Stealth Entertainment: Cadillac Man
By Scott Lumley
December 4, 2008
BoxOfficeProphets.com
But Hollywood's loss is our gain. There is a veritable treasure trove of film out there that you may not have seen. I will be your guide to this veritable wilderness of unwatched film. It will be my job to steer you towards the action, adventure, drama and comedy that may have eluded you, and at the same time, steer you away from some truly unwatchable dreck.
Hopefully we'll stumble across some entertainment that may have slid under your radar. Wish us luck.
Cadillac Man (1990)
Just about two decades ago, Robin Williams was nearly the hottest comedian on the planet. The man was funny in a way that few people can ever be. He had scripts delivered by the truckload and made films like crazy.
Oddly, though, he had very few genuine hits. There's Mrs. Doubtfire, obviously. He had some large successes with Good Morning Vietnam, Jumanjii and Good Will Hunting, and for some god awful reason R.V. made a ton of cash. But for a man this funny, he really should have a lot more hits. Cadillac Man is a good example. The film pretty much revolved around Williams and it only made $27.6 million.
The problem with Robin Williams as an actor is that as talented as he is, people really don't want to watch him emote or character act. They want to see him rip off 17 different impressions in 14 different voices and possibly break a rib laughing while he does it. Unfortunately, there are very few characters written for films that are able to realistically be assigned dialogue like that. Aladdin springs to mind... and that's about it.
Cadillac Man is one of those films that tries to shoehorn Robin Williams into a particular role. There's some limited success in this tactic, but Williams is pretty much a force of nature and cannot be contained. His personality bleeds out of his character, and oddly the more this seems to happen the better the film in question seems to do.
Since you're going to ask, Cadillac Man does not do a spectacular job of containing Williams. It's not exactly the funniest film you'll ever see, but it certainly has its moments.
Cadillac man stars Williams as Joey O'Brien, Tim Robbins as the confused and not terribly bright gunman Larry, Fran Drescher as Joy Munchak, Annabella Sciorra as Donna, Paul Guilfoyle of CSI fame as Little Jack Turgeon and once famous, now forgotten Lori Petty as Lila. It's interesting casting, but the brilliant move in this casting is actually Tim Robbins, who in most scenes is as funny if not more so than Robin Williams.
The movie revolves around the premise of a used car salesman having what can only be described as a really bad day. Joey O'Brien has two different girlfriends on the go, an ex-wife living in his ex-house and asking for an extra $500 s a month for college for their daughter, an alternately threatening and gregarious mob boss who likes Joey but is perfectly willing to kill him if Joey doesn't pay back the $20,000 that he owes. Joey's immediate boss has advised him that if he doesn't sell 12 cars in the next two days he's about to be unemployed. Joey is understandably a little stressed.
At the same time, Donna and Little Jack are having a torrid little affair that has driven her unemployed husband around the bend and he shows up at the car dealership with a Kalishnakov and ten pounds of plastique strapped to the gas tank of his motorcycle. He smashes through the front doors of the dealership, unloads 30 bullets into the ceiling and demands to know who the hell is having sex with his wife.
I can't even do this scene justice. It's completely Looney Tunes. There's so much going on it's hard to keep track. There are about 17 different characters in the scene and once the police arrive, the scene script goes from hilarious to hysterical in a heartbeat. It only lasts about 20 minutes, but it makes the entire movie worth seeing.
It's unfortunate that the entire film can't sustain this, and it doesn't even really come close, but it's still funny enough to carry it. I was laughing pretty hard at a movie that came out two decades ago - and I'd already seen it a couple of times. The rest of the film is moderately entertaining on its own and despite the fact that it provides a Hollywood ending, I didn't really mind.
In the end, Cadillac Man falls easily into the realm of mindless entertainment. It has no overriding message, no terribly memorable performances (with the exception of Guilfoyle who plays a weaselly car salesman far better than Williams does.), an erratic storytelling style and completely forgettable cinematography. The comedy that we get from Williams and Robbins once they meet up, more than makes up for all the other shortcomings in Cadillac Man and is as funny as anything I've seen recently, possibly moreso. It's eminently watchable, yet sadly forgettable.
Maybe that's a good thing, because you don't remember the uneven parts of Cadillac Man. You remember a panicky Williams and an even more terrified Robbins negotiating with some very confused police officers and it's bound to make you giggle every time you do.
If you need a good laugh, Cadillac Man is your film. And I don't care what standard you use to grade your films, if it can make me laugh, I'll watch it. And if it happens to come up in the bargain bin at the department store or on late night TV, so should you.