Last Man Standing

Starring: Bruce Willis, Christopher Walken, Alexandra Powers, David Patrick Kelly, Bruce Dern
Directed by: Walter Hill
Rating: R
Genre: Action, Drama
1996

Times Seen:
Tim: 2

Summary: In a dusty Texas town not far from Mexico, two rival factions are pitted against each other in a deadly confrontation. A mysterious man (Bruce Willis) arrives in town and works both sides of the conflict, trying to get some cash out of it for himself.

Review:

Tim: This is a terrible movie. It is the gangster retelling of a Western (A Fistful of Dollars, a little film that launched the spaghetti Western, Clint Eastwood, and Sergio Leone's careers; perhaps you've heard of it), which is a retelling of a samurai film. A copy of a copy is obviously never as good. The film follows the plot of A Fistful of Dollars almost perfectly, but fails around every turn. Violence in the former film played a key role, but it just appears silly and gratuitious int his retelling.

Bruce Willis is decent in the role, but it cannot compare to the classic performance of Eastwood. The narration by Willis is painful and the writing here is downright pitiful. I cringed every time Willis spoke in the narration.

To make matters even worse, the film is boring. There were stretches where the boredom is so mind-numbing that I felt myself drooling uncontrollably because I had lost so much mental capacity. There is far too much killing in the film. There are shootouts every ten minutes and they soon become tiresome.

In A Fistful of Dollars, Eastwood had some redeeming qualities as the film developed. The attempt to paint Willis in the same light is a half-hearted attempt which does not work.

Last Man Standing is a sad, pathetic attempt that is too violent and too silly to matter to anyone.



Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 3



If You Enjoyed This Movie, We Recommend: A Fistful of Dollars