Last Man Standing (1996)

Overrated and overhyped

I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

Excellent, Without a doubt!!

A different way of telling a story

Although the story's nothing new, this different action outing gets by on looks alone. Shot in sepia, the film brings a dead-end western town to life - along with all of the reptilian crooks and criminals who live in it. Walter Hill perhaps manages too well in recreating his lifeless town, as the whole film is weighted down by an oppressive atmosphere of boredom and depression. Or maybe that's just me… Bruce Willis stars as the down-at-heel hero, playing pretty much his usual early '90s world-weary turn. This is until the film takes a darker turn towards the finale, which sees our hero taking a brutal beating that leaves him half-dead, with only one eye. Thankfully, he's still fit enough to see off the rest of the remaining baddies with his guns that are seemingly filled with never-ending bullets. Willis is supported by a familiar cast, including Bruce Dern as the local Sheriff, William Sanderson as a bartender, and the hissable Christopher Walken as villainous henchman 'Hickey'.So anyway, this is a bleak, pessimistic film which constantly looks like it's about to burst into violent action - that is until Willis' soul-sapping narration pops up once more to drain your life away. The grumbled narration is certainly one thing I could have done without. Thankfully to make up for this miscalculation, we have some kinetic action scenes shot with a fluid energy and about a million bullets - all very impressive. In the end, though, LAST MAN STANDING is simply a passable thriller, that offers up nothing new to this genre.

Last Man Standing (1996): Dir: Walter Hill / Cast: Bruce Willis, Christopher Walken, Bruce Dern, Alexandra Powers, William Sanderson: Mindless exercise in violence and mayhem. Title seems to indicate that everyone thinks with their fists. Bruce Willis arrives in a western town and notices a woman then he encounters a group of hoodlums who state that she is their boss's woman and underline the threat by bashing a window in his car. In response Willis shoots a dozen of them or so. This catches on and soon his services are up for auction. Two gangs run the town and Willis is paid off by both. The results are predictable, repetitious and dull. Director Walter Hill succeeds in painting the western atmosphere but he also creates one of the worst films of the year. Hill is a celebrated filmmaker whose weird and wacky The Warriors has strangely gained cult status. Willis delivers one of his worst performances as this gun slinging moron. Christopher Walken is wasted as a villain whom Willis is suppose to fear. Their showdown lacks the dramatic payoff and suspense generally associated with it. Bruce Dern, William Sanderson and Alexandra Powers are wasted in roles that are beneath them. This is a pathetic piece of trash and an insult to the western genre. It leaves one to wonder which member of the audience will be the last man waking. Score: 1 / 10

The great action director Walter Hill creates another effective male milieu in this stylish American reworking of the story previously told in "Yojimbo" and "A Fistful of Dollars". The film certainly *looks* good, even if it's somewhat limited in its use of colour, and Ry Cooders' music score is typically flavourful and evocative. A low key Bruce Willis leads a dynamic cast of well chosen character actors. Hills' script, which he based on the screenplay for "Yojimbo" written by Akira Kurosawa and Ryuzo Kikushima, is passable; the story here yields adequate entertainment without being particularly memorable.This version is set in a small, small Texas town during the Prohibition era. Willis plays the role of "John Smith", a drifter who arrives in town to discover that there are two warring crime families dominating things. The Italian family is headed by Fredo Strozzi (Ned Eisenberg), the Irish one by Doyle (David Patrick Kelly). Seemingly a man without scruples, Smith figures that he will play both sides of the street in the name of self-interest. Not surprisingly, he finds his way of life ultimately compromised.Willis is okay, but the people in supporting parts fare better. Christopher Walken has fun as a henchman with a pronounced raspy voice. Alexandra Powers does what she can with the most substantial female role in the picture, while Karina Lombard mostly just looks beautiful; Leslie Mann is fine in her brief time on screen. William Sanderson is endearing as bar owner Joe Monday; also appearing are Michael Imperioli, Ken Jenkins, R.D. Call, Ted Markland, Patrick Kilpatrick, Luis Contreras, Raynor Scheine, Tiny Ron, and Lin Shaye."Last Man Standing" is appreciably violent, if not that bloody. However, there's so much gunfire throughout the film that it all becomes a bit numbing. Also, Smith is able to blow so many damn bad guys to kingdom come that it actually comes as something of a relief when he takes his lumps at one point and we see he's human after all. The highlight for this viewer came at a little before the 80 minute mark when the intensity of the action reaches a peak.Fans of the action genre will likely have a pretty good time with this one.Seven out of 10.

International filmmakers have exerted great influence on American movies. When Hollywood runs out of fresh ideas, the major studios often turn to foreign films for inspiration. Sometimes, a filmmaker appears who can adapt a foreign film in such a revolutionary way that audiences sits up and pays attention. "Extreme Prejudice" writer & director Walter Hill manages this ambitious feat in his cinematic version of the 1961 Japanese samurai epic "Yojimbo" by the brilliant director Akira Kurosawa. Incidentally, "Yojimbo" translated means "bodyguard." In the 1950s and 1960s, Kurosawa emerged as one of the few Asian filmmakers who commanded the respect of American audiences. His films grew popular in the West. Moreover, Kurosawa translated profitably in westerns. His films have served as the basis for John Sturges' 1960 classic "The Magnificent Seven," Sergio Leone's landmark Spaghetti western "A Fistful of Dollars" (1964), and now Walter Hill's "Last Man Standing." Hill recycles the venerable Kurosawa tale as a Prohibition Era gangster saga, casting Bruce Willis as a tight-lipped soldier of fortune with two automatics and an attitude. The story contains all the subtlety of a hail of lead delivered at point blank range, and "Last Man Standing" erupts with the fury of an artillery barrage. The setting of Jericho, Texas, exists in a moral vacuum. The gangsters have sent all the good people packing and paid for the law as they have bought most of the women. Women decorate the periphery of "Last Man Standing' in minor roles as hostages, whores, and mistresses. These unhappy females are trapped in Jericho as male playthings and the consequences of defiance carry a high price as one girl learns. When John Smith (Bruce Willis of "Die Hard") wheels his Ford into the dusty, remote town of Jericho, he is searching for a quiet place to lay low before he vanishes into Mexico. What he encounters are two greedy Chicago bootlegging clans competing for supremacy over the illegal whiskey trade. Like Clint Eastwood in "A Fistful of Dollars," Smith smells money galore in "Last Man Standing" so he hires out his pistols to the highest bidders. Smith plays the Italians and the Irish skillfully against each other in a suspenseful game of cat and mouse. When he helps a young woman held hostage by the Irish, Smith finally pays for his interference. The Irish gang, headed by Doyle (Daniel Patrick Kelly), captures and stomps our protagonist until he resembles a bruised tomato. Somehow, Smith endures this horrible beating and gets away. Furiously, Doyle massacres the Italian leader, Strozzi (Ned Eisenberg), and his gang at a roadhouse where the Irish believe Smith has filed for protection. Instead, Smith holes up out of town in a church to recover his strength. Jericho's corrupt sheriff (Bruce Dern of "The Cowboys"), decides to help Smith out by loaning him two guns. Smith takes the hardware and challenges the Irish to a Wild West showdown. As his own scenarist, director Walter Hill has kept most of the original story intact. If you're looking for comparisons, you might find it easier to correlate "Last Man Standing" with "A Fistful of Dollars" rather than "Yojimbo." As the writer, Hill fumbles in making the evil, Tommy-gun toting Hickey (Christopher Walken of "The Anderson Tapes") a henchman rather than the boss, as the corresponding character was in "A Fistful of Dollars." He is the only match bullet-for-bullet with Smith. As Hickey, Christopher Walken adds another despicable villain to his cinematic gallery of rogues, playing second fiddle to Doyle. Hill generates minor suspense when lesser characters refer to Hickey's character and the hellishness that always follows in his wake."Last Man Standing" is a raw, hard-bitten, little, B-move shoot'em-up with A-class pretensions that pays homage to not only Kurosawa but also stylishly imitates the excessive violence from recent Hong Kong crime thrillers. If you want to compare it to one of Bruce's American thrillers, the Tony Scott directed bullet ballet "The Last Boy Scout" (1991) is the best example. Hill the writer doesn't waste time contriving an elaborate plot that hinges on small but crucial details. When characters are not performing tasks on-screen, they are deployed off-screen in plot related activities. This is one who where what the characters do off-screen is of integral importance to what others do on-screen. Compared with Clint Eastwood who played the Man with No Name in "A Fistful of Dollars," Bruce Willis here is the Man With Anybody's Name. As he reveals to the Italians, he is simply John Smith from back East. John Smith is a taciturn fellow. He doesn't make a big deal out of most things unless he finds his expertise challenged. If you're a Willis fan, "Last Man Standing" isn't Bruce as usual. He is neither "Die Hard" Detective John McClane nor is he David Addison from "Moonlighting." He is a man of few words and fewer wisecracks. Smith is an unrepentant hard-case who admits as much without remorse during his opening narration. Here Willis delineates the character of Smith more out of what is left unsaid rather than said.The film amounts to a genre mash-up: a period crime drama crossed with a western. In it, the Old West is a dying dream. The New West, suggests Hill, is being taken over by business suits from back East with hardware. Nevertheless, that Wild West justice might be out of sight but it's not entirely out of mind. Altogether, "Last Man Standing" qualifies as a loud, bloody shoot'em-up that shouldn't disappoint action fans.