Jeanskynebu the audience applauded

Dynamixor The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

Sammy-Jo Cervantes There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

Roy Hart If you're interested in the topic at hand, you should just watch it and judge yourself because the reviews have gone very biased by people that didn't even watch it and just hate (or love) the creator. I liked it, it was well written, narrated, and directed and it was about a topic that interests me.

Wizard-8 Despite its cast and being distributed by a major Hollywood studio, "The Last Shot" didn't get much of a theatrical release. Maybe the studio heads feared that a general audience wouldn't get the jokes, or maybe it was because it has an ending that to a degree could be considered unhappy. But I personally had a pretty good time watching it. You do have to be kind of knowledgeable about Hollywood to get some of the jokes, but apart from a few jokes that are dead (like the whole dead dog plot thread) there are plenty of other jokes non-experts will get and find amusing. I think that a big key that makes this movie work is that almost all of the characters are very likable. They are flawed, and all are seemingly out for something, but they are sympathetic all the same. The movie is an agreeable way to pass the time.

mrliteral I believe there's an inherent inequality in a movie about the movies, about making a movie, not getting a theatrical release. I remember seeing ads for The Last Shot on TV, I remember hearing of a limited release for about a week, and I remember its sudden disappearance from any form of media. It eventually came out on DVD, and that's the end of the story. Which is too bad, because if this movie deserves anything, it's a movie audience.Is it a great film? No...but it's funny. Is it filled with insight into the creative process, the miasmic crossroads of art and commerce? No...but it has a sense of truth and experience. Is there any reason a theater full of people would not be glad they had paid to see this movie? None that I can see. A cruel irony of this is the opening credits, which are mainly played against a background of items and events in an actual movie theater. Though I should correct myself and say opening titles; as one character points out, credits are at the end, titles at the beginning. It's a movie-savvy group of people, y'understand.Even if you're not a big fan of Alec Baldwin or Matthew Broderick, it's worth seeing for the supporting cast. Joan Cusack, Toni Collette, and Tony Shalhoub each steal the few short scenes they're in. And for anyone who is a screenwriter (like me!), wants to be a screenwriter, or thinks they know what it means to be a screenwriter...the quick montage of Baldwin's character hearing pitches on the street from everyone he sees is so brilliant and funny and true, it's a lesson in humility we could all use from time to time.I think the story is hampered by the idea that Baldwin's character, FBI man-undercover-as-Hollywood producer, would choose a script set in the desert of Arizona (even titled Arizona) when he needs to shoot in Rhode Island so he can set up the local mob boss there. Seems a little pointless, but, this appears to be one of the based-on-actual-events aspects of the story that really happened. The real FBI man did find a script, written for the desert, and convinced the filmmakers to shoot in New England, even though he knew, and they didn't, they'd never shoot a frame. And I can't help thinking, about Broderick's character or the real guys with the script...way to sell out! And I just don't completely buy it as a story element. Not that I don't believe people sell out; they sure as hell do, but with all the scripts out there, seems like he could have found one that fit the location. Sometimes what's true is too stupid to actually work in a movie.Speaking of a script, Jeff Nathanson, who has done some decent work in the past, most notably for Steven Spielberg, probably could have rewritten this a bit more, but does a very good job as a first time director. It's really a shame the movie was never released properly and couldn't turn a profit. That's got to be heartbreaking, at least for a little while. But in the end, he has a good movie and a quality DVD. If you want to sit down and for an hour and half and enjoy what you see, give it a look. It isn't perfect, but what is? As long as a movie is fun to sit through, instead of a chore, I'd call it a great success.

shanfloyd Let's forget for a moment that this film is actually based on a true story. An FBI agent goes undercover as a film producer to capture a mob boss who has influence in movie business. He meets an aspiring writer-director to produce his fake movie but ultimately falls in love with the art of film-making.Quite interesting plot. And the point of the film shifts from capturing the mob boss to the tidbits of film-making. The characters are extremely well-written, especially the agent Joe Devine and the once-famous actress Emily French. Among the actors, Alec Baldwin as Devine shines bright in comparison with Matthew Broderick as the naive writer-director. Toni Colette is also awesome as Emily French. And one should not forget the brilliant short performance of Joan Cusack as Devine's short course teacher of film business.The film is overall humorous enough, but there are certain parts of humor that's quite unnecessary e.g. the scene where French urinates publicly in a wine glass, or the scene of Devine's dog Sacha's funeral. The nature of humor in such films should be a bit dry and satirical, not such cheap and forced. Apart from these complaints, "The Last Shot" is quite an entertainment.

Robert J. Maxwell Lots of tossed-off wisecracks and funny lines in this movie. "I see you're lookin' at my face. My wife set me on fire while I was asleep. Squirted lighter fluid all over me. Six months later the marriage fell apart." Six months later? Fell APART? The story is simple enough. Baldwin, an FBI agent, hooks an unknowing Broderick into making a movie in Providence, Rhode Island, as a sting operation to nail John Gotti. The operation fails but the movie isn't really about Gotti or crime anyway. It's about two goofs who get swept up in an obsession to make a movie that's set in the Arizona desert. The FBI supplies them with just enough money to begin casting the "production". When the notice appears in Variety they get volunteer offers from academy-nominated actress Emily French (Toni Collet), Pat Morita, and Russel Means. The fantasy begins to turn so real that the original goal is forgotten and the artistic adventure acquires functional autonomy. Ars Gratia Arse, so to speak.The movie pokes a lot of fun at the Hollywood community. Russel Mean is supposed to play a character named Chief Blackbear, however he is informed that the name must be changed to Chief Blackhawk. He looks a bit taken aback and muses, "I guess I'll have to learn to manage that." Calista Flockheart's character punctures her thigh with a fork to arouse "sensory memories." Over dinner in a fancy restaurant, Colett rapidly runs through her physical and psychiatric history to a stunned Baldwin and Broderick and winds up peeing into an empty wine glass to show how she is tested for drugs every six months, while the other customers stop eating and the piano music comes to a halt.It's pretty amusing. Not so much the story as the exchanges between the characters that are written into the script. (The editor holds on a bit too long sometimes after the gags, waiting for the laughter to subside.) There's something rather sad about the ending, when the FBI forcibly shuts down the production -- kind of like "The Teahouse of the August Moon." Everyone is having such a ball that it seems tragic to have to get back to business.Yet, though the movie is amusing, it's not outrageously so. Anyone who wants to see a comedy about making a phony movie should rent "After the Fox," which in its combination of Italian over-the-top bombast and Jewish repartee is a classic of its kind.This one is worth catching though and offers some good laughs. The difference between the seasoned FBI agent, Baldwin, who has dealt with low lifes, and the ambitious director, Broderick, who was raised in the company town of Hollywood, is perfectly captured in a single exchange. The fake producer Baldwin makes up a story about the death of his fictitious wife. Broderick is sorry to hear that and asks, "Was she in the business?" Baldwin turns to stare at him -- for a long time -- and then asks, "Why would I marry a whore?"