Last Man Running (2003) User Reviews

Documentary? Drama?

[jstu9 · 8/10 · 5 April 2004]

I saw this film at the Phoenix Film Festival but unfortunately I was watching another movie right before it and missed the first couple minutes of the movie, and also any comments the director made before it began.

So, I saw this movie as documentary. It was filmed like a documentary, it was shot like a documentary, and the people seemed completely real. Only afterwards during the Q & A did I realize that this was a drama, or maybe a mock documentary. It appears that the lead actors were... well actors playing a role. Though, of course, most of it was drawn from within. But there was an outline of a story beforehand.

This film was just interesting. I think about half way through the movie was when I realized how good this film was. The lead (Rick Gomez) did a great job.

In truth, I still don't know exactly was *real* and what wasn't. For example, I two leads (Rick and Jenny) did get married though I presume that the melodrama in the movie was not real. I think. I'm not even sure. Amy Redford (Robert's daughter) did a really good job as the "fixer" of other girl's boyfriends and hence, I assume all of that was story. But it was interesting because these actors would interact with non-actors while they were in character.

All in all, a very interesting film.

Fun New Genre...

[babaiardi · 9/10 · 18 June 2003]

Reality movies..?? This one's a wackly slipping back and forth between a documentary look at the demolition derby world and a plot featuring a

groom-to-be's last escape into a dream world- or is it reality?

A few good laughs and crash-boom-ba. Fun Summer escape.

The system missed the boat on this one

[loch-7 · 10/10 · 5 May 2010]

An unbelievably good film because it does the mock doc thing so well and is so believable. Full disclosure, I know the editor who gave me the DVD. Still, I wasn't expecting to like it as much as I did, mostly because I'd never heard of it, and my review here is not colored by my friendship with Sam.

I'm not sure this qualifies as a spoiler or not but as near as I can tell, the film succeeds because it does something no mock doc has ever done before, which is to cast only a few parts and do the rest as documentary. It's not a plot point but it has a lot to do with what makes the film so believable and great.

Last Man Running is just plain funny and engaging. I can't see how or why it fell through the cracks. This kind of thing leaves me suspicious of the gatekeepers in the system.