The Dead Pool is a 1988 American action-thriller film directed by Buddy Van Horn, written by Steve Sharon, and starring Clint Eastwood as Inspector "Dirty" Harry Callahan.
The story concerns the manipulation of a dead pool game by a serial killer, whose efforts are confronted by the hardened detective Callahan.
Like those films, The Dead Pool is notable for coining catchphrases uttered by Clint Eastwood's gun-wielding character, one of which is: "Opinions are like assholes; everybody has one".
The pair investigate the fatal heroin overdose of rock singer Johnny Squares, found in his trailer during filming of a music video directed by Peter Swan at the Port of San Francisco.
After Callahan destroys a television station's camera, he must cooperate with reporter Samantha Walker to avoid a lawsuit; if he agrees to a profile of his controversial career, the suit will be dropped.
Yet after they survive another attack by Janero's men, the incident and her own unwillingness to be the subject of news coverage cause Walker to reconsider the dangers police officers face in juxtaposition with the public's right to know.
An attention-seeker named Gus Wheeler, falsely claiming responsibility for the murders, douses himself in gasoline and threatens to light himself on fire in front of a large crowd.
The police discover at Rook's apartment torn posters of Swan's films, large quantities of explosives, and Walker's name replacing Callahan's on the dead pool list.
They also appear during filming of a "nightmare scene" at the docks, where guitarist Slash fires a harpoon gun through a window and is berated by Swan.
Needing the best R/C car driver to control the RC10 action, Van Horn hired the 1985 IFMAR 1:10 Electric Off-Road World Champion Jay Halsey.
The necessity of closing down various continuously busy city streets meant that the sequences tend to jump from district to district, much as the similar scenes did in the McQueen film, making for a number of continuity errors that are easily overlooked during the fast-paced scenes, just as the motorcycle chase-scenes in the second Dirty Harry film (Magnum Force) jumped around but are seldom mentioned.
Its critics' consensus reads: "While it offers its fair share of violent thrills and tough wit, The Dead Pool ends the Dirty Harry series on an uninspired note.
[11] Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film three-and-a-half stars out of four and wrote that it was "as good as the original Dirty Harry," praising it as "smart, quick, and made with real wit".
[12] Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune also awarded three-and-a-half stars out of four and called it "the second best of the series, beaten only by the 1971 original", explaining that "where the previous sequels have been mostly dour gun blasts, The Dead Pool is a thriller with wit and humour and tension.
"[13] Vincent Canby of The New York Times wrote that the film "possesses a couple of good jokes, but nothing can disguise the fact that it's a mini-movie in the company of a mythic figure".
"[15][16] Michael Wilmington of the Los Angeles Times wrote, "Along with the 1976 {entry} The Enforcer, The Dead Pool is among the weakest of the entire 'Dirty Harry' series.