The Last Stop

This movie was a real treat for me. Rose McGowan is my favourite actress of all time. She plays a great part in this movie as Nancy. Adam Beach also plays a good part here. The movie focuses on the dead of winter. It is freezing cold outside and everyone is becoming agressive. It doesn't help that their is a lunatic going about killing people. I reccomend this movie to anyone who likes suspence and light horror.

I also saw The Last Stop at the Moving Pictures Film Festival in Prince George. I have to confess, the only reason I went to see it is because I am a huge Callum Keith Rennie fan. And he didn't let me down. He gave a good performance of a rather unsympathetic character and provided about the only comic relief in the whole movie.

The movie itself is the usual 'lots of bad people trapped in a snow storm together' storyline, but it did have a couple of twists that kept me guessing. The characterizations were strong and the whole cast performed fairly well. The only problems I had with the cast was Rose McGowan. She was so cold throughout the movie that we didn't get any idea of her character's personality or motivations. Other than her and a few small problems with continuity, this was a well-written, well acted thriller.

After a snowstorm, the roads are blocked and the highway patrolman Jason (Adam Beach) comes to the diner of his friend Fritz (Jurgen Prochnow) and advises his clients that they will only be able to follow their trips on the next day. Among the weird strangers, Jason meets his former sweetheart Nancy (Rose McGowan), who has just left her husband in Los Angeles. Along the night, without any communication with his base, Jason faces distressful and suspicious situations with the clients, and finds some corpses, indicating that among them there is a killer.

"The Last Stop" could be an average thriller, but the screenplay is simply awful. Most of the characters are despicable persons and the motives of the surprising serial killer are never disclosed, and the viewers have no further explanation why the killer decided to kill the guests. My vote is four.

Title (Brazil): "Encurralados" ("Trapped")

This movie is neither very good nor very bad. It's good value for an undemanding evening's viewing from your nearest rental shop, but not the kind of thing you're likely to watch twice. It was a pity that the characters walked around in the snowstorm without adequate clothing, and with only the odd puff on the hands to show they were cold but maybe they breed them tough in that neck of the woods. The idea was a good one; a disparate collection of people trapped in a motel called 'The Last Stop' and slowly realising there is/are a crook(s) among them. As the snow falls heavily so the body count rises, but unfortunately I worked out early on whodunnit and was right, which annoyed me. I enjoyed it, but I think I was feeling lazy that night. With a little more effort, this could have been a much better film than it was, and I'd lay the blame for that right at the director's door. The actors all performed very competently.

This isn't a perfect film, nor a great film. But it's completely entertaining nevertheless.

"The Last Stop" has some mystery, some interesting characters, some good acting, some growling white wolves, and a huge amount of snow.

The same night I saw this movie, I watched "The Skulls," a big studio production. "The Last Stop" was far more suspenseful.

Rent it!