The Last Minute

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)

A really weird, unknown and rare film that attacks you out of no where and strikes you to the bottom of the unpredictable downer pit.

Long story short, it is about a guy who is the new and hip guy, until he isnt and falls down to obscurity, including becoming a Junky. As you might already have written a couple of times about this film, there isnt much to read about it out there, it seems to be a semi autobiographical piece of work about its director Stephen Norrington (Blade, Death Machine, League of....), which even though i hope he didnt became an addict, who left directing & directing right after "League of... ", due to having again being traumatised and shattered by the studio system (you can look it up for yourself what went down). The film could and should be seen as a metaphorical dream turned nightmare turned re-awakening. Its themes of Fame, celebrety cult, creativity, ego centrecism, exploitation and much more couldn't be more relevant today, in the age of social media reality tv and talent shows where most of the western and eastern world seems to seek fame and attention like heroin addicts to an absurd extreme. We live in an age of people becoming famous for the sake of it without having any talents whatsoever and others for having video channels with millions of followers without doing anything more than reacting to other videos infront of the camera, people watching other people play video games and so on. The film indirectly predicts that obsession for attention and shows its aftermath that will come someday to whomever seeks that attention for whatever. What surprised me about this film was its sheer nihilistic madness and chaotic nature that until the very end doesnt quite seem to match up, by the end you'll understand and as only a few movies do this flick gets better the more you watch it.

Be warned this film ain't for the faint heart and especially is not for the traditional moviegoer, at times it reminded me of the spontaneous chaotic nature of Godard' s Breathless (make no mistake it is not near as good as Breathless). This film surely deserves more attention and a cult following, not many people have seen or do even know about that film, so i say spread the word for this bizzare and unique experiment called film

It's late, it's extremely humid, every breath is like a drink of city soaked in smog water. I pop the DVD into my player and was transported to a late feast of clever visual effects, smart script lines, and a wicked soundtrack. So wicked that I immediately started to hunt the internet for it.

I was impressed by the very fine acting of Max Beesley, very convincing character transformations throughout the film. Not since discovering Christian Bale did I feel like wanting to see more films from someone.

Even though this movie centered around London's Underground, I felt like this could've been any city...reminding me of it's inhabitants running about half-asleep, forgetting (ignorance is bliss) about existence and valuing life.

The movie made me feel guilty for feeling guilty about wanting to indulge and live a little in life.

I recommend this movie anyone who likes movies that give you that feeling of "there's a message here for me".

to compare this to any guy ritchie film is foolish and plain out bad reviewing. many would simply class it in the same school because it is british, it features "hip" newcomers, and the direction is very flashy and effects rich.....well except for the british part this describes most every film coming out now. the last minute is as far from guy ritchie as one can get. try connecting the dots to david lynch while passing through alex de la iglesia territory and you'll be on the right track. from the insane tap dancing crooner psycho sledge hammer wielding gangster to british literary classics over to the monsters people keep hidden from the world....or should we say gifts? this is a film of many varied and twisting turns which serves up its fair share of bite and bile. one forever feels that around the next corner will be the demon awaiting to devour the souls of the main characters, but lemarchand's box is not quite so literal as it is in a film like hellraiser. the demons that give pleasure and devour your being are much more real and familiar in this world. it is true that the plot balances on the old carpe diem type thing, but unlike every hollywood dungheap to tread this ground in the last 20 years, this film manages to do it with some grace, some originality, and with a large dash of realism amongst the severe surrealism. overall, a very impressive film with intelligence, originalty and style. a fabulous cast tops it off supremely and left me riveted for the entire length of the film and a strong desire to show it to everyone i know.

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.