Last Stop for Paul

What an amazingly made movie. If you don't know the story behind the film, here it is. Director Neil Mandt set out with cinematographer Marc Carter and just one camera. They went around the world to different countries filming themselves and other people. Somehow, they managed to use this method to make a great movie. Don't ask me how they accomplished this. Last Stop for Paul is full of great characters, stories and settings. It's pure eye candy. As a film student, I found this movie to be very inspirational. It got me to believe that I might actually be able to make a good film. This is the future of film-making here and it's a beautiful future indeed.

Maybe I was in a really good mood the first time I saw this movie. Maybe the fact that I started the movie half way through (which often works very well) shaded my viewpoint. For whatever reason, I enjoyed this the first time around, even wrote a good IMDb review for it. But having tried to watch it from the beginning yesterday I lasted about 5 minutes or so. Film depicts two shallow American travelers going from international location to location trying to figure the proper resting place for their friend. When they meet other travelers with interesting stories things sometimes break out into a flashback/movie-within-a-movie. There are elements of this that are okay (like Petrone as the babe) but on proper reflection this movie is trashy in its own smarmy way, unnecessarily gross, self-absorbed, and by the way I don't like the staged violent Christian episode, along with the other negatives. Next time you see it pass 'em by.

I saw this title at the video store and was impressed with the number of awards the film had won at small film festivals. I find this film (if I can even call it that) embodies everything to dislike about American travelers. It follows two suits from L.A who go on a two week trip across the world to scatter the ashes of one of their buddies (Paul), they get deals on places because they pretend to be travel writers with Froomers. It seems to me that the way they pitched this idea for the film it is in similar fashion to resorts and airlines in order to get free stay. Anyways, sorry for being no negative. I was just amazed at how much good press this movie received. The acting is horrible, specially Cliff, the scene with the two Jamacian hookers... I don't know what to say. The two main characters are unlikable and even though the one guy claims to be a world traveler he seems that he would be lost at a Walmart. The only decent actor is the dude they meet in the Vietnamese jail. The reason my girlfriend and I kept watching is the one saving grace of the film, the locations, even with the crew's amateur cinematography they manage to capture some of the sceneries' beauty. But the film's finale at the full moon party is just a bunch of American tourists vomiting over the place (read Alex Garland's the Beach). In conclusion do yourself a favor and skip last stop for Paul. It's funny but for the wrong reasons.

This movie is fun and uplifting. For a movie on a limited indie budget it's really well done. Yeah, there are likely to be no Oscar winning performances here, but there were very few times when I didn't believe a line either. The story is a bit meandering and includes a lot of people they meet along the way interjecting their own travel stories, but mostly that only adds to the freshness and authenticity of the film. You can really feel like you're there (or have been somewhere like it) most of the time, running into all these offbeat characters. Well worth seeing if you can take a break from all the Hollywood Blockbusters. Personally, I like smaller films and will look forward to seeing more from the Mandt Brothers.

Granted this was not an academy award-earning movie, but I thought it was great. If you love to travel and crave an experience that's truly unique, you'll love this movie. The funny part is my sister and I used the travel writer bit to get free hotel rooms. In our case, we DID write about our experiences at the hotel. This is one of those movies that will convince us to take a break from our hum-drum lives and enjoy a life-changing experience. It opens your eyes and hearts to cultures out of your comfort zone and gives you a glimpse about people from all works of life. I loved this movie and as I was watching it, I wanted to buy a round the world ticket. Great job!