The Last Minute

outside of seeing this as auto-biographical for Norrington I can see it deals with his traumatic experiences with Blade. Then it got worse. On LXG. OK, Last Minute is not The Divine Comedy and it's flawed, but wow, what a trip !!! and sure it's personal, though i got turned off a bit by the whole techno approach.. One of the best scenes in a film I've seen in the last years is Jason Issacs doing his "I got you under my skin". It's an update of Malcolm Mc Doewll doing his "Singin' in the Rain" in Clockwork Orange. Or it's not. Then later Norrington pushes further repeating it with "when a man loves a woman". Anyway, as Gene Kelly was shocked, Frank must be spinning in his grave. Or he might get the sick fun. And I am not sure Dickens would have liked the Oliver Twist bit... As for this being put in the same category with Trainspotting, Clockwork Orange and Fight Club, I can't see why people are bother, try to describe a film using normal words. Coke, acid, Ecstasy gone bad or just anger and frustration puked out ?

all fueled out and hyper-pumped out, ah, and poetry finally... ///// as for latest rumors that Norrington quit making movies, hey Steve, don't get mad, get even ! ah, and one more thing-just don't get confused about Udo Kier's performance, it's a great cameo but just a cameo, same with Stephen Dorff.

The Last Minute is one of those truly rare motion pictures that deserves far wider recognition than it will ever get. How unfortunate. I'd never heard of the thing until recently stumbling across quite by accident. A virtual eye popping, roller coaster of a flick, it starts with a bang and never lets its hooks out of you. Visually, The Last Minute is as impressive a looking picture as I've ever seen.

The DVD extras are (mostly) exceptional adding to the whole experience as few extras features ever do. As darkly hilarious as it is, this "Minute" also packs quite an emotional punch. Kudo's to Mr. Norrington.

One caveat: Director Norrington wisely employs a terrific device by which we never know what our protagonist does to earn then lose his fame (director and star are on record as being at odds as to what Billy actually does). Were only that same thing had been employed on one scene. When Billy is told he doesn't want to know what's behind a certain, we shouldn't find that out either. Personally, I laughed (in horror, but laughed) at this scene but I know others who were put off of the movie altogether because of these few seconds.

Every other aspect of the truly most bizarre club "Prosthetic" is genius (as, actually is the moment in question, just too off-putting for most people). It is in this long scene at "Prosthetic" where perhaps the films most brilliant moment occurs – which is, of course, Percy "Sledge" breaking into the Sinatra classic "I've got you under my skin" while wreaking a gleeful malevolent stream of violence that is about as close to movie magic as we've ever seen.

Norrington has a cast that, quite simply, could not have been improved upon with Max Beesley giving a stand out performance as Billy – to watch the youthful energy of his clubby dance moves and the enthusiasm with which he embraces his burgeoning fame slip into confused despair, hopelessness and attempt at self redemption. Beesley has us routing for him even at his worst, for I think most of us can identify with Max's plight.

As the aforementioned Percy "Sledge" – Jason Isaacs is nothing short of terrifying, executing his violence with a Fred Astaire like grace and precision which is utterly disarming.

The Oliver Twist twist of the underground urchins with their modern day, more violent, Fagin (who doles out drug treats to the kiddies) is chillingly beautiful.

I also found the extended mad scene similar resonating strongly with Shakespeare's Lear – Max's meltdown/unhinging being so closely tied with what is happening in nature. Brilliant.

If "Minute" had been released theatrically stateside, I can't imagine it wouldn't do huge box office. There are audiences literally screaming for this type of originality. Hopefully, it's not too late to try. The seconds are ticking . . .

The Last Minute had the potential become something great. The synopsis of the film cited other titles such as "Fight Club" and "Trainspotting" yet I failed to make a connection. Yes, the main character is an overnight success. Yes, he wakes up and it's all gone. And yes, he falls into a life of crime and drugs all the while wanting to return to his cozy life as a star. So where does the Fight Club come in? The only thing I found to even be remotely like Fight Club was the main menu on the DVD. I could see a slight Trainspotting influence with the heroin but just because a movie has heroin doesn't make it a Trainspotting-esque movie. If they had let the movie stand on it's own instead of trying to cite all those past hit movies like "Bruises you like Fight Club", "Injects you like Trainspotting" etc. What is that? It's almost as if the director wanted you to compare his movie to those. And sorry mate, those are the future cinematic classics of our time. Anybody would be a fool to plaster all over their own movie that it's like Snatch and Lock,Stock and Resovoir Dogs etc. Those movies have huge cult followings so even if The Last Minute was a decent movie, the fact that the director was so hell-bent on drawing the Tarantino/Ritchie/Lynch crowd he in reality just drew a crowd of critics. I'm ranting now. As you can see, I didn't like this movie. No, I really didn't go into why, but that's only because it had so much potential. My review would better resemble a "woulda, coulda, shoulda". Bad movie.

Billy Byrne (Max Beesley, who bears a passing resemblance to Mark Wahlberg) is the proverbial new kid on the block. Thanks to the game of hype he's IT for the top being. However when his first work bombs horridly both critically as well as commercially, he has to figure a way to get back on top even as he sinks lower and lower into the metaphysical goo. Stephen directed 2 movies before this one and wrote one of those. A bit early for a semi (very) self-autobiographical introspective work one would think.It strikes me that perhaps he thought of him brilliant when he was writing this. A bit over inflated ego perhaps. He seeks to shock the audience by subjecting us to a barrage of images and keeping the film moving at a lightning quick pace (aside from a few slow spots) It might have been enough to get by 20 years ago, but to today's much more jaded viewers it doesn't resonate nearly as much. Not to say the film is a total loss as Beesley provides a pretty good, if not especially engaging, performance and I was rarely bored with it. It's just not that memorable. For a film that argues you shouldn't waste even a second of life, why would one choose to kiss 120 minutes away on this?

My Grade: C-

DVD Extras: Director's commentary; Max Beesley commentary; Producing of TLM, Style of TLM, Character Tree video; Cast and Crew Bios; Crafting Prosthesis; SN Connection; What Billy does; 3 music videos that did nothing for me; 4 faux TV show snippets; Production Notes; a game to determine how many weeks you have left until your 90th birthday and you get short clips of interviews or behind the scene footage (I had to F'n clue how to work this); Theatrical Trailer; Trailers for "Sex and Lucia", "The Believer", and "Scratch" (Honestly there may be a bit more but the extras menu is akin to the one found on the bonus disc of the "Nightmare on Elm Street" collection in as far as how you have to navigate through it)

The atypical gritty Guy Ritchie British school of modern film class has reared a muddled mess of a movie. With a grandiose, meaning of life premise, the somewhat shallow and undefined plot leaves little room for depth of any real substance. Between the drawn-out stylistic vignettes and the over-abundance of effects, the film falls flat on it's fashionable face. A lower rating would have been in order had it not been for some humorous and entertaining moments, where levity and brevity are welcome friends and make the almost unbearable bearable. Overall, it's a mildly entertaining bit of mindless madness with a side order of "seize the day." Not worth a trip to the theater, but might do in a pinch at your local video store.