Jim Carrey’s rendition of a drug riddled rock star with a chip on his block seems to be helping the long-term life of Clint Eastwood’s The Dead Pool.
Clint Eastwood first made a name for himself through the long-running CBS series Rawhide as supporting character Rowdy Yates. While not many particularly remember that role these days, his casting as a hardened and mysterious gunman in the spaghetti western trilogy known as Fistful of Dollars (and the coinciding trilogy) seems to have a much better legacy among movie enthusiasts.
The prolific actor then made his iconic claim as police inspector Harry Callahan in 1971’s Dirty Harry. Despite the controversy that the film created about law enforcement and police brutality (which included a protest right outside the 44th Academy Awards), the Warner Brothers movie was an instant success that garnered many positive reviews from critics. Not only creating epic quotes that are referenced today in all genres of media, Clint Eastwood’s police film also spawned four sequels that ran for almost twenty years.
With Magnum Force, The Enforcer, and Sudden Impact all greatly succeeding, a fifth film with the well-known detective arrived in theaters five years later called The Dead Pool. Once again, Clint Eastwood returned to the franchise — giving a hard time to all of those who brought harm to the great city of San Francisco. Of course, there were innocent victims that spurred Callahan to take action against these perps in the first place, like the female swimmer in the opening scene of the original or the two company men who were lured to their demise by a nefarious organization in the third entry. Surprisingly, this cannon fodder casting went to a whole other level in The Dead Pool when none other than an early Jim Carrey stepped into the part of rock star Johnny Squares.
Jim Carrey’s Johnny Squares Is The First To Go
The 1988 neo-noir action thriller revolved around a specific list of celebrity names who were speculated to die within the next year, by any cause. Squares — dressed in all-black garb and filming a horror movie called Hotel Satan — just happened to be on this list. Carrey has a grand introduction in The Dead Pool where we see him acting out a scene in which he is lip-syncing to Welcome To The Jungle by Guns N’ Roses.
This 90-second musical sequence is not only amusingly bewildering but also immediately contrasting to the more serious tone taking place throughout the actual film. Once filming ends and Carrey frustratingly talks to the director, Peter Swan (who is played by Liam Neeson in his first action film role), it is revealed that Squares is a drug user and the two have a confrontational moment about these bad habits. As for acting, Carrey not only grabs these moments and makes the most of them, but also plays it straight as he can by dropping the comedy shtick he is most known for.
Quickly, the life of the ill-fated character goes from bad to worse, as when Squares goes back to his trailer to engage in some drug-related activities, an off-screen assailant quickly forces pills down the rock star’s throat. Carrey’s depiction of a drug overdose is just about overdone but still stays within the lines of dramatic acting. He trashes back and forth and jerks his body as though he has been shot, but does it in such a way that you believe he’s fighting something that is going on inside his body. Admittedly, this is quite an amazing scene, given the fact that this was Carrey’s first foray into drama.
A Great Role in a Not-so-Great Movie
As the movie goes on, Callahan, along with his new partner Al Quan (Evan C. Kim), naturally takes the reins back as they uncover who is behind these predetermined killings. Between the fact that a mini-RC car rigged with explosives seems to be the main villain’s weapon of choice in what plays out to be almost comedic, stretched-out sequences (he uses this toy to chase normal-sized cars) and that the mid-movie action sequence doesn’t have anything to do with the overarching story, maybe there is legitimate warrant as to why The Dead Pool doesn’t satisfy fans of the franchise. But even with the script being quite shoddy, Carrey does bring out his all in the short time that he has on screen. His portrayal of a rock star’s immediate fall from grace easily competes with Eastwood, who is seen to have declining enthusiasm for the role.
With that said, this movie would help novice actors shine, like Carrey’s Johnny Square and Neeson’s Peter Swan. With over 40 years in the entertainment industry, Jim Carrey’s time in drama-related works is few and far between, but revised versions of Carrey’s psychological display can be found in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and, to a lesser degree, The Truman Show. The rock star who had to face his demons, both figuratively and literally, paved the way for deeper characters who also came across untimely revelations. As time would tell though, Carrey’s conviction of Johnny Squares would only be remembered in Hollywood history as much as The Dead Pool would overall succeed at the box office and, well, that didn’t go far.