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Dead Pool, TheClint Eastwood's career was in pretty bad shape in the 1980s. His big budget movies Firefox and City Heat either stiffed at the box office or alienated critics, while his more interesting pictures, such as Tightrope and Honky Tonk Man, were ignored by pretty much everybody. Pale Rider (1985) aside, it was a decidedly lean decade for Eastwood. With so much going badly, he decided to revisit one of his most popular characters, "Dirty" Harry Callahan.
For some people, The Dead Pool is as representative of Eastwood's career nadir as Heartbreak Ridge or Pink Cadillac. This seems rather unfair - sure, the film has its faults but it has a lot more to recommend it than previous Dirty Harry sequels such as The Enforcer (1976), which disastrously teamed Clint with 'Cagney & Lacey' star Tyne Daly, and Magnum Force (1973), where he co-starred with his long-term partner, the wooden Sondra Locke.
The Dead Pool wins out over many of the other films in the series thanks to a fine supporting cast and a generally interesting premise. Using a plot device that probably seemed edgy at the time, director Peter Swan (Neeson) and his friends draw up a list of Hollywood celebrities to bet on which ones will die first. It all seems like harmless, tasteless fun until someone starts bumping off people on the list, nicknamed 'The Dead Pool'. Called in to investigate the matter, Callahan's concern grows when he discovers that he is one of the people on Swan's shortlist.
Directed by Eastwood's stunt coordinator Buddy Van Horn (who also helmed the atrocious Pink Cadillac), it's been argued that The Dead Pool might have been a better film had the leading man taken the reigns - not that his steadying hand would improve the similarly themed but far less successful The Rookie made two years later. If the behind the camera personnel leaves a little to be desired, its hard to find fault with The Dead Pool's cast, with both Neeson and Patricia Clarkson showing off the talent that led to them becoming two of the industry's most valued players. The supporting cast is also of interest for featuring the young Jim Carrey (here billed as James Carrey) whose role as doomed rocker Johnny Squares gives him a chance to perform a decent Axl Rose impression.
And then, of course, there's Eastwood, spitting out great lines like "an opinion is like an asshole - everybody has one" and generally laying the smack down. No, the old boy doesn't have much of a range, and it's hard to imagine him playing Hamlet. But when it comes to taking names and breaking bones, Eastwood is one of the very best in the business.
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