The Last Shot (2004)

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.

Director:

Jeff Nathanson

Writers:

Steve Fishman (article), Jeff Nathanson

Stars:

Matthew Broderick, Alec Baldwin, Toni Collette

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
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

Storyline

FBI director Jack Devine always sets up his brother Joe as undercover to trick mobsters. His latest cover is as movie producer Joe Diamond, to get Tommy Sanz for Teamster racketeering. His cover requires a script - the one movie theater manager Steven Schats and his brother Marshall 'Paris' wrote, supposedly a cancer biopic. So Steven is hired as director, his greatest dream, even if producing an Arizona desert drama on Rhode Island is far from ideal. When a former Oscar nominee volunteers to star, the cover gets out of hand till everyone believes in it, even the FBI brass- or not?

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Plot Keywords:

fbi | undercover | movie producer | sting operation | fbi agent | 

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Taglines:

The true story of the greatest movie never made.

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Genres:

Comedy

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for language and some sexual content

Details

Official Sites:

Touchstone [us]

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

5 November 2004 (Brazil)

Also Known As:

Providence

Filming Locations:

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

Box Office

Opening Weekend:

$164,801 (USA) (24 September 2004)

Gross:

$463,730 (USA) (12 November 2004)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Morra, Brezner, Steinberg and Tenenbaum Entertainment (MBST), Mandeville Films, Burro Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

93 min

Sound Mix:

DTS Dolby Digital SDDS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

This movie was based on the real life FBI sting operation in the 1980s to infiltrate the Boston mob teamsters. An FBI agent went undercover as a movie studio executive and contracted George Moffly, an aspiring filmmaker, to create it. Throughout the whole time George had no idea that he was making a fake movie. The sting only captured a few minor Mob members. The details of this unusual story can be found in a GQ article (March 2000).

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Goofs

While Emily French is in the restaurant she is smoking a cigarette. She puts it out to pee in a cup. After she finishes, her cigarette is back intact and she takes a drag of it.

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Quotes

Joe Devine: I want merchandising.
Abe White: What's merchandising?
Joe Devine: Toys.
Agent McCaffrey: Go fuck yourself.

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Crazy Credits

Special thanks to ... The Dan Blocker Family, The Victor Sen Young Family ...

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Connections

References Star Angel (1986)

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Soundtracks

"Sing That Melody"
Written by Keith Nichols
Courtesy of Associated Production Music, LLC

User Reviews

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.