Dolan's Cadillac (2009) Directed by Jeff Beesley

Somewhere, deep down in its core, this is still a pretty good and enjoyable little movie. However, the movie still mostly works out as a poor and lacking one.

It's a movie that's based on a short story by Stephen King and it really shows that it's based on just a short and simple story. I don't know anything about the actual story but if I would have to guess I would say that the story mostly consists out of the events that transpire in this movie its third act. It's also the only part pf the movie that feels remotely interesting and truly well developed. The rest of the movie feels sort of incomplete and rushed. The beginning, the middle and the end of the movie don't really come together as one very well, as if this movie was originally meant to be a three part mini-series, with each new episode new characters and developments in it. The whole movie is building up toward the events of its third act, which actually causes the rest of the movie feel quite pointless and needlessly stretched out.n

And to be honest, it has a pretty poor cast as well. Somehow I don't think Stephen King had Christian Slater in mind, while writing the Dolan character. In my opinion, the Dolan character should had been pure evil and not the sleazy type of villain Slater was playing. He doesn't come across as all powerful and maniacal but as sort of spoiled and in some ways even weaselly character instead. Not really Slater's fault. He just wasn't the right type of actor for this kind of role. Wes Bentley also was a really poor pick for the movie its lead. He is neither charismatic or likable enough and he seemed to have a hard time handling the movie its more dramatic and emotional elements. It's hard to get behind him and like his character, which is of course a big problem for this movie.

It's also kind of annoying how they seemingly kept in the same dialog that was used in the short story, this movie got based on. Again, I don't know anything about the short story, written by King in 1993 but it certainly feels that way. Sometimes some dialog just works out better on paper and sounds kind of stupid and unrealistic in a movie, when actual actors have to utter all of the same words. it definitely took me out of the movie at times.

And what was up with some of the technology that was being used in this movie? My goodness! Are we sure this movie wasn't somehow made back in 1999 and not released until 2009? Or perhaps the film-makers thought; 'Hey, Stephen King wrote this story back in 1993, so lets also set this movie in 1993'. There was even a Game Boy reference, which had me scratching my head. The movie already feels terribly outdated, even though it was made only 4 years ago.

Guess it's still the type of movie that's kind of good and entertaining to watch late at night, when absolutely nothing else is on. That's also the way I saw it. It isn't really a terrible movie but a kind of weak, bland and stupid one nevertheless.

5/10

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