Last Man Standing

Jeff Wincott has for me at least, always stood out somewhat from the plethora of movie action stars of the late eighties and nineties such as, Van Damme, Seagal, Grunier, Wilson, Lundgren etc etc. on the very simple account that Wincott is actually a rather good actor when the material allows. Unfortunately, this film doesn't allow Wincott to flex his acting muscles however.....Oh dear I hear you cry. Bad news then? Well luckily, not really, as the action happens to more than make up for it. Yes, here we have a plot and character thin effort which despite said flaws nonetheless balances the scales with sheer entertainment value. It has to be said that the action sequences are very well staged throughout including multiple shootouts, some Michael Bay style freeway chases and of course, capitalising on Wincott's martial arts expertise, a few decent fight scenes to. As B-movies go, this is very much a high end production; Well worth checking out me recommends.

Impressed with other PM movies such as Executive Target, Ring Of Fire 3 and Rage I imported the US DVD release of this when it came out in early May after reading the review on The Unknown Movies Page. For your info, I was in California this summer and noticed this DVD (as well as The Sweeper, another good PM movie) is available for for $5.99 in the under $10 section in every Virgin Megastore. Should you buy it? I recommend you do so, as this is one of the most competent and entertaining all round action movies I've seen.

First things first, it has a relatively simple and easy to follow plot, but one that's not so simple that it insults your intelligence, and one which is kept alive by some excellent pacing and minor twists at just the right places, and is beefed up by some of the best action scenes ever seen on DTV material that you would only find in a PM movie.

The action is by far the movies strongest point. The shootouts and the fight scenes are all professionally handled and very sure of themselves. But what stands out most are some fantastic chase scenes, one on foot and 2 main vehicle chases. All of them have some very daring stunts. The vehicle chases (I say "vehicle", as one of them involves an armored van and a motorcycle), are what really stands out. Merhi and Pepin were by far the the best at doing car chases with tons of smashes, crashes and explosions on a small budget in my opinion. These scenes are very well done, and edited together just as well as many big budget pictures like Ronin for example, using appropriate camera angles and never letting us lose track of the action.

I was also fairly surprised by the performances of the cast, which raised slightly above the usual standard of straight to video material. Johnathan Fuller provides a slimy, racist character who we can't help but dislike, while Steve Eastin plays the tough, corrupt cop in typical fashion. The performances from the lead characters, Jeff Wincott and Jillian McWhirter as his wife also surprised me. The chemistry between the two is very good. McWhirter comes off as a woman who is very much in love with her husband, and displays a surprising amount of believability when she refuses to leave his side while Kurt is in trouble. Wincott doesn't have a huge amount of dialogue, but what he has and in the few scenes where he has to show emotion, he gives it what he can and is no worse than Chow Yun Fat was in The Replacement Killers. The reason I compare them is because of the lack of dialogue Chow got in that movie.

Also interesting is given the fact that Jeff Wincott is a trained martial artist, this does not overdo the martial arts like many B-movies starring martial artists in the lead. Wincott only has a couple of scenes in which he uses them, and these are well executed.

All in all, Joseph Merhi has thrown as many action sequences as possible into 90 minutes while still manage to make a comprehensible, well paced and above all thoroughly entertaining action movie around it. Everything is over the top yes, there are continuity errors yes, but what movies don't have that these days? Picture Michael Bay working on a tenth of the budget, but actually being more fun than that.

Take it for what it is, and it certainly satisfies.

Rating: 8.5/10

Oh, and to user "hardane": "As a matter of fact, it was so bad, it inspired me to write this, my only movie review ever"

A word of advice. Please never write any more "reviews". Ever. Obviously you haven't seen many movies so you've not been exposed to enough cinema to have an informed opinion.

Years ago the word was 'Last Man Standing' was Jeff Wincott's best effort from PM Entertainment. So now that I've seen it, I understand why. First what the company did very well is on full display here. I'm talking good stunt work, multiple fireball explosions and decent car chases. The only downside? Story is an absolute test pattern. Two parts cliche and one part very predictable.

LA Detectives Kurt Bellmore (Wincott) and veteran partner 'Doc' Kane (Jonathan Banks) called to a hotel stumble onto criminal Snake Underwood (Jonathan Fuller) completing his latest deal. When he makes bail easily and some of the evidence disappears, Snake goes onto commit more bank robberies with his crew as Doc gets killed and the picture of dirty cops being involved starts to emerge. As Kurt gets suspended and his bank executive wife Anabella (Jillian McWhirter) gets personally involved.

The faces in the cast certainly earns it some points. Wincott gets to juggle guns and fisticuffs while Fuller goes full ham with the villain. Michael Greene (Eve of Destruction, To Live and Die in LA) plays a police captain while Robert LaSardo and ex-Playboy Playmate Ava Fabian play central heavies. It sucks Banks doesn't have a bigger part or more to do, but he delivers nicely given his small role. McWhirter getting in on the action - firing off guns, taking out baddies, saving her husband - is a nice change of pace from the stock female role (in distress / needing rescue) usually found in these pics.

It's hard to hate on 'Last Man Standing' as a b-movie fan or action junkie because what it does so well partially offset the weak storyline. There's even some gratuitous female nudity here via a trip to a strip club. Too bad the dialog and musical score in addition to the plot are such howlers. If you like 90's dtv cheese, PM or enjoy Jeff Wincott it's still worth a view though.

Jeff Wyncott years ago was a B movie action star and he used to deliver good and funny movies like Martial Law and so many others. In this case, with the classic style so remembered from the eighties (tough hero, threatening situation, duet with someone close, quick and painful punishment for the villains) we have a fast-moving film that offers various situations to delight the viewer. Wyncott should not try too hard with this material which does not have much depth but meets the first and most important premise of cinema: to entertain. It is a good film that can be seen by anyone nostalgic for the time when the heroes were really tough.

Jeff Wincott stars as a cop (Who smokes a lot) who takes on mobsters after the death of his partner (Jonathan Banks) however after becoming the target of said mobsters he decides to show why he will be the last man standing, especially when the man in this equation is martial arts expert Jeff Wincott. Jillian McWirter is Wincott's wife who goes on the lam with our hero. Last Man Standing (No relation to the Walter Hill/Bruce Willis dud) is one of those movies that is akin to playing Grand Theft Auto III (I'm out of date on video games) it comes from the film-making equivalent of "Who cares, if there is a plot, i'm just going to shoot random people!" of course the story is fairly well written, the action quite spectacular and basically it is everything you could want in a low budget action flick. Plus Wincott makes for an interesting hero, in that his unattractive face adds a grittiness that is instantly likable and believable. In fact I may check out The Killing Man next week at my rental shop. Also thank goodness for bargain bin DVDs that give the world fun-dumb actioners for a cheap price.

* * * out of 4-(Good)