Director
Jeff Beesley
Cast
Christian Slater - Jimmy Dolan
Wes Bentley - Tom Robinson
Emmanuella Vaugier - Elizabeth Robinson
Stephen King's short story collection Nightmares & Dreamscapes is my favorite of his collections. In fact, what I consider to be his scariest short story, The Moving Finger, can be found inside.
The book also seems to be the basis of a handful of obscure film and television adaptations. Dolan's Cadillac is one of them.
I had no idea this movie existed until I searched for "Obscure Stephen King movies."
It was a direct-to-video release, which is probably why this movie has been under the radar.
But it's certainly no small production, as it features Christian Slater and Wes Bentley.
During a horse riding trip through the desert near Las Vegas, Tom Robinson's (Wes Bentley) wife, Elizabeth (Emmanuelle Vaugier) witnesses a human trafficking deal that ends up with three people murdered.
Little does Elizabeth know, notorious thug - a nightmare among nightmares - Jimmy Dolan (Christian Slater) is in charge of this crime. It's Dolan she sees shoot and kill two coyotes (human traffickers) and one trafficking victim.
As she rides away, while being shot at, she loses her cell phone. One of Dolan's people finds it, resolved to "take care of the problem" on Dolan's command.
She and Tom go to the authorities, but tell them nothing the police haven't heard before. The police fill them in on their pursuit of Dolan, and what kind of person he is, especially towards people willing to testify against him.
The couple are later admitted into witness protection after they find the dead body of a human trafficking victim, with her lips sewn shut, in their bed - a message from Dolan telling the Robinson's to keep quiet.
All the while, Elizabeth has been having dreams of becoming pregnant.
While in the protection program, she wakes up during the night vomiting - a sure sign she's finally expecting a child with Tom. So, she rushes out to buy a pregnancy test.
Tom rushes after her as she gets in the car. When she starts it, the car explodes.
Tom takes her death really hard, resorting to drinking, and succumbing to despair. He breaks down and purchases a hand gun.
He also starts following Dolan around, learning his routines and trying to find a perfect opportunity to gain revenge.
During an attempt to shoot Dolan, he discovers his Cadillac is bullet proof. This leads Tom to exact another, even more terrifying kind of revenge. One that will make Dolan surely pay for his crimes, especially Elizabeth's murder.
It's not necessarily an intense film that'll blow audiences away. It is entertaining, and captivates just enough.
Some lines, especially from Wes Bentley, seem very scripted, but Christian Slater's role as Jimmy Dolan is fantastic. Slater seems to take his role seriously, putting what he can into his portrayal. He's a character worthy of hatred, and Slater makes the audience do just that. It's a role for Slater that shouldn't be forgotten.
Wes Bentley seemed to just roll through his portrayal of Tom Robinson. Some lines seemed too scripted at first, but improved slightly towards the third act. For a character who's life changed for the worst in nearly a wink of an eye, I wasn't convinced by his portrayal at just how much turmoil he was in. It was hard to tell where his effort was- in seeking his revenge, or just getting through the movie?
Nevertheless, the movie is overall truly entertaining, with the right amount of intrigue to keep interested until the end.
Though the movie is more of a crime thriller than a horror movie, it carries just enough "horror," Stephen King style, to be included on my blog. All in all, Dolan's Cadillac deserves a little more attention as it's definitely good enough for a Friday night movie.
Ambiguous King
