Purely Joyful Movie!

Excellent characters with emotional depth. My wife, daughter and granddaughter all enjoyed it...and me, too! Very good movie! You won't be disappointed.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

Although the story's nothing new, this different action outing gets by on looks alone. Shot in sepia, the film brings a dead-end western town to life - along with all of the reptilian crooks and criminals who live in it. Walter Hill perhaps manages too well in recreating his lifeless town, as the whole film is weighted down by an oppressive atmosphere of boredom and depression. Or maybe that's just me… Bruce Willis stars as the down-at-heel hero, playing pretty much his usual early '90s world-weary turn. This is until the film takes a darker turn towards the finale, which sees our hero taking a brutal beating that leaves him half-dead, with only one eye. Thankfully, he's still fit enough to see off the rest of the remaining baddies with his guns that are seemingly filled with never-ending bullets. Willis is supported by a familiar cast, including Bruce Dern as the local Sheriff, William Sanderson as a bartender, and the hissable Christopher Walken as villainous henchman 'Hickey'.So anyway, this is a bleak, pessimistic film which constantly looks like it's about to burst into violent action - that is until Willis' soul-sapping narration pops up once more to drain your life away. The grumbled narration is certainly one thing I could have done without. Thankfully to make up for this miscalculation, we have some kinetic action scenes shot with a fluid energy and about a million bullets - all very impressive. In the end, though, LAST MAN STANDING is simply a passable thriller, that offers up nothing new to this genre.

Last Man Standing is an excellent,explosive and underrated Action-thriller that combines wonderful direction,a fantastic cast,intense Action and a memorable score. All of those elements make Last Man Standing a great Action-Thriller that is Walter Hill and Bruce Willis at their best.Set during the prohibition-era in the 1920s,Last Man Standing tells the story of John Smith(Bruce Willis),a mysterious gunslinger who arrives in the deserted town of Jericho,Texas and gets caught in the middle of an war between Irish and Italian bootlegging gangs from Chicago who are fighting over the control of illegal alcohol. Smith decides to get some money by manipulating both sides and things are going well until things become more out of control leading to violent results.Released in 1996,Last Man Standing is a wonderful and memorable Action-Thriller that was the first and only collaboration between director Walter Hill and actor Bruce Willis. Despite the pairing of Hill and Willis Last Man Standing was a Box Office flop and was panned by movie critics which I think is unfortunate because I think Last Man Standing is one of the better Action movies of the 1990s. Last Man Standing is pure entertainment from start to finish with Walter Hill mixing elements and influences of classic films such as Akira Kurosawa's Yujimbo,Sergio Leone's A Fistful Of Dollars,Dashiell Hammett's novels Red Harvest and The Glass Key while mixing together different film genres such as Action,Gangster movie,Film Noir and the Western film(in a 1920s setting)giving viewers a solid film that for 101 minutes is very over the top and a prime example of Pulp storytelling where everything from the characters,Action or dialog everything is pushed to the limit with tons of thrills and excitement but at the same time the film is intense and brutal. Many critics that panned Last Man Standing accused the film of being depressing and bleak but I think the tone of Last Man Standing is perfect for this movie because while the film is an Action movie the film's atmosphere and tone is in the spirit of Film Noir where the characters and things that happen in the film are dark and cynical and when a film deals with Gangsters,violence and crime nothing is taken lightly and that is one of the things I like about the movie. The photography by Lloyd Ahern is stylish and beautiful using the orange color to great effect and giving the film a haunting and atmospheric look that goes with the dust,dirt and sunlight that's in the film. The character John Smith is great character who is an antihero in the truest sense of the word because Smith is a person with good and bad qualities but still has a code of honor that is true to his nature. Also,Smith is a man of few words and doesn't talk instead his let's his guns the 45 Automatics do the talking for him cause as the old saying goes Actions speak louder than words. And in the classic tradition of Walter Hill's films there is no back story with the character or revealing information because we as the viewer are told about who John Smith is by his Actions in the film that makes John Smith not only morally ambiguous but also leaves viewers with questions about who he is and what his motivations are. The Action scenes in Last Man Standing are fantastic,over the top and right next to The Long Riders,Southern Comfort and Extreme Prejudice some of the most violent Action scenes Walter Hill has ever done because there is a lot of gunfights,bullets and a huge body count that gets higher and higher as you watch the film. The ending of Last Man Standing(the final 15-20 minutes)is amazing and filled with slam bang Action and is a fitting conclusion to the movie. A great ending.The cast is wonderful. Bruce Willis is excellent and at his best as John Smith,with Willis bringing a tough,quiet and cool demeanor to the role. Christopher Walken is brilliant and intense as Hickey,a man with a hoarse voice and is dangerous with the Tommy Gun. Bruce Dern is terrific as Sheriff Ed Galt,a corrupt lawman. William Sanderson is dazzling as Joe Monday,a local bartender. David Patrick Kelly is delightful and over the top as Doyle,a crime boss. Karina Lombard is beautiful and memorable as Felina,a woman held captive by Doyle. Ned Eisenberg is outstanding as Strozzi,a rival of Doyle's. Alexandra Powers is sensational as Lucy,Strozzi's mistress. Michael Imperioli does a wonderful job as Giorgio,Strozzi's cousin and right hand man. R.D Call is memorable as McCool,one of Doyle's men. Ken Jenkins does a fine job as Captain Tom Pickett,another lawman. Ted Markland(Deputy Bob),Lesile Mann(Wanda),Patrick Kilpatrick(Finn)and Luis Contreras(Commandante Ramirez)give good performances as well.The direction by Walter is outstanding and stylish,with Hill bringing a gritty and atmospheric look to the film with great angles while doing an amazing job with the Action scenes. Incredible direction,Hill.The score by Ry Cooder is great,intense and matches the tone and feel of the movie. Fine score,Cooder.In final word,if you love Walter Hill,Bruce Willis,Action Movies or Gangster Films I highly suggest you see Last Man Standing,an excellent,underrated Action-Thriller that is Walter Hill and Bruce Willis at their best. Highly Recommended. 10/10.

A skilled killer rides alone into a town dominated by two gangs of thugs. He double crosses both of them, kills some, provokes the rest into killing each other, and rides off into the sunset.Let's see. When Akira Kurosawa wasn't busying himself with Shakespeare, he was styling his samurai movies, of which "Yojimbo" is an example, on the Westerns of John Ford, whom he greatly admired. Enter Sergio Leone, Clint Eastwood, and "For a Fist Full of Dollars." Now there is "Last Man Standing," with Bruce Willis as the lone gunslinger. That makes this movie an American Western/Gangster imitation of a spaghetti Western imitation of a Japanese samurai movie that's an imitation of an American Western.But changes have been rung. It's now 1931 and the two rival gangs -- one Italian and one Irish -- are holed up in a deserted little Texas town a few miles from he Mexican border, across which they smuggle truck loads of illegal booze with the complicity of the corrupt Mexican police and the help of Bruce Dern, the indifferent sheriff who has no principles whatever but minds his own business.The photographer's palette is drawn from earthy colors. The tawny dust seems constantly in motion and covers everything. Sure, it's overdone. Every scene, indoors or out, seems shot through an adobe filter. But I kind of liked it. This sort of trashy movie calls for excess. The musical score is undistinguished but not irritating.Performances. Best performance award goes to -- envelope, please -- Ken Jenkins as Captain Pickett of the Texas Rangers. It's a brief scene but he's memorable. Willis seems half asleep most of the time. He belts down enough booze to stun a rhinoceros but it never seems to interfere with his gunplay. He carries two .45s in shoulder holsters. When the heavies shoot at him, they miss. Willis doesn't miss. And he doesn't simply shoot an enemy. He perforates him, sometimes with a dozen bullets, so that the body tumbles along the scrubby desert sand like a rolling pin.Willis doesn't seem to be taking the movie very seriously, a credit to his sensibilities. Neither does Christopher Walken as the Tommy-gun toting heavy hitter. Make up has given him a scar down his face, which perhaps has cut some of the feeder circuits innervating the soft parts of his features, because his expression -- his single expression -- seems borrowed from an Olmec statue. He's used a dry, grating voice that's so evil it's ridiculous.In some ways it's an amazingly innovative movie. In 1952, Shane had a hell of a time disposing of three villains in a saloon and was wounded doing it. By "Unforgiven," Clint Eastwood could outdraw and massacre half a dozen bad guys without being hit. Here, two guns blazing, Willis eliminates a gang of about a dozen scum bags. "A massacre," somebody remarks.There are two women in the story but they aren't seen very often, although the role of one of them is very important.You like menace? You like shooting? You like a noir voice over? It's all here.

Walter Hill directed this updated version of "Fistful Of Dollars", which had starred Clint Eastwood as a mysterious gunfighter named Joe, caught between two rival crime families in an old west border town. Here, Bruce Willis plays mysterious gunslinger John Smith, who also gets in the middle of two warring crime families in a small Texas town, though this time it's the Irish and Italians, rather than Americans and Mexicans. Like Joe, John will end up playing both sides against the other, then being caught and beaten, before getting his revenge. Not bad at all really, but so similar to previous film it hardly seems worth the effort.