The Last Shot (2004)

User Rating:

5.8/10   

Director:

Jeff Nathanson

Writers (WGA):

Steve Fishman (article)
Jeff Nathanson (written by)

Release Date:

5 November 2004 (Brazil)

Genre:

Comedy

Tagline:

The true story of the greatest movie never made.

Plot:

A movie director-screenwriter finds a man to finance his latest project but soon discovers that the producer is actually an undercover FBI agent working on a mob sting operation.

Plot Keywords:

FBI | Undercover | Movie Producer | FBI Agent | Sting Operation

US TV Schedule:

Tue. Nov. 10	4:30 PM	COMEDY
Wed. Nov. 11	10:00 AM	COMEDY

Cast

Matthew Broderick	...	Steven Schats
Alec Baldwin	...	Joe Devine
Toni Collette	...	Emily French
Tony Shalhoub	...	Tommy Sanz
Calista Flockhart	...	Valerie Weston
Tim Blake Nelson	...	Marshal Paris
Buck Henry	...	Lonnie Bosco
Ray Liotta	...	Jack Devine
Ian Gomez	...	Agent Nance
Troy Winbush	...	Agent Ray Dawson
Thomas McCarthy	...	Agent Pike (as Tom McCarthy)
W. Earl Brown	...	Willie Gratzo
Evan Jones	...	Troy Haines
Glenn Morshower	...	Agent McCaffrey
James Rebhorn	...	Abe White

Also Known As:

Providence (USA) (working title)

MPAA:

Rated R for language and some sexual content.

Runtime:

93 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital | SDDS

Certification:

Australia:M (DVD rating) | Iceland:12 (video rating) | Iceland:14 | USA:R (certificate #40240) | Netherlands:12 | South Korea:15 | Argentina:16 | Australia:PG | Finland:K-15 | Germany:12 | Singapore:NC-16 | UK:15

Filming Locations:

Grauman's Chinese Theater - 6925 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Morra, Brezner, Steinberg and Tenenbaum Entertainment (MBST)

Trivia:

In the "burro casting" sequence neither of the animals being considered are burros. They are both mules - the sterile offspring of a burro (donkey) and a horse.

Goofs:

Anachronisms: Though the film is set in 1985, the United Airlines plane shown at the Rhode Island airport is painted in a color scheme that was not used until the mid-1990s.

Quotes:

Valerie Weston: I'm gonna go home, Steven. That's right. I'm serious. Because of you, I'm gonna get gangbanged, Steven. Gangbanged in Woodland Hills.
Steven Schats: A lot of great actresses started out in porn.

Movie Connections:

Spoofs "Bonanza" (1959)

Soundtrack:

I Can See Clearly Now

Going from the sublime to the ridiculous makes for laughs and fun

This is a brilliant small budget movie that deserves much more buzz and play that it has received. It is similar in plot structure to Joseph Heller's Catch 22.

Both start out with an odd but "realistic" beginning. Each progresses in small steps to more and more outlandish and unbelievable situations with a blurred line between possible and "this can't really be happening."

In Catch 22, the story begins with an odd but possible situation in the European theater in World War II. At the end of the story Milo Minderbinder, an American officer, is contracting with both the Germany and the Allies to bomb the other's military installations.

In the Last Shot, the story begins Baldwin, an FBI agent trying to make a name for himself, voluntarily allowing the bad guys to cut of one of his fingers so that he can charge the bad guys with more serious crimes.

The plot progresses with Baldwin setting up a façade of making a movie to trap other Mafia types. Obviously, no one expects that the movie will ever be made. It then progresses to a point where Baldwin and his superiors at the FBI are making what appears to be a real deal for a "three picture deal" and negotiating over marketing rights.

That progression, together with some wonderful side trips,cameos by Joan Cusack and Buck Henry, caused something that is rarely heard in multiplex theaters with relatively small audiences-outright loud laughter and even a bit of applause as the movie ended.

This movie is not Gone with the Wind or Citizen Kane. It is just good fun with laughs enhanced by the progression of not likely but possible to outright absurdity. The kicker is that the movie, according to the producers was based on a true story. If so truth may really be stranger than fiction.