Having lost interest in the works of Stephen King in the 90s, I headed into Dolan's Cadillac with no real expectations considering I hadn't read the short story it was based on and I only knew the basics of the plot. After spending a mostly uneventful 89 minutes with the flick there were two questions nagging at me: 1) is the story better than what's on display here? and 2) since when did King write standard, unimaginative revenge flicks? This is a movie content to just spin its wheels while taking inspiration from Edgar Alan Poe and trying to get an evil mobster performance out of top billed Christian Slater that just wasn't happening.

Young married couple Elizabeth (Emmanuelle Vaugier) and Robinson (Wes Bentley) have been living normal lives spending their time teaching grade school kids and trying their best to have a baby. But that's all about to change when Dolan (Slater) comes into their lives. A cold-blooded killer and smuggler from Las Vegas, Dolan has taken up the human trafficking business bringing in female immigrants from all over the world and selling them to the sex trade industry. One afternoon out in the desert to pick-up a delivery, things go wrong and people are shot - which Elizabeth, who was out on a leisurely horseback ride, just so happens to witness.

Not long after, they come home to the sight of a dead woman with her mouth stitched closed and her finger in a "ssh!" gesture in front of it. It's by far the most effective moment in the flick and from here the plot skirts silly and dull as they end-up in the witness protection program and Elizabeth is blown-up in their car when she decides to sneak out for a pregnancy test in the middle of the night. Obviously, Robinson is devastated and he sets out for revenge on Dolan while the movie spins its wheels in the mid-section before trying to make up for a mediocre first hour with a decently staged finale and its aforementioned nods to Poe.

Dolan's Cadillac falls victim to the same pratfalls a lot of adaptations of King's stories have. I get the feeling there was just not enough material within its source to sustain a feature-length movie and its somewhat obvious due to many scenes of Slater freaking out and doing his dastardly business that come across as padding. Granted, there are a few ideas here I didn't mind such as the fact Robinson keeps having visions of his charred, deceased wife telling him to kill Dolan and there was an incredibly satisfying (and amusing) scene where Bentley gets to do his best Slater impression.

Some of the problems here stem from Slater himself. It's not easy to buy him as a mobster type and all the racist and curse filled rants he's forced to spew as Dolan didn't convince me. That's really too bad as he's had some great performances in his earlier days in such films as Heathers and Pump Up the Volume. Bentley, however, gets better as the film goes on taking a performance that started out pretty stiff and making us begin to enjoy his vengeance - but don't get me wrong, he's no Robert Ginty (The Exterminator), Charles Bronson (Death Wish), or even Kevin Bacon (Death Sentence). The second-billed Vaugier spends most of her time as an illusion and doesn't do a lot more than look cute.

While this isn't even close to being the worst Stephen King adaptation (if I had to name one it would probably be Dreamcatcher) it's nowhere near being the best instead coming across as a passable revenge thriller that has a few okay moments and is made well enough but just isn't anything special. (Chris Hartley, 8/28/10)

Directed By: Jeff Beesley.
Written By: Richard Dooling.

Starring: Christian Slater, Emmanuelle Vaugier, Wes Bentley, Greg Bryk.