The Last Bullet

After a knee injury sidelined me for several weeks, I discovered this fine film. Truly a great movie, Jason Donovan plays a very convincing new soldier to the jungles in the end of WWII. After the deaths of all of his comrades, he becomes embroiled in a fierce life or death struggle with the surviving member of a Japanese outpost. The final scenes bring humanity and seems to more personalize the war than most any other movie I've ever seen. This is a very fine film, don't miss it.

It is a movie that is not shown by TV networks as often as it probably deserves to be especially nowadays when then there are so many conflicts brewing across the globe and "foe" tag often leads to hatred and unjustified murder.

I'd say that here in Europe as well as in the US folks often underestimate australian movie industry which is a misjudgement. Despite the fact that aussies do not make as many movies as Hollywood one cannot deny that australian cinematography is very mature yet really different from both Hollywood and what sometimes is named as the "european" schoool of film-making and that makes it very unique (read - even more interesting).

"The Last Bullet" featuring Jason Donovan and Koji Tamaki in lead roles is just one such example of very interesting, thrilling yet very serious war films, which is in effect a very anti-war movie. I'd note that due to Jason Donovan's pop-singer popularity one may possibly expect something miraculous on his part and some folks were a bit disappointed yet in my opinion what Jason did in this movie is just exactly what he should have done - that movie is not about singing.

Another interesting aspect of that movie is that it is a rare piece of the WW2 episode where Japanese are characters rather then just a "banzai"-shouting mass.

Interesting is that the film director Michael Pattinson is exactly the man who directed the fabulous TV series "The Feds" which is probably the best TV police series ever made.

So, I do not know how you'd be able to see the "Last Bullet" unless it is on your TV station schedule yet if there a chance to do not miss it.

I only watched it because I happened to turn on the TV when it started, but I got caught right away! First, I love sniper-movies. Second, the tense feeling starts the first minute, showing the australian soldiers, young, inexperienced and nervous. The sniper-parts, when the eighteen year old boy duels with the old, cool and ruthless japanese are excellent. You can sense the feel of someone aiming at your neck without being seen, and the rain and mud creates very "nice" surroundings for this all-out war. The end is surprisinging and fills you with a sense of happiness and feeling of overcoming.

Made for TV with excellent production and good acting. Jason Donovan is an actor with some good roles on his repertoire. I like sniper movies and the one-on-one sequence is great. The flashbacks right in the heat of the action does slow the pace down a bit and a little bit of obvious wartime story-telling like the intro with the new recruits in a truck sequence. The ending was a little dramatic but surprisingly feel good. I wish movie-makers would install subtitles for foreign language scenes (in this case, Japanese) automatically instead of having us figure them out. It is obvious that not everyone understands foreign dialog in an English language film yet only DVD versions have the option for subs. On my list of war films to watch.

This film is a low budget TV production and that's how it should be taken. The main reason why it got my attention is the fact that the leading role is played by the Australian singer Jason Donovan. His performance is far from outstanding but it is still pretty acceptable. The action takes place during the last days of WWII in a jungle where Australian soldiers are looking for the last surviving Japanese warriors. It so happens that after an encounter between the enemies only one man both sides survives. The rest of the movie concentrates on the lonely battle of the two soldiers, looking to get rid of the other just to finally have a chance to return home to his family. One different aspect with the film is that there is really no good and bad guy. Both sides are equal, it is just the insanity of war that has put them against themselves. It is just unfortunate that the ending of the film goes a bit on the cheesy side (well frankly even much more than just a bit). So overall a quite ok film, why not watch it if you have a chance. 6/10