Review of The Dead Pool (1988) by Tim H — 30 Jun 2008

Apparently, Sudden Impact, the one I kind of enjoyed, was absolutely terrible. I thought this one was the worst.

This series just kept on trying to go further and further and it had little to say at the end. Maybe I'm reading too much into these films, thinking that the people behind these movies were artists rather than nameless corporate whores, but this movie was just ridiculous. Sure, we got Jim Carrey (now it makes sense how he was cast in In Living Color) and Liam Neeson looking like an 80's era Qui Gon Jinn, but that's about all this film offers.

Here's the really big problem. The other movies, while not mysteries per se, give you the chance to hunt down the killer or sociopath with Harry. This one actually offers the mystery format without the possibility of solving it before Callahan. The answer is something that isn't offered before the movie presents it. Also, there's no emotional payoff because that character isn't introduced until the confrontation. Why do I care that some nameless nobody is killing someone while trying to look like Liam Neeson? With Dirty Harry, the story unfolded with us meeting the Scorpio Killer at the beginning. The mystery really lied with what he was going to do next and how Harry was going to catch him. I think this movie strived to get that kind of feeling, but left out the introduction to the killer, whcih just made the movie dull.

The movie also hinges on a huge gimmick. The Dead Pool (titular concept) is just a list of celebrities who might die in the next year. Now, while I'm not opposed to the idea that someone out there might really be gambling with a real Dead Pool, the odds that multiple people would die off of one person's list is absurd. Not only were we supposed to believe that people woudl be so callous that they would be gambling off of people's deaths, but that multiple people would die is absurd. Even more bizarre is that someone is killing off of this list. I know the idea of putting a name on a list is a creepy idea, but I don't think that this was the best way to use that cliche / idea.

This movie also gets a little into the absurd. The end with Harry is just ridiculous. The running gag throughout the series is that Harry just seems to use an unnecessarily destructive big gun to take out the bad guys. The end (and believe me that I'm not ruining anything A) because it's in the trailer and B) because it's a Dirty Harry film) with the giant harpoon gun was just ridiculous. Also, Harry didn't need to kill that guy. He knew that he was out of bullets. The guy was crazy and everyone knew it. He didn't enjoy killing like Scorpio. He was obsessed with a sh*tty director that slighted him. By the way, this director must have been really sh*tty because that sign on the side of the boat. Was the design team for The Dead Pool just really lazy or were they trying to make a point to how good their scenes were? I don't know.

Finally, I feel like I have to address the reporter aspect of this movie. For some reason, they decided to put Harry in the public spotlight just as an excuse to put him on the Dead Pool list. Now, when was the last time you could recognize a hero cop? The cover of magazines covering a stellar law enforcement agent? Hardly. Never saw it. To have this reporter hound Harry for an exclusive interview just seems ridiculous. Perhaps the meaning could be found in the reporter becoming the story, but I don't think Harry Callahan is the venue to bring up these ideas because the commentary is not that effective in this movie.

It's really kind of a boring action movie. There's little to no substance, but it's got Harry Callahan, so I guess that gives you some entertainment value.