Film
Movie theaters, reviews and showtimes in Chicago, plus articles, trailers and more
- Home
- Box Office
- Listings
- Trailers
- Features
Bookmark this page- Edition:
The Dead Pool (1988)
Director: Buddy Van Horn
Movie review
From Time Out Film Guide
Dirty Harry part five ain't much cop. True, the morgues and breakers' yards are filled to brimming, but the sight of Lt Callahan (Eastwood) and new partner Lt Quan (Kim) trying to look scared as they are chased through San Francisco by a 6-inch remote-controlled model car quickly un-suspends disbelief. Down in Chinatown there are murderous thugs flying through windows into his lap; worse, now that he's hit the headlines and has go-getter newscaster Samantha Walker (Clarkson) on his back, Harry fears he may become a victim in a series of psychopathic murders of local celebrities. So many ethical debates later, a prolonged burst of Uzi machine-gun fire forces Walker into his arms and his way of thinking; and the anonymously sent hit-list - the eponymous dead pool - is traced to sicko horror film director Peter Swan (Neeson). Eastwood still manages to run about almost energetically, and there are occasional flashes of the old laconic wit; but the direction is woefully loose, and can't marry the parody with the thrills.Author: WH
Cast & crew
Director: Buddy Van Horn
Producer: David Valdes
Cast: Clint Eastwood, Patricia Clarkson, Liam Neeson, Evan C Kim, David Hunt, Michael Currie, Michael Goodwin full cast
Genre(s): Thrillers
Duration: 91 mins
Most popular on this site
Features
Gray's anatomy
James Gray wants to push buttons—again.
The next big thing?
Gigantic Releasing tries to rethink indie distribution…without movie theaters.
Red Diva: Lyubov Orlova, First Lady of Soviet Cinema
So you think you can dance, comrade?
Puppet master
Coraline director Henry Selick takes stop-motion animation into 3-D.
Socratic method
Laurent Cantet's approach on the set matches the message of his film.
Wander woman
Kelly Reichardt's Wendy and Lucy puts a Bush-era spin on the road movie.
Oscars
Read our interviews with the nominees, our reviews of the nominated films and more.
What do you think?
Post your review now