Sometimes coming to a film late (either during an actual screening - SOMEWHERE IN TIME is immensely better if you see the first 40 minutes *after* the last hour - or long after it first opens, like my exposure to the 2004 film THE LAST SHOT today) can be an advantage. When you've never heard of a film with stars (ok, mostly TV stars) like Matthew Broderick, Alec Baldwin, Toni Colletti, Tony Shaloub, Calista Flockart and Ray Liotta, you have to figure that it had to be a minor piece - possibly a "straight to TV or DVD" release (seven months after a limited U.S. release, that is exactly what happened to THE LAST SHOT) and standards are appropriately reduced.
Catching it on TV, it was easy to get caught up in the fun of the expert cast giving their all to a borderline farce based on the actual events surrounding the FBI getting involved (without telling the rest of the cast, crew or creative staff) in making a fake movie as a sting to capture a mafia big. The basic idea has potential but given the cast of expert comedians, the film makers concentrate more on the farcical aspects of movie making than the irony of the fake nature of the project.
You can get an idea of the sort of potential they had (bearing in mind the then well known death of actor Vic Morrow under the blades of a falling helicopter) by reading the comment on these boards dated 16 June 2006 entitled "behind the scenes story." For most of the film's length it's easy to become pleasantly engrossed in the amusing character stories - especially Broderick's writer/director and Baldwin's increasingly obsessed FBI agent/producer.
The only let down - and the film makers are even able to give it a surprisingly touching coda - is when Ray Liotta's FBI man tells Baldwin that the goal of the mission has been achieved and the "picture" is being shut down - JUST as they are getting set up to make the first and, as it turns out, last shot of the supposed movie (hence the title). It can't help but be a letdown for the audience which has come to root for the characters to overcome the craziness surrounding them and get the movie made. "Cinematicus Interruptus" ...and yet there is that coda in which the actual writers and directors of THE LAST SHOT give all the characters hope and possible happy endings. Whether this is going to add up to a happy ending for the viewer depends on the viewer, but the journey is very nice.
Catching it on TV, it was easy to get caught up in the fun of the expert cast giving their all to a borderline farce based on the actual events surrounding the FBI getting involved (without telling the rest of the cast, crew or creative staff) in making a fake movie as a sting to capture a mafia big. The basic idea has potential but given the cast of expert comedians, the film makers concentrate more on the farcical aspects of movie making than the irony of the fake nature of the project.
You can get an idea of the sort of potential they had (bearing in mind the then well known death of actor Vic Morrow under the blades of a falling helicopter) by reading the comment on these boards dated 16 June 2006 entitled "behind the scenes story." For most of the film's length it's easy to become pleasantly engrossed in the amusing character stories - especially Broderick's writer/director and Baldwin's increasingly obsessed FBI agent/producer.
The only let down - and the film makers are even able to give it a surprisingly touching coda - is when Ray Liotta's FBI man tells Baldwin that the goal of the mission has been achieved and the "picture" is being shut down - JUST as they are getting set up to make the first and, as it turns out, last shot of the supposed movie (hence the title). It can't help but be a letdown for the audience which has come to root for the characters to overcome the craziness surrounding them and get the movie made. "Cinematicus Interruptus" ...and yet there is that coda in which the actual writers and directors of THE LAST SHOT give all the characters hope and possible happy endings. Whether this is going to add up to a happy ending for the viewer depends on the viewer, but the journey is very nice.