Last Man Standing

Catherine Bell stars with Anthony Michael Hall and Mekhi Phifer in "Last Man Standing," a 2011 TV movie, also produced by Bell.

Do I need to say it's a Lifetime Movie? It is. It gets points for not being a retread of their stalker movies, wife killer movies, husband killer movies, and two women in love with the same man movies.

In this film, Bell plays a former military secret operative, retired, and now a mom with a little girl and a husband (Hall, totally wasted). Suddenly, her life is turned upside down - one of her partners in the military commits suicide, and shortly afterward, her husband is kidnapped. Bell has to go back into her past skill set and do what the kidnappers want, all the time searching for her husband.

This wasn't great, though it had some good sequences. I figured out who was behind it practically before I knew what she was ordered to do in order to keep her husband from being killed.

The performances were so-so - I frankly don't find Bell that interesting an actress. And one thing I hated was that she and her husband were so nauseatingly lovey-dovey, in order to set the stage that she led this idyllic life.

This film is a tiny bit reminiscent of "The Long Kiss Goodnight," a film starring Geena Davis, which is fantastic and highly recommended. Last Man Standing is just okay, but if you're a fan of "Army Wives'" Bell, you will like it a lot more.

Yes, it was a TV movie, yes, it was sort of predictable. But all in all, it wasn't terrible. It was actually fun to watch. No spoilers here but give it a chance. Also, always fun to watch a movie with Anthony Michael Hall...

First of all the leading lady Catherine Bell was so unbelievable that I had to laugh at this little woman knocking out all the men around her, forcing police cars off the road and generally being a pain in the butt. I was laughing at most of the picture. She looked cross eyed most of the time and definitely not an attractive person to watch on a large screen. Why is this actress working? Then the plot was silly and most of the time just boring to watch. Kept turning to another channel for relief. But wanted to see the ending. I just can't get over all of these large men being attacked by her and she the victor. That made this totally unbelievable. I kept wanting someone to catch her and lock her up. But she keeps getting away with breaking the law. What a waste of Anthony Michael Hall. That's it. Dislike this actress.

I was hoping it might not be from the brief summary I saw, but that's exactly what it turned out to be.

I make it a rule to rarely watch made for TV movies, but like a few others on this site, I'm a bit of a Catherine Bell fan, so I let my guard down for her ... and was duly disappointed. Mind you, she is the best thing going in the movie, but she doesn't have a lot to back her up.

I don't necessarily go out of my way to watch big budget extravaganzas, but the lack of an appropriate budget for this production is pretty telling. From Afghanistan scenes filmed in close-up with just 3 soldiers, to silly looking Keystone Cops car park car chases, Last Man Standing screams cheap. There's virtually no real action till the third act, where the "big reveal", which was glaringly obvious to all and sundry from around 20 minutes in, finally occurs.

As suggested by my heading, the narrative is pretty neatly extrapolated (minus the amnesia) from Renny Harlin's excellent 1996 action movie, which almost 25 years later is still capable of providing a strong adrenaline shot. It also has Geena Davis and Samuel L Jackson gleefully sprouting all those clever one-liners. By contrast I'm afraid Last Man Standing is just deadly dull. A run of the mill script, no exciting set pieces to speak of and a predictable storyline which only stands out, due to a notable lack of tension, no matter how many times Catherine stares at her watch. I gave TLKG 8, so I'm giving LMS a generous 4.

All through this movie, I was hoping the plot would not be quite so obvious. It was.

The acting is wooden.

The clichés numerous.

The 'special effects' terrible.

This movie has few, if any redeeming features.