Stealth Entertainment: Cadillac Man

By Scott Lumley

December 4, 2008

He has a great future ahead of him in porn.

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Hollywood is a machine. Every week, every month and every year countless films are released into theatres and not every one is as successful as the studio heads would hope. Sometimes the publicity machine was askew, sometimes the movie targeted an odd demographic, sometimes the release was steamrolled by a much larger movie and occasionally the movie is flat out bad.
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.




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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.


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