Based on the story by Stephen King. After his wife is murdered by notorious crime boss Jimmy Dolan (Christian Slater), Robinson (Wes Bentley), a quiet middle school teacher, devises a diabolical plan to get revenge.
Martha H. from GENESEO, IL Reviewed on 6/1/2013...
I was excited to watch this film....I love Christian Slater as well as Stephen King's work. After watching it, I and others felt that Slater was grossly miscast as Dolan. He would have been much more believable as the husband who put himself through torture for revenge. I thought Tom Sizemore or James Caan would have been better as Dolan. It was fun to acquire some visual context for the story though.
2 of 2 member(s) found this review helpful.
Chad B. (abrnt1) from CABERY, IL Reviewed on 9/20/2011...
An interesting and very entertaining film. The concept of getting revenge on those who did you wrong is almost as old as time itself. Wes Bentley does a decent job as an adverage man driven to the very brink of madness when a crime boss (played by Christian Slater) murders his wife. The sequences dealing with Bentley's revenge stand out.
2 of 2 member(s) found this review helpful.
Movie Reviews
What would you do if your signifigant other was murdered and
R. Beck | bay area, Ca USA | 03/14/2010
(4 out of 5 stars)
"This movie caught my attention at the video store and I read the synopsis and it sounded like it had potential, so I decided to give it a go. First off this film is based on a Stephen King short story which I learned during the opening credits of the dvd, being a Stephen King fan this made me expect more from the get go and I was not disappointed. Christian Slater and Wes Bentley both did an excellent job. Dolan's Cadillac was well paced and a pleasure to watch from beginning to end. One down side is i would have liked to know a little bit more about Wes Bentley's slain wife, but this did not take away too much from the film in my opinion. If you like revenge/thriller themed movies Dolan's Cadillac will not disappoint.
Wes Bentley continues to impress me with his acting ability. He has been in only a handful of recognizable films to the main stream Hollywood industry with such titles being P2, Ghost Rider, and American beauty. i would like to see him in more films."
A nice suprise adaption of a Stephen King short story!!!
Buddy H. | Bay Area, CA | 05/18/2010
(4 out of 5 stars)
"Being an avid reader of Stephen King's books, I'm always a little weary of how his stories are adapted to the screen. I bought this movie on blu-ray, not knowing if it would be any good and was very surprised at what an excellent job director Jeff Beesley did with this story.
Starring Christian Slater and Wes Bentley (American Beauty , Ghost Rider), the movie was very well adapted. Robinson (Bentley) seeks revenge on Jimmy Dolan (Slater) who murders Robinson's wife (Emmanuelle Vaugier) after she inadvertently witnesses one of Dolan's crimes. Unable to deal with his wife's death, Robinson plots his revenge against Vegas crime boss Dolan and carries it out with a unique twist.
Bentley gives an outstanding performance as the heartbroken widower and Slater's crazed performance as the deranged mobster are the heart of the movie. Slater's performance is reminiscent of his role in "Heathers" from the 1980's.
Well directed, it is a surprisingly fine adaption of Mr. King's work. I only hope that more of the masters work will be adapted for the big screen soon. Would love to see Bag Of Bones, Rose Madder & Duma Key on the screen one day.
So, grab a soda and a bucket of popcorn and take a ride in Dolan's Cadillac!"
Not bad
Gary | 07/20/2010
(4 out of 5 stars)
"Dolan's Cadillac is quite an impressive looking film. The budget was probably fairly small but that doesn't particularly show. The actors all do a fine job and the dialogue is very good. If it has a flaw it's that it's based on a short story and there's not really enough happening to justify the running time. As an hour long tv film it would be outstanding. Even so, it's well made and worth a watch."
Disappointing on Many Levels.....Don't Spend Much Money to W
The Jaundiced Eye | Texas, USA | 07/18/2010
(3 out of 5 stars)
"The synopsis sounded interesting: An average man's wife is murdered by a fearsome gangster and the wimpy husband finds a great way to get revenge. Everyone loves good revenge movies....unfortunately, this one is just not very good.
Problem No. 1 is that it is adapted from a Stephen King short story. I enjoy Stephen King novels, but never cease to be disappointed by screen adaptations of them. Somehow my imagination, while reading, is always way more scary and inventive that the visual interpretation provided by a movie studio. This one is no exception.
No. 2 is that Christian Slater overacts, in this movie, to a degree that is always distracting and often comical. He can portray a cold-blooded maniac quite well (see him in True Romance), but his supposed satanic viciousness in this opus is conveyed by a lot of yelling, "hard" looks at the camera, and unconvincing tough-guy dialog. At no time does he ever appear truly dangerous or psychotic. Instead, he comes off as a very well dressed, baby-faced, loud-mouthed, overconfident, silly little guy. As testimony to this, we are told (the weakest of all expository methods) how bad Dolan is....twice. To be honest, I think he was cast for his marquee appeal rather than for being appropriate for the part.
No. 3 is Wes Bentley's eyebrows. These things have a life of their own. They look like giant black caterpillars hovering over dark, psychotic eyes. They are all I ever see when I look at him, and its probably just as well, because his acting is generally at a "made for TV" level. He looked far scarier than Christian Slater at all times, however, and would have made a far more convincing villain than "common man".
No. 4 is the conclusion. SPOILER ALERT.....How is this crime ever going to go undetected? The first car that passed over the cut-up asphalt would compress it and sink a foot or so, or simply stop to see why the road looked like a jigsaw puzzle. How did Wes construct this elaborate trap in such a short period of time? Where did he put all the dirt? What are the odds that Dolan's car would pass this spot at exactly the right time? Why didn't Wes just pave over it? He had all the equipment at hand. To be honest, this ending just reeked of Stephen King: an overly elaborate, completely incredible solution to a very basic problem. It was the climax of the whole movie, and I was not impressed.
Some people really liked this movie. I am always suspicious that wild praise of something truly mediocre may be due to ulterior motives. It is not badly made, the sound and photography are quite good, and portions of the plot are definitely watchable, particularly the parts involving Emmanuele Vaugier.
I have watched hundreds of movies in my life and know a good one when I see it. Whether the movie suits my personal taste or not, true quality shows through and is undeniable. Please believe me, unless you are very young and/or very naive, this is simply a very mediocre movie."
Far better than most adaptions of King's stories
J from NY | New York | 07/14/2010
(4 out of 5 stars)
"While this isn't exactly a masterpiece, "Dolan's Cadillac" is ten times better than most of the Stephen King fare out there (his movies *and* books). I still remember reading the film's story title "Dolan's Cadillac" when I was young in that great collection "Everything's Eventual" and never forgetting the sheer macabre subtlety with which King ends the cool, chilling tale of an ordinary man's revenge on a top mobster who had his wife murdered for testifying against him as a witness to a crime.
Wes Bentley (Robinson, recalling well Weldon Kee's disillusioned, angry poetic persona) is a sixth grade schoolteacher with a relatively happy life and a lovely wife who teaches at the same school. They live around Las Vegas and one day, while she is horseriding around the desert, she witnesses the thuggish, brutal Christian Slater execute a fellow henchmen for not delivering his "sex slave product" on time. She drops her cellphone, and though they are given witness protection, she is killed with a car bomb.
No, Robinson is not as bald as in the story and yes it departs from the text quite a bit--but in the end, perhaps for a little innovative creativity. When Robinson devises his most cruel trap--a tarpaulin facade on the highway which is in reality a huge ditch meant for Dolan's (Christian Slater) and he falls in, the dialogue is worthy of some of the finest literature we have--in some parts hammy, in other parts superior to King's ending itself, though he was aiming for a more obsessive and subtle approach. Edgar Allan Poe is in the air, to be certain. The question of revenge, particularly this sort of elaborately devised and sinister sort, is explored with exquisite detail as the two characters scream at each other, one buried in the desert with nothing but a gun he can no longer use, and one with a conscience that is being severely tested. Not a masterpiece, but a brilliant adaptation, and absolutely recommended to any fan of the original Stephen King.