters. As with all Warner titles the DVD comes in a snapper case that lists chapter selections on the inside flap.

Clint Eastwood makes Pink Cadillac look good. His character and at times goofy performance saves the film from being an ordinary/weak film. Then again, I’ve said this three times already, at least. Video/audio is decent, and the inclusion of eight subtitles is interesting. Rent this DVD to see Eastwood perform like never before (well, sort of).

THE MOVIE	6
THE VIDEO	6
THE AUDIO	6
THE EXTRAS	2
OVERALL (not an average)	5