LAST MAN' MISSES CLASSIC PREDECESSORS' MARK.Byline: Bob Strauss Daily News Film Critic You've got to give an artist his own approach, so it would be unfair to insist that Walter Hill be absolutely faithful to the samurai classic ``Yojimbo'' in his Prohibition era-set remake, ``Last Man Standing.'' After all, Sergio Leone made a few adjustments to Akira Kurosawa's brutal/comic masterpiece when he turned it into the western ``A Fistful fist·ful n. pl. fist·fuls The amount that a fist can hold. Noun 1. fistful - the quantity that can be held in the hand handful containerful - the quantity that a container will hold of Dollars'' - and made a classic of his own, while inventing both spaghetti westerns and Clint Eastwood in the process. Still, there are a few basics to this saga that simply have to be observed, or else the whole thing falls apart. Hill, the talented but wayward writer-director of ``48 HRS.,'' ``Southern Comfort'' and many questionable tough-guy efforts, messes with those fundamentals and demolishes the most reliable story in action movie history. We know ``Last Man'' is on the wrong track almost immediately as we hear Bruce Willis Walter Bruce Willis (born March 19, 1955) is an American actor and singer. He came to fame in the late 1980s and has since retained a career as both a Hollywood leading man and a supporting actor, in particular for his role as John McClane in the Die Hard series. voicing ironic-moralistic-macho poetry while his character drives a lone jalopy down a Texas desert road. Now, would Eastwood's Man With No Name let the audience know what he's thinking? Would Toshiro Mifune's renegade swordsman? Of course not. This professional killer's greatest weapon (and charm) is not his remarkable facility with blades or guns, but the way he guards his feelings and intentions as he plays warring criminal gangs against each other. Whatever dangerous decency he possesses is strategically camouflaged by mercenary greed and cruel humor. So, not only does Willis' narration undercut the movie's suspense, it's so banal it makes this coolest of calculators sound like a dolt. Anyway, calling himself John Smith, our gunman motors into the dusty border town of Jericho. Two Chicago mobs - one Irish, one Italian - have sent in rival factions, the better to control the booze-smuggling route from Mexico. It's a place where the undertaker's always busy, most of the decent folks have fled or are dead, and the utterly corrupt sheriff (Bruce Dern Bruce MacLeish Dern (born June 4, 1936) is an Academy Award-nominated American screen actor. Dern is the father of actress Laura Dern and was formerly married to actress Diane Ladd. , having fun) advises bullied newcomers to get their own firearms. Anyway, after one bunch of thugs wrecks his car, Smith blows away one of its lieutenants. The other gang, naturally, hires him, but then the boss of the first group (David Patrick Kelly For other uses, see Patrick and Kelly. Patrick Kelly may refer to the following people:
Anyway, Smith's sympathy for an enslaved Enslaved may refer to:
Early life Lombard's mother, Nupuree Lightfoot, was an immigrant of Lakota Sioux ethnicity living in Tahiti. Her father, Henry Lombard, was a European aristocrat. ) finally does get him in trouble. But by then we don't care
"Don't Care" is a 1994 (see 1994 in music) single by American death metal band Obituary. what happens to him or any other moving target in this cinematic shooting gallery shooting gallery Substance abuse A place–eg, an abandoned building in an economically-depressed urban area–ie, a ghetto, where IV drug users congregate, purchase, inject–'shoot' heroin, cocaine, oxycodone or other drug. . Willis brings little more than a good head for fedoras to the role. His lack of humor, swaggering energy or even laconic la·con·ic adj. Using or marked by the use of few words; terse or concise. See Synonyms at silent. [Latin Lac Eastwoodian menace can't help but compare negatively with the earlier movie incarnations. And when the violence - which ``Last Man'' possesses enough of to fill about 10 ``Yojimbos'' - erupts, we never quite get the feeling that Willis is portraying a master of his deadly craft. Like most modern action-movie heroes, Smith mows down platoons of well-armed opponents with two constantly blazing pistols. It's ludicrous, and a long way from the expertise and tactical ingenuity the earlier movies detailed. As ever, Hill and his favorite latter-day cinematographer, Lloyd Ahern, film ``Last Man's'' numerous bloodbaths like bullet-riddled ballets. No working director, not even John Woo For other uses, see . John Woo Yu-Sen (Chinese: 吳宇森; Pinyin: Wú Yǔsēn , shoots mayhem so beautifully without sacrificing an iota of shock. Unfortunately, Hill relies on shocking violence so much in ``Last Man Standing'' - at the expense of character, real intrigue and narrative tension - that we quickly grow numb to the spectacle. Not an easy thing to stand. Or even sit through. The facts The film: ``Last Man Standing'' (R; violence, language, sex, nudity). The stars: Bruce Willis, Christopher Walken, Alexandra Powers, David Patrick Kelly, William Sanderson William Sanderson is an American character actor (born January 10, 1948 in Memphis, Tennessee, U.S.). He portrayed "Larry" in the American TV show Newhart from 1982 to 1990, famous for the catch phrase, "Hi, I'm Larry. , Karina Lombard, Bruce Dern. Behind the scenes: Written and directed by Walter Hill, based on the story ``Yojimbo'' by Ryuzo Kikushima and Akira Kurosawa Noun 1. Akira Kurosawa - Japanese filmmaker noted for blending Japanese folklore with western styles of acting (1910-1998) Kurosawa . Produced by Hill and Arthur Sarkissian. Released by New Line Cinema. Running time: One hour, 41 minutes. Playing: Citywide. Our rating: Two stars CAPTION(S): Photo Photo: Bruce Willis stars as gun-for-hire John Smith in ``L ast Man Standing.'' |
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