LAST MAN STANDING
A film review by Michael John Legeros
Copyright 1996 Michael John Legeros
(New Line)
Directed by Walter Hill
Written by Walter Hill, based on the screenplay by Ryuzo Kikushima
and Akira Kurosawa.
Cast Bruce Willis, Christopher Walken, Bruce Dern, William
Sanderson, David Patrick Kelly
MPAA Rating "R", presumably for violence and language
Running Time 101 minutes
Reviewed at The Wynnsong 10, Durham, NC (20SEP96)
==
A brilliant failure. Director Walter Hill, who was in much better form last year with his little-seen WILD BILL, has remade YOJIMBO not once but *twice* in the same film. First, as a dusty, dry- throated Western (been there, done that, in A FISTFUL OF DOLLARS) and, secondly, as a hard-boiled Prohibition-era thriller complete with fedoras, tommy guns, and Model-A Fords. The age-old plot again involves a wandering stranger who happens upon a violent rivalry and promptly pits each side against each other. Sound familiar? This time, it's a pair of Chicago gangs competing for Mexican booze in a nearly-deserted Texas town. Film fans could devote an entire evening to discussing why this movie fails from the get-go. Here's my initial impression: we want the central character (Bruce Willis, miscast) to be a mystery man, which he can't be as long as he's narrating the damn thing. Our eyes see Sergio Leone, but our ears hear Mike Hammer. If you will. For anyone who needs more than just gunplay to ground a movie, it's a confounding waste of time. We left and asked for our money back.
Grade: W/O (Walked Out)
--
Mike Legeros - Raleigh, NC
legeros@pagesz.net (h) - legeros@unx.sas.com (w)
Visit me in MOVIE HELL
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