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84 comments in total

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22 out of 29 people found the following comment useful :-
Loved them all!!!, 4 March 2005
Author: fanaticita from San Francisco

Having just seen Dead Pool, the last of the Dirty Harry series, I have to say that I enjoyed this film as much as the other four. I don't have a favorite, I loved them all. Recently I became interested in Clint Eastwood's films and have seen a number of them including the westerns. Eastwood is an amazing guy. He has presence on the screen that is extraordinary. It's not that he is such a great actor, but I can't take my eyes off of him when he is in a scene. His face conveys such hysterical expression when he comes out with, "Swell!" or "Marvelous!" He's irreverent, gritty, rude, shoots criminals in the back, beats the sh-t out of them, antagonizes everyone, and so what. He gets the job done! I liked everyone in the cast even Patricia Clarkson and her nasal voice. Liam Neeson was great, sounding for all the world exactly like Ralph Fiennes. And the music in all five of the series was terrific -the best! What a treat!

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22 out of 29 people found the following comment useful :-
Dirty Harry still has it, 24 March 2001

Author: smatysia (feldene@comcast.net) from Houston

Dirty Harry still has it. This film has all the mayhem, the violence, the wisecracks, the whole formula. Patricia Clarkson's delicate beauty is a good counterpoint to Eastwood's ruggedness. It was interesting to see actors like Neeson and Carrey paying their dues. When I first saw this film, I didn't realize that the "car chase" scene, running from the toy Corvette, was a spoof of Bullitt, but on viewing this time, I found the homage hilarious. No, this film isn't the equal of "Dirty Harry" but it's not bad at all for a fourth sequel.

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17 out of 21 people found the following comment useful :-
Last ''Dirty Harry'' And A Good One, 25 June 2006

Author: ccthemovieman-1 from Lockport, NY, United States

This was the fifth and last "Dirty Harry" movie with Clint Eastwood playing the hero again, Inspector Harry Callahan, cleaning up the streets of San Francisco from all the scumbag criminals. I've always found "The Dead Pool" to be one of his best in this series.

It's entertaining with pretty taut suspense and always fun to go back and see a young Jim Carrey. It's always cool, too, to watch those little remote-control cars with bombs attached go speeding through the streets underneath automobiles. At an hour-and-a-half, there are no dry spots in this film, either.

The female lead, Patricia Clarkson, is not one of my favorites. Eastwood seems to like those skinny blonds. Evan Kim, playing "Harry's" new partner, "Al Quan," was a likable guy. Even Harry's slightly more low-key in this movie, his language more tame and he gets in a few comedic zingers as well. Carrey plays a totally-despicable drugged-out rock star but he doesn't last long in the film. Carry and Liam Neeson play low-life people and combine to put some sleaze into the story.

Despite the usual less-than-credible action scenes at the end (where the villains miss from point-blank range, etc.), this is still a very entertaining movie and one of my favorites among the "Dirty Harry" films. Clint went out in style with this film.

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16 out of 20 people found the following comment useful :-
Pool Of Dead Critics, 1 May 2006

Author: jldmp1 (jldmp1@aol.com) from United States

This was altogether too simple for the critics back in '88 -- the whole idea was to point the barrel of the joke right back at the criticism.

Whereas the previous Dirty Harry features sat on a platform of utter contempt for bureaucrats and political correctness, here it's expanded to contempt for journalists, and especially the subspecies of 'media critics'. As if they couldn't make it clearer, a 'movie critic' is murdered, and treated as an occurrence of 'death of celebrities by threes'.

Yes, this is explicitly about movie making; the previous four movies suffered from poor supporting casts that only got in the way of the narrative. Here Van Horn deliberately employs good actors to play bad genre roles and thus turns the series on its head.

Along the way, we get a nice comment on "Bullitt", this time deflating the over touted car chase with a gag: an explosives laden model '63 Z06 (instead of a fastback Mustang, to drive home the point).

By this time, the .44 Magnum is treated as a character, with a 'voice' that rolls off the cityscape like thunder...the bad guys run at the mere sight of it. To put the icing on the 'man with the biggest gun' motif, Clint dispatches the villain with an earlier one liner ("you're S.O.L.") and a movie prop harpoon. The elaborate conflation of sexual double entendre, humor and cowboy justice went soaring over many heads. Arnold wishes he was half this funny in "Last Action Hero".

Ah, we miss Harry...but his retirement to Carmel was both serendipitous and necessary. By the end of this, he's killed off every cartoon bad guy left in the movie universe, paving the way for both the dimensional villains of "Die Hard" and its ilk, AND the hosannas bestowed on "Unforgiven".

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15 out of 20 people found the following comment useful :-
Dirty Harry lite, 29 July 2002

Author: Agent10 from Tucson, AZ

While this film was just pure entertainment, at least we got to see Dirty Harry doing what we all wanted to see him do: kick some serious ass. Sure, it seemed a little odd that a 60-year old man would be kicking the buts of guys of half his age, but isn't that what film is for: to escape reality? While this is somewhere in the middle in regards to the series as a whole, one cannot contend with the idea of Harry Callahan being one of the most endearing film characters ever made. A nice send-off to say the least.

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10 out of 12 people found the following comment useful :-
"Enjoyable.", 17 November 2004
Author: jamesraeburn2003 from Poole, Dorset

Tough San Fransisco cop "Dirty" Harry Callahan (Eastwood) is on the trail of a psychopathic killer who is obsessed with the works of British horror film director Peter Swan (Liam Neeson). Swan has developed a macabre but harmless game called "The Dead Pool", in which he drew up a list of local celebrities whom he believed would all die in nasty seemingly accidental ways. These include his harshest film critic Molly Fisher (Ronnie Claire-Edwards), drug addict rockstar Johnny Squares (Jim Carrey) and Inspector Callahan himself. The demented film buff proceeds to murder the people on the list one by one in horrific ways which correspond to Swan's movies. Callahan finds himself not only tracking down this crased psychotic, but also has to contend with various attempts on his life organised by a disgruntled crime boss whom Callahan put away and a new colleague, a Chinese American karate expert called Inspector Al Quan (Evan C Kim).

THE DEAD POOL is Eastwood's fifth and final incarnation as Dirty Harry to date. The series always reworked the seemingly routine premise of Callahan's unorthodox approach to police work, his dislike of workplace politics and his relationships with work colleagues. However, these are essential characteristics to the series no matter how much our film critics moan about them. A bit like how much the same old smutty seaside postcard humour is valuable to the Carry On films. If the filmmakers abandoned them they would lose out at the box office. THE DEAD POOL in itself has all the characteristics of it's predecessors and the action is plentiful and Eastwood is superb as always in one of his most famous roles. One of the best set-pieces involves a car chase through the streets of San Francisco with Callahan and Quan being chased by no other than a radio control car, only this is more than a harmless kid's toy, it's a bomb! The film is also memorable for featuring future stars Liam Neeson (who is excellent as the arrogant filmmaker) and Jim Carrey as the ill-fated rockstar before he went into making those overblown comedies like DUMB AND DUMBER.

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3 out of 3 people found the following comment useful :-
Eastwood's last "Dirty Harry", 15 March 2009

Author: blanche-2 from United States

In the final Dirty Harry movie, Inspector Callahan (Clint Eastwood) is annoyed by his new-found fame, caused by his court testimony against an important mob figure. His next case is a real winner: an obnoxious British director (Liam Neeson) has a "dead pool" on the set of his new horror flick. Each crew member picks ten celebrities they believe will die, and the one with the most dead celebs on their list at the end of the game is the big winner.

Just one problem with this - the people on the director's list start dying at an alarming rate and mysteriously, including his leading man. And guess whose name is on the list as well - yeah, Harry's.

If this isn't enough, a TV reporter (Patricia Clarkson) wants to do a big story on him.

Directed by Buddy van Horn, "The Dead Pool" is a spoof of a sort, killing a movie critic as part of the story (ouch), and the story actually concerns movie-making. It also has a car chase that's a take-off on "Bullitt." The stereotypical characters found in this type of film are played by some excellent actors, and there's plenty of sexual innuendo to go around.

Someone mentioned that Eastwood seems a little old here for Dirty Harry. He seems old for just about every role he plays, frankly, but he keeps playing them. It's always amazing how men are able to do this with no problem, but give the man his due. He's a great presence, and in 1988, his best work as both a director and an actor was yet to come! Very entertaining and well-acted. If you can get the joke, you'll enjoy it all the more.

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5 out of 7 people found the following comment useful :-
The clever idea of a "Dead Pool" is worthy of a better film., 18 January 2006

Author: S.C. Skafte from Nova Scotia, Canada

Dirty Harry was never original enough to support a long series. In matter of fact, it would have worked better as a TV series. "The Dead Pool" is mildly entertaining, but terribly unoriginal. Things go bang, car tires squeal, famous people get murdered, etc, etc.

Clint Eastwood is twice as stoic in the role than previous installments. Buddy Van Horn's direction is uninspired... in fact, the only things that stand out are Lalo Schifrin's score and Jim Carrey's performance.

Average at best, but will entertain Dirty Harry fans.

6.5 out of 10

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4 out of 6 people found the following comment useful :-
the anti action-film film, 30 January 2005

Author: CBwayo (CBwayo@aol.com) from Middletown, CT

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

I read all the reviews of people that absolutely hated it because it was implausible or stupid.. but I think thats the point. This is the perfect ending for the Dirty Harry series because it is all about making fun of the action film genre. First of all, a karate sidekick. The filmmakers aren't that stupid, people. Eastwood said himself that he hates cliché. I think the karate sidekick was used as a joke. I mean cummon, he uses his skills in one scene and then his hospital-ridden like the rest of eastwood's sidekicks. A car chase with a remote control car?? I was laughing my ass off! That was the funniest thing I've ever seen and totally bashed all these movies with stylized car chases that really are just sped-up quick-cutting pieces of trash (e.g. The Rock). The last scene of the movie speaks a lot too. We've all watched the 5 dirty harry movies up to this final scene of the series and Eastwood's gun runs out of bullets in the hands of the enemy?? Cummon, this is the first time its ever run out of bullets. Harry never has to reload because its Hollywood. This final scene is a perfect ending because it brings the audience out of the dirty harry style of movie and back into the standard Hollywood action genre that comes after it. All the conventions that the Dirty Harry series created are finally laid to rest, and the filmmakers are fully aware of everything they are doing.

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1 out of 1 people found the following comment useful :-
Harry's last entry in which is sent to stop vicious murderer killing celebrities, 12 June 2009

Author: ma-cortes from Santander Spain

Rock-hard and taciturn Harry Callahan is called on one again, this time when occur rare death of celebs registered into a black pool .But also the Callahan's name appears on the list. Being the first suspect a terror cinema director(an effective Liam Neeson)filming a picture titled ¨Hotel Satan¨. Two-fisted Harry and his new partner cop(Kim) try to track down a vicious murderous. Harry Callahan strides grimly throughout streets San Francisco in pursuit of the cruel baddie. Then the killer hijacks a TV journalist(Patricia Clarson).Silly and thrilling scenes when the murderer sends a toy-car directed by remote control and strapped to a explosive onto the streets of San Francisco pursuing the couple cops. Whatever your reservations about Harry's expeditious methods we know he'll always vanquish , shooting in cold blood with his Magnum 44 pistol( in fact, as is titled the second entry, Magnum force) and abusing on civil rights.

Fifth and last entry in Harry's series is less gripping and inferior its predecessors. Tension, action packed,crisped edition, suspenseful,thrills abound in this exciting outing . Although there are lots of action and entertainment this time doesn't feature Callahan's classic lines such as ¨Do you feel lucky¨(on Dirty Harry) or ¨Go ahead make my day¨(on Sudden impact), however he also says some original phrases.Jim Carrey does a brief and sympathetic apparition as a rock star. Usual musical score by Lalo Schifrin with a lousy soundtrack on the main titles composed by synthesizer. Good cinematography by Jack N. Green, Eastwood's habitual. The motion picture is regularly directed by Buddy van Horn who made with Eastwood some films. Rating : 5,5. Acceptable and passable.

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