Dolan's Cadillac

A creepy tale of revenge belonging to a Stephen King's original short story from Nightmares and Dreamscapes, which was inspired by Edgar Allan Poe's The Cask of Amontillado. This better than average sinister movie to come from a King short novel centering around the hero's tenuous grip on reality . Dealing with Elizabeth (Emmanuelle Vaugier) who's happily married to loving husband Robinson (Wes Bentley) . While horse riding through the desert one evening, she witnesses the execution of two coyotes and an illegal immigrant by the human trafficker Jimmy Dolan (Christian Slater) and decides to report the incident to the police. She gets a promise of protection by police chief (Al Sapienza) if she testifies against him . Then she is targeted by Dolan for knowing too much. Robinson thinks Dolan is too powerful and well connected to be stopped , so he takes justice on his own hands. Later on , the young husband attempts to seek to avenge his wife's death after she is murdered by the Las Vegas mobster. For him and his mission to make him pay for what he has done in the most terrible way possible.

More a thriller than an all-out terror , this picture packs tension , suspense , violence , exploitation and amazing conclusion .Bases on a Stephen King's story , the horror writer extraordinaire , he's a prolific writer , here dealing with a short tale set in Las Vegas, in which school teachers Robinson and his wife Elizabeth are trying for a baby , but things go wrong when she's killed . King has a library load of books to his credit and a fan base of fanatic's eager to purchase any piece that pours from his platinum pen . Quite obviously many of his books have inspired movie adaptations, however surprisingly the transformation from page to cinema has not always been a successful one. Scanning a list of films based on King's work which features about 120 writing credits , there is a mixture of masterpieces and others mediocre , flops or stinkers . On the one hand we have horror classics like Carrie, The Shinning, Misery and The Mist . And on the other hand , B-movies , blowouts or failures films such as Thinner, Maximum Overdrive, The Tommyknockers, Dreamcatcher , Running Man and The Langoliers. And Hollywood keeps buying up the rights to more of Stephen King's stories other directors could take . Casting is frankly decent, originally schemed to be played by Sylvester Stallone , in ¨Dolan's Cadillac¨ stands out Christian Slater as a Vegas crime lord who deals in human trafficking. After a shipment of girls goes wrong, he ends up killing half his cargo in the desert. Slater's scoundrel Dolan is the essential centre of the film, equal parts spitting out provoking soliloquies in Shakespearian style as well as sharp suited sleaziness and easily as swear words . While Wes Bentley is acceptable as teacher Robinson who's driven by vengeance and desperate for retribution, as Robinson spirals into madness consumed by his hatred and Wes does a solid job creating a character both sympathetic and slightly insane at the same time. And Emmanuelle Vaugier is nice as the beautiful wife who is witness an unceremonious execution resulting in fateful consequences.

The motion picture was professionally shot by director Jeff Beesley, who learnt his trade making TV shows, spinning a stylish and sisnister yarn with a surprising climax .Jeff Beesley is one of Canada's most exciting young filmmakers. With his unique cinematic vision, Jeff has achieved International acclaim for his body of work. His productions have screened at some of the world's most prestigious festivals and have won dozens of awards. Rating : 6/10 . Chilling climax this film offers something different with a good cast and a solid script which will have you absorbed from start to finish.

I didn't need to see this movie. I don't think anybody did, but I read the short story many times over the years. It's one of my favourite Nightmares and Dreamscape shorts from Stephen King and I was intrigued to see how they stretched the plot to make it into a feature length film! You don't need a synopsis from me, not on IMDb. Jimmy Dolan is a criminal living and operating out of Las Vegas. When keeping his nose clean means dispatching of Robinson's wife, it destroys his life and leads him to act out on the urge for revenge as the authorities fails to pin the crime on Dolan and his goons.

What I liked about the King story was that there was nothing to like about any of the characters, all but Tinker. He wrote it from Robinson's perspective and it was nothing short of psychopathic, which is refreshing compared to most revenge stories.

In the movie, the likability factor pretty much stays the same, but the makers seem to have made a point of giving Dolan and his crew all the entertainment value and most of the screen time. Personally, I'd have watched an hour and a half of Robinson planning and executing his revenge trip, but we're given snippets of him going through his trauma and falling apart and, sorry to say, it bored me.

Wes Bentley has never been one to watch, for me at least. It might just be the angry kid scowl permanently etched into his face, but here he does a great job and pulls off some very natural but often overlooked acting.

Christian Slater is just Christian Slater as always. I'm not saying he's incapable of acting because he puts some great energy into his role, but he's one of those actors that isn't cut out for defining different personalities. His face is incapable of change, it seems.

The most important part of the movie, now that my problems are out of the way, is Bentley's Robinson giving up school to join the road crew in the Nevada desert. That's when King's storytelling really transfers well, and the addition of Tink and Danny really add texture to this film's character.

The revenge plot itself and how Robinson goes through with it are superb. I found myself smiling most of the way through it and feeling satisfied by the end credits. Odd that a film can be so generic and run-of-the-mill until the final half hour blows you away, right? If you ever give it a try, read the story first and just skip to the end, that's my advice!

Having read the short story by Stephen King before viewing this film, i can clearly confirm that for anyone who is hoping for a faithful adaption, you may find yourself in two half's.

The film itself is average. The pacing at the start is spot on and the story should be intriguing enough for you wanting more. This said, I watched this film with a companion and unlike me, he hasn't read the story. I'm not going to moan about how the film isn't better than the book cause it's never is but what i will say is that my friend must of got confused during the final parts.

The main character, Robinson, takes up a job on the highways to get a grip of the machinery which he'll be using to execute his plan. This also involves him creating a illusionary canvas and setting up a false detour. I know all this because i've read the book, however, the film does such a awful job showing the characters emotions and there purposes that i'll warn you not to get upset when you find yourself lost.

Long story short, film is a mess. Bently at times was laughable, Slater had no swagger and Robinson's Partner was idiotic. I dunno, i loved the story but even if had never read it before setting eyes on the film, it wouldn't of made much difference.

It is really rare to have Christian Slater in such a nasty character role, and it is even more interesting to watch it out. It evokes the problem of illegal migrants and the business which is correlated to it. And stories where the lead character, especially a well know actor, is the evil dude of the story - TERMINATOR, COLLATERAL, M, UNHINGED - this kind of schemes have always interested me; an evil guy is always more interesting than a good one. In this movie, directing is pretty good for a B picture, Stephen King or not Stephen King. No length, only excitment and thrills. If you had seen THEY CAME TO ROB LAS VEGAS, a 1968 crime flick, also taking place in the vicinity of LV, you will notice some common elements with this one.

The movie is certainly worth a watch.It is the tale of a revenge seeking spouse's determined efforts to kill an almost untouchable criminal.It is based on a short story by Stephen King.There are a few changes,but it is true to the original story and the few changes in the story are effective.

The movie could be worth a rating of 9 or 9.5 if not for the first 15 to 20 minutes of the the movie.Emmanuelle Vaugier's dialogs are really bad and her acting is not great either.Wes Bentley as the protagonist was disappointing for the first 20 minutes but he is excellent thereafter as a determined,disoriented revenge-seeking monster. Christian Slater makes a lasting impact every time he is on the screen.

The music,editing,dialogs(barring the first few minutes),cinematography and performances are pretty good. Though the first 20 minutes of the movie are not noteworthy the last 20 minutes are in complete contrast and stand out.