The Last Victim

(2021) The Last Victim SUSPENSE THRILLER

Co-produced, co-written and directed by Naveen A. Chathapuram that has Jake (Ralph Ineson) entering a diner in the middle of the night. He goes in there with two other people waiting for him outside. And only to see a single person, eating by himself we find out his name is Manny Randowski (Tom Stevens). The waitress/ cook of the diner asks Jake what he wants to eat and while she is cooking his food, more babbling occurs and Jake shoots and kill Manny before he kills the lady in the kitchen. Old guy hears this and he comes toward the diner guns a blazing successfully kills one person, injuring the other. Jake succeeds killing him as well. Jake's friend comes in through the door, we find out his name is Snoopy (Paul Belsito). Jake is barking orders to grab the bodies and stick them in the back of their pickup. And upon trying shut the back, he cuts off one of Manny's fingers off. The following morning has the sheriff, Herman Hickey (Ron Pearlman also credited as co- executive producer) notices the finger lying on the ground picks it up before he brings it inside the diner while the other deputy, Mindy Gaboon (Camille Legg) is taking photos. The next scene introduces a young couple of Susan Orden (Ali Larter) and her husband, Richard Orden (Tahmoh Penikett) and are on vacation. We are then introduced to brothers, Bull (Kyle Schmid) and Tad (Dakota Daulby) are practicing shooting at bottles and cans. And as we see what their social life is like, it was during then Jake and Snoopy shows up, and he asks Bull where they can dump the bodies. And Bull suggests them a good place to be is the nature reserve Yay Oola. That also happens to be one of the so called hot spots the couple of Susan and Richard happen to plan to visit. Once they find out it is closed, they decide to drive around the nature reserve anyway. And it is not long before Susan is on the run forcing her to fend for her herself.

This movie would have made a great experimental perhaps as a social commentary project but not as a two hour movie as the movie left viewers with more questions than answers. I mean, I do not mind ambiguity but not that much as this movie have shown, such as why did Jake shot and kill Manny in the first place? Was it about the money or was it about a former girlfriend he had lost to him? And in all places, why shoot and kill him in a diner when their may be other times to kill him. Viewers are obvious the connection of each character considering there isn't a large population. The social commentary occurs at the end but it is like too little too late.

It's such a shame, this had so much potential, especially with the stellar performances. As a neo-noir wester thriller, this was beautifully shot by Naveen A. Chathapuram in his directorial and writing debut.

But the jointly written story by the three writers was a disjointed convoluted mess, riddled with plot holes, and not as smart or as thrilling as it thought it was. It started off with promise, but the last act became so unbelievably dumb and lazy, that it will leave you feeling you wasted your investment is staring to watch it. I'm baffled how all three writers thought this would be an adequate and thrilling story.

Cinematography was excellent, and the score on point. It's too bad the actors wasted their talents on what could have been really great, but instead was a missed opportunity. It's a generous 5/10, all for the cast and cinematography.

I'm not sure what people are griping about. I guess they think they could do a better film. (Bloody doubtful) There's nothing all that wrong with this movie. Some good performances, decent soundtrack, effective atmosphere. I think audiences just look for something to complain about.

It's not gonna win any awards but it's an entertaining watch.

Perlman is solid. Larter is strong. And the "bad guys" seem legitimately and worryingly nefarious.

Admittedly, there' a bit of an interesting interpretive scene the puts a speed bump on the road through the action, but it's short and somewhat logical.

The narrative may raise a few questions of continuity, and I can see a lot of grumbling about the writing. But when people site examples like The Mentalist as counter examples of good writing, you have to question the validity of the criticism. And I actually liked the Mentalist.

Again, this ain't palm d'or quality, but it's more interesting than a CBS formula crime drama.

That is my recommendation to Hollywood. If you try it, I think you will find it is win win. As for the film, the cinematographer was in love with the locale, every shot is perfectly framed. Perlman could not give a bad performance even if he wanted to. Larter, in her 40s, still connects with the audience. The dog is well played. Basically the kind of film where you spend more time thinking about how to improve it than actually enjoying it.

It wasn't a movie you had to watch, but it wasn't bad at all. However, it's a bit boring.

Action was a bit slow. But good movie to watch Friday night. Good job!