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.
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.