shinsrevenge This unusual movie offers a realistic approach on the whole "lonely avenger" topic. You see a school teacher getting a breakdown after his wife gets killed by a car bomb ordered by Mr. Dolan (Christian Slater). He loses himself in hatred, despair and revenge plans, giving up everything he holds dear to avenge the death of the woman he loved.This is where things took a darker, deeper turn than I would have thought possible. For you see, once the teacher traps his nemesis into a hole and starts burrying him alive, Dolan starts arguing to convince him to stop. And he's damn good at it. For example he states that he only killed for business, not for pleasure. And that the teacher has already become something far more evil than Dolan ever was by commiting this act.This movie will have you thinking about right, wrong and the question whether or not the end justifies the means long after it's over. My only complain is that it lacked Christian Slater. He played a minor part in this movie and you didn't see him much.

billcr12 Stephen King has provided some very good material for a couple of great movies, Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile being two examples. Dolan's Cadillac is not anywhere near that level, although it is watchable. Tom is a teacher in Las Vegas whose wife, Elizabeth, goes horseback riding in the desert and stumbles upon an execution. She is seen by the killer, a gangster named Jimmy Dolan(Christian Slater), and she rides off as Dolan's fellow criminals shoot at her.Tom and Elizabeth go to the law and are placed in the witness protection program. Liz gets bored sitting around, and runs to their car, which explodes when she attempts to start it. Tom is devastated and vows to get Dolan. He gets a gun and follows the killer, and is discovered and beaten up by the gangsters men.Tom gets a job working on the roads doing construction. He works at night digging a big hole as a trap for the Cadillac. What follows is predictable as the Caddy is detoured by Tom towards the pit. The movie has a Twilight Zone feel to it, which is not surprising, since Stephen King has admitted to being a fan of the Rod Serling anthology show, and Slater is good, so it gets a slight thumbs up.

ajs-10 I admit to being a bit of a fan of the work of Stephen King, as such I am fully aware that there are many adaptations of his work out there that are less than average. Despite this, I live in hope that someday somebody will make a decent fist of one of his stories again. Unfortunately, this one goes on the 'below par' pile… along with too many others I'm afraid. I must say I haven't read the story on which this one is based, but, knowing Mr. King, I'm sure it works perfectly well on the page. More of my thoughts after this brief summary.A schoolteacher, Robinson, is devastated when his wife, Elizabeth, is murdered by crime boss Dolan. She had witnessed several murders committed by Dolan whilst out riding one day and ended up paying the ultimate price. With vengeance on his mind, Robinson gets himself a gun and stakes out Dolan for a long time. Thinking the time is right he prepares to kill him but a hit by a rival gang puts paid to his ambitions and demonstrates that Dolan's car, a tripped out Cadillac is one tough motor vehicle! Eventually a plan forms in Robinson's mind, one which will involve Dolan's Cadillac.There are elements of this film I liked, the fact that Robinson is haunted by visions of his wife after her death was a nice device. Shame they didn't use it to its full potential. There were a couple of moments of humour in there, but not enough to give this film a boost it needed. Performance-wise, Christian Slater did an excellent job as Dolan, he really knows how to 'chew the furniture' when required. Wes Bentley was also pretty good as Robinson and finally, although she didn't have an awful lot to do, Emmanuelle Vaugier did a decent job as Elizabeth.I do enjoy a decent revenge thriller but unfortunately this one is a bit of a let-down. The plot loses a lot of steam very quickly and never really recovers. It's a shame really because this one had some potential, but I can see why it went straight to DVD. Over all, despite a couple of decent performances, this one fails to live up to its potential… NOT recommended.My Score: 4.7/10

rlange-3 I'm not a major King fan although some of his work is clearly brilliant. I didn't read the story here but the basic concept is pretty obvious and it seems quite workable.The problem with the movie was that it dragged and dragged and dragged while beating us endlessly over the head with the fundamental plot points. Slater's character is a bad guy. We get that. It is not necessary that we go through scene after repetitive scene to prove the point. His rival is slowly driven nuts, becoming a sadist in his plans to seek revenge, however justifiable that might be. Unfortunately the acting is not strong enough to carry all this in a way that is entertaining. In fact it becomes downright boring. Do we really need to watch him shoveling dirt, falling over, shoveling more dirt, grabbing at water, pushing around a machine -- this plot line goes on and on and endlessly and pointlessly. Or rather the point is made in the first minute and followed by and endless sequence making the same point. Were they getting paid by the reel inch? I'll bet the short story was good. It's too bad they didn't make a short movie, because it might have been better.