Stealth Entertainment: Cadillac Man
By Scott Lumley
December 4, 2008
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.
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