“The Last Sunrise”, a new short thriller directed by Louis Pappas, plays like a low-rent pilot for a show rejected by the CW. The actors aren’t acting so much as chewing all the scenery they can get their hands on, and the abysmal dialogue gives them very little to work with in the first place.
As the credits began to roll, I was left scratching my head… did the editor accidentally cut this thing to shreds or did the story just not make sense? With all the flashbacks, dream sequences(?!) and jump cuts, it was hard to tell who did what to whom and when they did it. Any fan of this genre will attest that if your movie makes no sense, it’s hard to be thrilled… much less interested.
The plot revolves around a quarreling husband named Jack and his blonde lover and what seems to be his lover’s… lover? And/or the husband’s friend? I guess the husband used to be a cop. Or knew a cop? Or played a cop once on television? But who was the African-American woman in the dream sequence? Hmmm…. I don’t do this often, but since the movie is just over ten minutes long, I’m going to watch it again. Be right back…
Okay, it’s making a little more sense now. The blonde woman is his lover and the African-American woman in the flashback (not a dream sequence) is his wife. Okay. So the husband discovers his wife dead on the beach and wants revenge. His friend is a cop…not sure if the husband ever was. Nope. Check that. His friend just reminded him that Jack once was, too. Maybe they were partners. Either way, it’s good to know.
But now Jack’s tied up and the lover’s lover just shot Jack’s lover (also his). And then Jack’s cop friend (ex-partner?) drops by right as the lover is about to shoot Jack in the head. Talk about good timing…
This movie isn’t all bad, though. The camera work is pretty good (hand-held works well here) and the music adds some nice atmosphere to the illogical proceedings. Maybe a forthcoming “director’s cut” will fill in some of the blanks…
