2.78- THE LAST MINUTE

THE LAST MINUTE DVD review

by David Blackwell

I have seen some good movies on DVD, but I have never seen anything like THE LAST MINUTE. I have been watching the screener DVD and I'm amazed by how I love this movie and how neatly designed the DVD is. First to the movie (and after this review, I will get to the review of HORROR).

THE LAST MINUTE is the story of Billy Byrne (Max Beesley) who is "The Next Big Thing". He is like some rock star, artist, actor, or director. He is on the high of a promising career only to have it be dismissed by everyone and Billy is replaced by someone else. You first see him getting caught up in his career, do appearences, have his pictures taken by a Nazi Fashion Photographer (Udo Kier), and come back to his long-suffering girlfriend Janey (Kate ashfield) in London to go clubbing. On the night of visiting clubs, Billy is given an invitation to come to a club called Prosthesis that is so hip that it is absurd. People at Prosthesis are dressed in a cross between hospital and S&M wear. Billy is introduced to Percy (Jason Issacs), a murderous gangster who can also sing. Percy has an argument with the DJ and whacks him in the nose more than once, then Percy starts singing. That is the last great night Billy has before his career is pulled apart by the critics.

From there, Billy loses everything from being mugged at the local convience store by the clerk, his girlfriend kicking him out and saying it's over, getting kicked out of a club, and being mugged again right outside the club by two guys. All during Billy's rise and decline, he meets Anna (Emily Corrie) whom resides in catacombs with an Oliver Twist type gang led by Grimshanks (Tom Bell). Of course, Billy thinks he can go back to his life only to find out he has nowhere else to go. Billy continues his descent and he begins to lose himself as he thinks going to Greenland will cleanse him (but he should be going to Iceland though).

THE LAST MINUTE is directed by Stephen Norrington (BLADE, DEATH MACHINE, and THE LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN) and it has to be the best movie of his career so far. This is a cult movie with great acting, stunning visuals, cool visual tricks, and a movie that will leave you talking about all the different things put into it. THE LAST MINUTE puts forth things like what did you do this week, is the black dog always at your heels when you're successful and can you keep ahead of the black dog, can creative energy affect the street lights around that person, and is time working against you because you didn't take chances to do what you want to do (and time has passed you by).

DVD design: THE LAST MINUTE has a wealth of special features that can be accessed two ways: by clicking on the question mark icon or by clicking on another button that leads you to another menu. THE LAST MINUTE has menu upon menu where you can access some special features or access the next menu. Each menu takes you to a different place in the movie. Some menus are linked by clips from the movie (played out like a bad TV transmission) while two menus are set up like website pages (for Greenland and Iceland). The menus have an animated design to them from the black dog running towards you in an alley, a dancing S&M freak in Prosthesis, Grimshanks looking at you, and a video clip playing in the Greenland and Iceland website menus. there were some probelms I did experince while accessing the Character Tree that paused the menu (and I had to hit play which played the cast/crew bios). Despite that one flaw that popped up while playing it on my DVD player, I have to say THE LAST MINUTE is the best designed DVD I have this year and the movie is destined to be a cult movie. Listen to the director commentary track because Stephen does tell you in detail what he did and what was happening during the production (and the free editing time that he got from director James Cameron). Don't forget to check out the website for the movie at http://www.thelastminutefilm.com

Request that your local video stores to get copies of the unrated director's cut for rental because THE LAST MINUTE hits DVD (and VHS) on July 29, 2003 from Palm Pictures- http://www.palmpictures.com

On the other hand, HORROR is a movie that has a director who shows promise. The only things that keeps HORROR from being the best are the script, the acting of Vicent Lamberti (as Reverand Salo, Jr) when he opens his mouth, no character development for most of the characters, and the sometimes distracting editing choices that director Dante Tomaselli has made. His editing skills have improved given how he edited together clip from his first film DESECRATION. I mean how many times do we need to be reminded that the guy is dreaming or the guy's mom is coming up the stairs?!!

Tomaselli does get effective direction. He is able to create a creepy atmosphere, but he needs to work on his screenplay writing. David Lynch creates nightmare realities, but he has more story logic than Tomaselli does. Dante Tomaselli does show promise, but he has to do better with his scripts or have someone else write the script because I know he is a promising director of horror movies.

HORROR website: http://www.horrorthemovie.com

NEXT TIME: review of TERMINATOR 3: RISE OF THE MACHINES