Title: The Last Time
Genre: Comedy/Drama/Romance
Cast: Michael Keaton, Brendan Fraser, Amber Valletta, …
Director: Michael Caleo
Release: (2006)
I almost can’t even talk about the ending of this movie without wanting to quit this job and never watch a movie again for the rest of my life, so I will be brief about this. For anyone wondering how I could appear to be quite complimentary of Keaton’s performance in this film, and at the same time continue to insist that this is an overall travesty of justice and waste of polycarbonate plastic discs that could have been better used for throwing ninja-style at endangered panda cubs or slipping into nursing home sandwiches, this is a very large reason why. If I could get past the emotional scarring, caused by my struggle to comprehend why anyone would try to tack such an incredibly aggravating and implausible ending onto the end of any movie, and judge the whole movie fairly, I would probably say that it was not so entirely terrible to watch – in the moment – for most of the duration. But I can’t, I can only remember the ending now and I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to trust a movie again because of it. I guess Caleo was trying to go for some kind of M. Night Shymalan-type thing, but instead of a Sixth Sense, “Wow, I never saw that coming but it puts the whole movie in a different perspective now” kind of effect, it’s more like a Rocky IV, “Oh my God, no, someone stop him. Please tell me he didn’t just say that. Please make him stop talking. Ohhhhhh … yep, it’s ruined.” effect.
Which is why if I had to say three good things about this movie, I couldn’t.
Grading
Story: D-
Acting: C (Average of Keaton’s A-, Fraser’s D+, and Valletta’s straight C)
Visuals: C
Originality/Innovation: C
Enjoyability: C+, during / F- after witnessing the final scenes
Overall: D+
|
