Last Man Standing (1995 Video) User Reviews

an absolutely superior direct to video action movie

[S_Craig_Zahler · 7/10 · 31 May 2012]

no real spoilers regarding the plot, just moments of action.

actually, i would give this a 6.5 rather than a 7, but i wanted to round it up. considering the average rating for the last 75+ direct to video movies i've seen would be around a 4.25, this is a complete success.

this movie delivers on every front and is exactly what i want in direct to video action, but rarely see.

it moves from the first minute to the last.

the chases are ambitious and very well staged. at a few points, the car chase and motorcycle versus truck sequence have astonishing kinetics.

the shoot outs are good and efficiently handled.

and the martial arts is efficient, resonant and fairly realistic.

the end result is something like a confluence of fast five (but here, the spectacle is realized on a low budget), the best episodes of walker: Texas ranger (efficient and impacting hand to hand fighting) and a hong kong movie.

the character of doc is well-handled by jonathan banks, though most of the cast is pushed and unrealistic (and the woman seems written by a man who has never met a woman), but the speed of the piece and the delivery of about 8 (!) very, very good action set pieces (esp. the parking lot fight, the motorcycle & truck chase, the car chase and the great bar fight) all put this on the very top shelf of direct to video action and as good as second shelf hong kong and American theatrical stuff.

well done!

Standing down...

[fmarkland32 · 7/10 · 10 October 2006]

Jeff Wincott stars as a cop (Who smokes a lot) who takes on mobsters after the death of his partner (Jonathan Banks) however after becoming the target of said mobsters he decides to show why he will be the last man standing, especially when the man in this equation is martial arts expert Jeff Wincott. Jillian McWirter is Wincott's wife who goes on the lam with our hero. Last Man Standing (No relation to the Walter Hill/Bruce Willis dud) is one of those movies that is akin to playing Grand Theft Auto III (I'm out of date on video games) it comes from the film-making equivalent of "Who cares, if there is a plot, i'm just going to shoot random people!" of course the story is fairly well written, the action quite spectacular and basically it is everything you could want in a low budget action flick. Plus Wincott makes for an interesting hero, in that his unattractive face adds a grittiness that is instantly likable and believable. In fact I may check out The Killing Man next week at my rental shop. Also thank goodness for bargain bin DVDs that give the world fun-dumb actioners for a cheap price.

* * * out of 4-(Good)

Solid B-movie actioner

[HaemovoreRex · 7/10 · 18 December 2008]

Jeff Wincott has for me at least, always stood out somewhat from the plethora of movie action stars of the late eighties and nineties such as, Van Damme, Seagal, Grunier, Wilson, Lundgren etc etc. on the very simple account that Wincott is actually a rather good actor when the material allows. Unfortunately, this film doesn't allow Wincott to flex his acting muscles however.....Oh dear I hear you cry. Bad news then? Well luckily, not really, as the action happens to more than make up for it. Yes, here we have a plot and character thin effort which despite said flaws nonetheless balances the scales with sheer entertainment value. It has to be said that the action sequences are very well staged throughout including multiple shootouts, some Michael Bay style freeway chases and of course, capitalising on Wincott's martial arts expertise, a few decent fight scenes to. As B-movies go, this is very much a high end production; Well worth checking out me recommends.

One of the best straight to video actioners of the 90's.

[aloep · 20 July 2004]

Impressed with other PM movies such as Executive Target, Ring Of Fire 3 and Rage I imported the US DVD release of this when it came out in early May after reading the review on The Unknown Movies Page. For your info, I was in California this summer and noticed this DVD (as well as The Sweeper, another good PM movie) is available for for $5.99 in the under $10 section in every Virgin Megastore. Should you buy it? I recommend you do so, as this is one of the most competent and entertaining all round action movies I've seen.

First things first, it has a relatively simple and easy to follow plot, but one that's not so simple that it insults your intelligence, and one which is kept alive by some excellent pacing and minor twists at just the right places, and is beefed up by some of the best action scenes ever seen on DTV material that you would only find in a PM movie.

The action is by far the movies strongest point. The shootouts and the fight scenes are all professionally handled and very sure of themselves. But what stands out most are some fantastic chase scenes, one on foot and 2 main vehicle chases. All of them have some very daring stunts. The vehicle chases (I say "vehicle", as one of them involves an armored van and a motorcycle), are what really stands out. Merhi and Pepin were by far the the best at doing car chases with tons of smashes, crashes and explosions on a small budget in my opinion. These scenes are very well done, and edited together just as well as many big budget pictures like Ronin for example, using appropriate camera angles and never letting us lose track of the action.

I was also fairly surprised by the performances of the cast, which raised slightly above the usual standard of straight to video material. Johnathan Fuller provides a slimy, racist character who we can't help but dislike, while Steve Eastin plays the tough, corrupt cop in typical fashion. The performances from the lead characters, Jeff Wincott and Jillian McWhirter as his wife also surprised me. The chemistry between the two is very good. McWhirter comes off as a woman who is very much in love with her husband, and displays a surprising amount of believability when she refuses to leave his side while Kurt is in trouble. Wincott doesn't have a huge amount of dialogue, but what he has and in the few scenes where he has to show emotion, he gives it what he can and is no worse than Chow Yun Fat was in The Replacement Killers. The reason I compare them is because of the lack of dialogue Chow got in that movie.

Also interesting is given the fact that Jeff Wincott is a trained martial artist, this does not overdo the martial arts like many B-movies starring martial artists in the lead. Wincott only has a couple of scenes in which he uses them, and these are well executed.

All in all, Joseph Merhi has thrown as many action sequences as possible into 90 minutes while still manage to make a comprehensible, well paced and above all thoroughly entertaining action movie around it. Everything is over the top yes, there are continuity errors yes, but what movies don't have that these days? Picture Michael Bay working on a tenth of the budget, but actually being more fun than that.

Take it for what it is, and it certainly satisfies.

Rating: 8.5/10

Oh, and to user "hardane": "As a matter of fact, it was so bad, it inspired me to write this, my only movie review ever"

A word of advice. Please never write any more "reviews". Ever. Obviously you haven't seen many movies so you've not been exposed to enough cinema to have an informed opinion.

Chuck Norris' days as the king of cheese ball action movies are numbered

[J_schinderlin56 · 4/10 · 20 January 2005]

I'm sure that the creators of this movie were going for many things; Believability was not one of them. Our hero Kurt (Punch Rock Groin) opens the flick by chasing a bad guy thru a hotel. Along the way he jumps a 20ft staircase and chases the guy thru 5 or 6 plate glass windows coming up without a scratch. Even more believable is this guy's marriage to his wife whom he evidently knows nothing about, demonstrated by his surprise at her ability to use a gun. As villains chase them with guns and bomb empty barns, she stays true to the 2dimentional stereotype that she is and "Stands by her man".

The movie also somehow leaves out or ignores several details about police procedure. Mainly that a cop should identify himself as a police officer and warn suspects to comply before kicking there A**. Or, that after a police officer is suspended, commandeering a civilian vehicle is known as GRAND THEFT AUTO, which our hero commits twice in this film. I mean Heck! Joe Don Baker's "Mitchell" follows police procedure more than this guy does.

Overall it seems that the filmmakers must have bought a book on how to make the most cliché, over the top action movie possible and followed it line-by-line, complete with the poser outfits and bad dialogue. My favorite part of the movie was when the big boss bad guy Underwood refers to himself as "The Swashbuckler".

Chuck Norris watch out, your days as the king of Cheese ball action movies are numbered!

Good film.

[dasa108 · 6/10 · 15 December 2022]

Jeff Wyncott years ago was a B movie action star and he used to deliver good and funny movies like Martial Law and so many others. In this case, with the classic style so remembered from the eighties (tough hero, threatening situation, duet with someone close, quick and painful punishment for the villains) we have a fast-moving film that offers various situations to delight the viewer. Wyncott should not try too hard with this material which does not have much depth but meets the first and most important premise of cinema: to entertain. It is a good film that can be seen by anyone nostalgic for the time when the heroes were really tough.

Jeff Wincott's best film yet!

[dvk1fan · 10/10 · 16 August 2004]

This movie features the excellent work of a too under-rated actor and martial artist, Jeff Wincott. The cast of supporting actors is top-notch and he and the sexy Jillian McWhirter sizzle together. The action is non-stop and the special effects have you at the edge of your seat from start to finish. Wincott's character is a very cool cop who doesn't do things exactly by the book and always gets called on it, though he gets the job done. He then discovers that his jerk sargeant and the rest are all crooked. When they find out he knows, he and his wife must go on the run and get to the bottom of it before they end up like his partner...dead!! While the plot is not the most original, Jeff Wincott plays out his character is stunning flair and style. What guy wouldn't want to be Officer Kurt Bellmore? This movie is a must-see and Wincott deserves far more accolades than he gets.

Pretty good actually

[bmovielover · 8/10 · 5 June 2001]

This film is actually pretty good. There is good chemistry between Wincott and Jonathan Banks, and it's certainly one of Joseph Merhi's best films. The stunts are excellent, half of the budget must have gone into that side of the production, including three great car chases, and a very big explosion halfway through the film.

It's a b-movie, but a very good one.

7 out of 10 stars for this effort.

Last Man Standing Rocks!

[tarbosh22000 · 8/10 · 7 December 2010]

Truly the Street Kings (2008) of its day, if any direct-to-video product ever deserved a theatrical release, this is it.

In this fast-paced and highly entertaining tale, Detective Kurt Bellmore (Wincott) is a tough L.A. cop who plays by his own rules. His partner Doc (Banks) is retiring soon and wrote a tell-all book about the LAPD's corrupt practices. This doesn't please Lt. Darnell Seagrove (Eastin), who is mired in corruption and kickbacks that go all the way to the top. He's even BFF's with ultra-violent, crafty, diabolical and just downright super evil bad guy Snake Underwood (Fuller). Once some missing money is involved, Bellmore, who is an honest straight-arrow, will stop at literally nothing to take down the bad guys and expose the truth. Even if it means exposing not just himself, but also his wife Anabella (McWhirter) to not just Underwood and his underlings Lucretia (Fabian) and Kazz (LaSardo) - but also the corrupt cops. So they go on the run together. Will they get the justice they seek? This is how all action movies, direct to video or not, should be done. On top of the completely over the top car, gun and action set pieces PM is known for (here they really pull out all the stops), here you also have good acting and an involving plot. Add some silly humor and all the elements come together beautifully.

Wincott is in rare form as Bellmore. He has a great, no-nonsense, tough persona. From the minute we see him in his giant yellow suit in the opening chase, we know we're in for something special. He only hijacks awesome vehicles from innocent motorists in the name of the law for his death-defying chases. He might be the most tenacious, determined cop ever. Wincott also does a much better "Noooooo!" in this movie than he does in Fatal Combat (1997).

Snake Underwood is the best name PM has come up with for a bad guy since Hologram Man's (1995) Slash Gallagher. Jonathan Banks as Doc should also be singled out for his excellence. Because of his quality performance, it helps invest the audience in the plot. As I believe we've said before on this site, there are such things as GOOD clichés, and not all clichés are bad. It's all in how you do it. Director Merhi seems to understand this, so he delivers explosions and action to the max and killer chase scenes, but it would all mean nothing if we didn't care about Bellmore, Doc and Anabella. So he made sure we do care about the fates of the characters, and that helps immensely. One way Merhi turned convention on its ear, however, is that usually in cop movies and TV shows, IA (Internal Affairs) is portrayed as bad or annoying. Here they are the good guys. So we thought that was interesting. Add that to the expertly-done stunts and you have a definite winner.

One of the best PM's and a certified pleasure to watch, make sure you see the rockin' Last Man Standing!

Ouch

[hardane · 14 June 2004]

OH MY GOODNESS!!! This has to be one of the worst movies I've seen in a very long time, and I've seen some stinkers. Lassie could have done a better job editing. Bellmore was taking his wife's glasses to her at work while she's wearing them? A pump shotgun that holds about 25 rounds. Not shells mind you, regular brass rounds. This was worse than some of the Shannon Tweed movies I've seen. I would recommend avoiding this at all costs, unless you want to see how a movie shouldn't be made. It was bad, awful, garbage. As a matter of fact, it was so bad, it inspired me to write this, my only movie review ever. On any site. You'd be better off watching old Miami Vice reruns.