Last Man Standing tells the tale of a gun for hire (Bruce Willis) who is travelling through Texas to get to Mexico, about 50 miles from the Texan border he stops at a ghost town called Jericho which is run by two Irish & Italian feuding Chicago bootlegging gangs. They currently have a truce but tensions are high between them, he checks things out & finds the local Sheriff Ed Galt (Bruce Dern) is bent & he senses he can make some easy money. First he kills a couple of men working for gang leader Doyle (David Patrick Kelly) & is promptly hired by Doyle's rival gang leader Strozzi (Ned Eisenberg), he calls himself 'John Smith' & begins to play the two gangs off each other as he passes information along which will make him lots of money. However Smith becomes too involved & as the situation spirals out of control just about everyone wants him dead...
Written, produced & directed by Walter Hill I thought Last Man Standing was an average & fairly forgettable action/western remake of Yojimbo (1961) & A Fistful of Dollars (1964). The script which takes itself very seriously is alright but it could have used more action, as it is it feels long & drawn out without much happening. You know I'm not really that sure who Last Man Standing is meant to appeal to, it has elements of drama, action, romance, western & thriller without actually settling down & concentrating on one particular genre. It's a bit messy & while it tries to be several things it ends up being nothing in particular. The film features a constant narration by Willis' character which saves the need for a lot of dull exposition heavy dialogue I suppose but it's flatly written as is the whole film really. To be fair to it it's watchable but nothing special, in fact I only saw it a few hours ago & I can barely remember it. I wasn't convinced by some of the plot either, I mean why would these gangs give Willis' character so much information when basically they didn't know him? Why did they trust him so much & fall for every lie hook, line & sinker? The ease with which Willis play the two gangs off each other just seemed far too easy to me.
Director Hill does alright but the few action scenes are very brief & not exciting in the slightest, then there's the pacing problem because it does drag in places & there's not much variety in the plot either. I also didn't like the decision to film everything in a brown/orange sepia tone, everything just looks dusty, dirty & very dull with little detail. To be fair the period recreation is well done & it looks the business but, well, I still didn't like it that much. The violence is tame with little blood, there's some nudity including Willis' bare bum if that's your thing.
With a supposed budget of about $67,000,000 Last Man Standing tanked at the box-office & you can understand why, I'm not really sure who it was meant to appeal to. It's well made for sure with high production values although the annoying brown tone makes things a little muddy & hard to make out. The acting is OK, I really like Bruce Willis & he's made some great films although why he chose to do this is beyond me, luckily he got back on track with his next film The Fifth Element (1997). The great Christopher Walken is wasted in nothing more than a cameo role while Ned Eisenberg has recovered from a homicidal maniac shoving a pair of garden shears into his throat in the classic slasher The Burning (1981).
Last man Standing is an OK time waster, it's nothing special & I can see why it bombed at the box-office. Worth watching if your a Bruce Willis fan but even then you may not be that impressed.
Written, produced & directed by Walter Hill I thought Last Man Standing was an average & fairly forgettable action/western remake of Yojimbo (1961) & A Fistful of Dollars (1964). The script which takes itself very seriously is alright but it could have used more action, as it is it feels long & drawn out without much happening. You know I'm not really that sure who Last Man Standing is meant to appeal to, it has elements of drama, action, romance, western & thriller without actually settling down & concentrating on one particular genre. It's a bit messy & while it tries to be several things it ends up being nothing in particular. The film features a constant narration by Willis' character which saves the need for a lot of dull exposition heavy dialogue I suppose but it's flatly written as is the whole film really. To be fair to it it's watchable but nothing special, in fact I only saw it a few hours ago & I can barely remember it. I wasn't convinced by some of the plot either, I mean why would these gangs give Willis' character so much information when basically they didn't know him? Why did they trust him so much & fall for every lie hook, line & sinker? The ease with which Willis play the two gangs off each other just seemed far too easy to me.
Director Hill does alright but the few action scenes are very brief & not exciting in the slightest, then there's the pacing problem because it does drag in places & there's not much variety in the plot either. I also didn't like the decision to film everything in a brown/orange sepia tone, everything just looks dusty, dirty & very dull with little detail. To be fair the period recreation is well done & it looks the business but, well, I still didn't like it that much. The violence is tame with little blood, there's some nudity including Willis' bare bum if that's your thing.
With a supposed budget of about $67,000,000 Last Man Standing tanked at the box-office & you can understand why, I'm not really sure who it was meant to appeal to. It's well made for sure with high production values although the annoying brown tone makes things a little muddy & hard to make out. The acting is OK, I really like Bruce Willis & he's made some great films although why he chose to do this is beyond me, luckily he got back on track with his next film The Fifth Element (1997). The great Christopher Walken is wasted in nothing more than a cameo role while Ned Eisenberg has recovered from a homicidal maniac shoving a pair of garden shears into his throat in the classic slasher The Burning (1981).
Last man Standing is an OK time waster, it's nothing special & I can see why it bombed at the box-office. Worth watching if your a Bruce Willis fan but even then you may not be that impressed.