NEW Cadillac Man (DVD)

Critics (and I guess most audiences) seem to dislike this movie for looking like one kind of movie and yet turning into another and for not deciding whether it wants to be a comedy or a hostage drama. The beauty of the film the many times I have seen it is that it DOES make one both "laugh and cry," or, if not cry, "laugh and care" as though the characters are worth emoting with a little. Why is that bad? I don't know.

The other major criticism is similar, it is that the film should be either about sly carsalesman in a competition for their jobs or it should be about a hostage crisis and not spend the entire exposition setting us up for a car sales competition. Again, that the movie should pick what it is about more clearly, is the critique. This criticism seems thoroughly not to feel with the movie but impose expectations of formula unfairly on a surprising movie. The movie sets up the audience to empathize with the screwed up priorities of its screwed up protagonist (Robin Williams) only to put those priorities and all of his life in perspective with the insurgance of Tim Robbins' character into the situation.

It is a great movie about rediscovering what is important when there is a gun to one's head. AND a really funny comedy, so it is a movie that works both dramatically and comedically and genuinely turns me from a little sleazed by the beginning to feeling a little warm and gooey inside by the end. If only more films moved in that direction, daring to break with formula and introduce genuine drama while still managing to uplift the spirit by the end in a way that feels genuine, maybe we'd have more than one or two comedies worth watching every year.
Plus, Tim Robbins and Robin Williams are perfect in their roles and there's always the pre-nanny Fran Drescher to get a kick out of.

A movie that is definitely worthwile and deserving of the DVD release that it likely will be unthinkingly and unjustly denied.

Largely unknown and underrated, this film is truly marvelous. It was skewered by critics when it first opened with them calling it "uneven" and "odd." In fact, I hadn't known about it till a friend recommended it to me. When I rented it, I was truly touched. I understood that the film was supposed to be funny, but I can never say I truly laughed. Certainly not because it failed at this, but it is because these "jokes" and "one-liners" are who we are. This film represents the common men of society: hard-working, flawed, and sometimes easily manipulated. It carries out everything about the average joe (like me) so movingly and (oh yes) even powerfully that you don't know what genre this movie belongs in. In my local Blockbuster Video store, it is in the comedy section. In other video rental stores I've been in, it was in drama. Yet this movie belongs in a category of its own: the LIFE category. It is a film about the beauty and downfall of all of us. The cast: Williams, Robbins, and all the gals involved were perfectly cast in their stereotypical roles. It isn't a by-the-numbers cheery little comedy, but it is realistic and, just like in life, shows how we can start out from slapstick and work our way down to being held hostage at gunpoint having our lives on the line.

That's the basic problem. This film can't seem to make up its mind whether it wants to be a comedy or a hostage drama.

The acting is really pretty good -- how can it not be with Robin Williams, Tim Robbins and Fran Drescher? But the audience never knows whether to laugh or cry.

Five stars for creativity and taking a big chance. Unfortunately it doesn't work.