By Damian Fanelli
Clint Eastwood’s final “Dirty Harry” movie—1988’s The Dead Pool—isn’t great. Historically, critics have considered it the least satisfying of Eastwood’s five Dirty Harry films, a list that includes 1983’s Sudden Impact, 1973’s Magnum Force and the one that started it all, 1971’s Dirty Harry.
All the films are about Harry Callahan, a fictional—and very tall—San Francisco detective who’s notorious for being violent and ruthless in his crime-fighting methods. But he got the job done, people. Of course, Callahan was played by Eastwood.
Anyway, The Dead Pool still manages to scrape together several great scenes and noteworthy moments. For example, as you’ll see in the two clips below, the film brings Eastwood together with Guns N’ Roses, which is pretty weird. Things get even weirder, however, when you realize Jim Carrey and Liam Neeson are also in this movie.
“[futureusgalleryEastwood] came up to us on the set, and the guy’s like 9 feet tall,” says Slash in the bottom clip, which features a quick interview about the band’s involvement with the film. “Yeah, he’s very intimidating. He walked up to us and said, ‘Great album,’ shook our hands and walked off. I didn’t really know what to think of it, so I don’t know what his trip is.”
In the top clip, watch a still-unknown Jim Carrey imitate Axl Rose as he lip syncs to Guns N’ Roses’ 1987 hit, “Welcome to the Jungle.” In The Dead Pool’s story line, Carrey’s performance is part of a video that’s being shot by a director played by a not-yet-famous Liam Neeson.
Spoiler alert: Carrey’s character is killed right after the scene described above. This brings us to a funeral scene that features Eastwood, Neeson and the classic Guns N’ Roses lineup. Be sure to watch the middle clip until the very end; it shows Slash firing a harpoon into a window before an eternally disappointed Neeson yells, “Cut, cut, cut!”
P.S.: Although it’s not my favorite Dirty Harry movie, The Dead Pool is still slightly less annoying than 1976’s The Enforcer. The best of the bunch is Magnum Force (Just my opinion, folks). I recommend a Dirty Harry movie marathon!
