Reviews & Ratings for
The Last Witness (TV) More at IMDbPro »Caracara (original title)

11 out of 12 people found the following review useful:

Exceedingly good for a t.v. movie. Henstridge's best work to date

Author: robbins_ajeet from Ghana
22 September 2005

Most people will be surprised by this review because most of the people have not rated this movie very highly. But I have ..I am a big Natasha Henstridge fan and i believe she is the most under rated actress of the current generation . in spite of terrific performances in movies like Species-2,she is still considered a B-grade actress. I think in this movie she gives an absolutely wonderful performance . Inspite of the weak storyline ,she literally carries the film on her shoulders .The film centers around a lonely,single ornithologist Rachel Sutherland(Henstridge) who is obsessed with her work and presumably has no time for relationships. Things take a turn for worse when a mysterious FBI agent (Jonathan Screech) requests her to make her house a surveillance post to track a would be assassin of Nelson Mandela . Rachel slowly falls for the guy and starts loving him but is in for the surprise of her life when she realizes that the purported FBI agent is the assassin himself in disguise. How she escapes from the clutches of the assassin and saves the day makes up the rest of the movie . For a small budgeted T.V. movie , this is indeed an outstanding movie . Inspite of the constraints of the budget and the thin plot this movie does an outstanding job of being a roller-coaster ride . Henstridge is indeed notable here ,so is screech ..though the rest of the cast tends to be mediocre at times . The suspense does keep you at the edge of the seat for occasions.If there was even an Oscar for TV movies i would certainly recommend Natasha Henstridge for the best actress award.Not to be missed if you plan to spend your Saturday evening at home .

Great movie. Why wasn't this one in the theaters? Natasha really proves her mettle here . I would highly recommend this work as her best work so far.

9 out of 11 people found the following review useful:

Surprisingly good

Author: evan-19
19 February 2002

The first half of Caracara is really quite terrific, slowly building suspense and carefully establishing character before a thrilling mid-point climax in which Henstridge thwarts the assassin's master plan. What follows is pretty generic stuff: the assassin goes off to silence all witnesses and our game leading lady races against time to catch him.

What absolutely distinguishes this fun rental is Natasha Henstridge. She's not only gorgeous and totally winning but an increasingly capable actress. If only she'd be more discerning when it comes to picking roles. The Whole Nine Yards and Ghosts of Mars are understandable choices as they offered her some exposure, but parts in Second Skin and A Better Way to Die are disastrous.

Henstridge is still quite young and has a good decade of leading roles ahead. Hopefully the films will improve -- she deserves better.

8 out of 10 people found the following review useful:

A mildly entertaining thriller

Author: elwinter from New Mexico, USA
29 April 2003

Other reviewers have described the content of this film, so I won't repeat. Instead, I'll hold forth on a pet peeve about movies. Which is - the liberties taken with bird content in movies. To wit: The film is named "Caracara", but the bird used in the film is a Harris's Hawk. There are nine species of Caracara in the world. They're all found in Central and South America. One of the nine occurs far enough north to be found in Texas, New Mexico and Arizona. Did they think that none of the 70 million birdwatchers in the US (according to the "National Survey on Recreation and the Environment" conducted periodically by the US Forest Service, most recently released in 2002) would notice?

One of the other comments on this film included: "Hence the title, referring to the species of Peregrine falcon she keeps as a pet". First, a Peregrine Falcon is a species itself; there are not species thereof. Second, although the Caracaras are members of the Falcon family, the bird used in this film is not a Falcon of any kind - Caracara, Peregrine or otherwise.

This is a low budget film, but this is not an expensive item to research. I suppose they liked the name "Caracara", which is rather more exotic than "Harris's Hawk". So, when it turned out that no Caracara could be found to appear in the film, they simply substituted something else, and kept the cool name. And they figured it didn't matter if they got it "right", because the audience wouldn't notice. Considering the comment quoted above, perhaps they are right. But, considering the kind of obsessive attention to detail found in many other aspects of filmmaking, it is baffling why so many films consistently goof up bird-related content. (The sound people are especially culpable in this regard.)

9 out of 12 people found the following review useful:

one of the best thrillers ever made for t.v.

Author: yobes_odenski from Bulgaria
23 September 2005

outstanding,superb,excellent ..these words don't even begin to describe this movie . despite its gigantic constraints like only a 500,000 dollars budget the director does one perfect job in putting the pieces together . beautifully scripted and flawlessly directed ,the impeccable performance of Natasha Henstridge elevates the movie from some mediocre moments . There is no weak link in the plot as such and Natasha Henstridge gives an impressive performance as the damsel in distress .If someone asks me to describe the movie in 2 words ,i would say simply amazing . Natasha clearly deserves accolades for her performance and i hope she continue to do these offbeat roles. She emerges as an amazing actress with an ability to display plethora of emotions with effortless ease. One of the best t.v. thrillers i saw it in a long time .Natasha sure deserves an award for this

7 out of 9 people found the following review useful:

Great movie. Why wasn't this one in the theatres? Natasha is not only beautiful she can act! Suspenseful story, well directed. Highly recommend this pic.

Author: Jack-98 from texas
17 October 2000

Natasha Henstridge has never been better. She can really act and looks great. Great story full of surprises. Fun seeing Lauren Hutton again. She was terrific. Very well directed by Graeme Clifford (Frances). Highly recommended.

3 out of 6 people found the following review useful:

Johnathon Schaech does a good job again!

Author: Wayne Huffman (wayne@huffman.com) from Honolulu, Hawaii
6 April 2001

After enjoying Schaech in "welcome to Woop Woop" I have been looking for his other work. Last night I saw "Caracara", which is the first time I saw him as the "bad guy". He gave a great performance - I think he is one of the up and coming great actors of this time (2001). I will look forward to seeing him in future movies. The other actors/actresses gave solid performances, and I was on the edge of my seat until the end of the film. It isn't the best movie I ever saw, but all in all, a good way to spend a couple of hours. There is a LOT of killing in this movie, though - I wouldn't recommend this for younger audiences.

4 out of 8 people found the following review useful:

This movie's for the birds, has a subtle title

Author: Brian T. Whitlock (GOWBTW) from WILMINGTON, NC
1 June 2006

This movie is for all the bird lovers out there. Caracara is one great thriller about murder and mayhem, and it has the bird for the title. I think with the title like Caracara, it would show what the bird looked like, and it did. Natasha Henstrdge plays Rachel Sutherland, a woman who get caught in a conspiracy of an assassination that leads into complete craziness. She owns the beautiful bird, and she always let herself be taken advantage of. The assassin is very cunning, and he would be in disguise to make his move on the unfortunate victim. One big giveaway in the movie is when he forgets to remove his contact from the last disguise. How forgetful can you get? That can impair your sharpshooting ability. The sex, the violence, and all the intrigue is all there in the movie, and I enjoyed it very much. Very subtle, yet very enjoyable at the same time. Rating 3 out of 5 stars.

2 out of 8 people found the following review useful:

Enjoyably trashy wallow in the "Guilty Pleasure" tradition

Author: Christopher T. Chase (cchase@onebox.com) from Arlington, VA.
27 January 2000

Natasha (post-SPECIES) and Jonathon (post-THAT THING YOU DO!) star as an unsuspecting ornithologist and a South African assassin, respectively. She's into birds of prey, and he is one in a manner of speaking. (Hence the title, referring to the species of Peregrine falcon she keeps as a pet, not to mention the unconsummated petting she does with him before he tries to eliminate her.)

I suspect that this is one of those shelved movies that was done well before either one of them became famous, and like any movie of that ilk, it's worth a watch if only to see how the producers try (and don't necessarily succeed) to pass off Toronto and/or Vancouver for NYC.

Natasha looks great, she manages to keep a straight face through the laughable script, (something about an assassination plot against Nelson Mandela and genocide; that's about as coherent as it gets.) The real fun is getting to see her play scenes with Lauren Hutton, who gets to do some over-the-top emoting as Natasha's "nympho-alcoholic-aging hippie" mom.

The irony of watching two former models, one in the twilight of her career and the other just starting hers won't be lost on movie buffs, and director Clifford does keep things moving along quickly enough so that boredom doesn't set in. A good rent on one of those "rent-one-get-one-free" nights when all the copies of LAKE PLACID or DEEP BLUE SEA are already gone.

Those who love Robin Cook/Harold Robbins/Jackie Collins-style potboilers will want to seek this one out, but don't look for a lot of sex amidst the violence, though you do get a titillatingly brief flash of T&A. (For MUCH more from Natasha, you'll have to re-rent SPECIES or SPECIES 2.)

4 out of 13 people found the following review useful:

The absolute scum, doesn't get any worse from here

Author: artoj (arto_jaakkola@hotmail.com) from Finland
2 July 2002

Natasha Henstridge stars in this "thriller", that has the most ridiculous plot ever seen on screen. A woman is contacted by FBI agents to allow them to observe people in the apartment across the street. Nothing wrong with it so far, but the twists coming up are so unbelievable, it's not even funny. Henstridge's acting is sub-par and not credible in the least bit. All the other actors seem to be on the wrong set reading dialogue from some other bad movie. The thing that betrays the film the most is it's screenplay. I wonder if they even had one, but rather just made it up on the way.

The film is full of plot holes, and you're left screaming to the supposedly smart detectives who can't realize the simplest clue or detail hanging right in front of them. To replace any story or sense in this film, the filmmakers decided to add some T&A from Henstridge, but that's just a short scene. The bigger mistake is to try and make the film look "cool" by adding completely unnecessary and revolting violence.

There's also some scenes shot from a pet bird's perspective. Interesting idea, but unfortunately the bird has absolutely nothing to do with the film itself. It's one of those shot-in-one-week, cheap straight-for-tv films that are not even so bad that they're funny, it's so bad you wanna cry.

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