“Hey! Yeah you! You wanna have your socks blown off by an exciting blend of Fight Club and ‘Trainspotting’?” How many times have you heard or read that, or something very similar to it, about a movie? Then how many times have you fallen for that trap and found yourself screwed? Well, rest assured, whoever came up with the teaser “Bruises you like ‘Fight Club’; Warps you like ‘A Clockwork Orange’; Injects you like ‘Trainspotting’” on the case of my DVD screener is right on the goddamn money. And being that this is a film from Stephen “Blade” Norrington, it also has a whole lot of “Blade” and a bit of Big Trouble in Little China thrown in as well. Goddamn this is a fun movie.
For those of you who love to laugh at the failures of other human beings, this Bud’s for you. “The Last Minute” has us join Billy Byrne as he’s just about to hit the big time – there’s the interviews, clubs, drugs, budding fame – but his first step into the pop world winds up being a bomb of epic proportions. What’s cool is that we’re never shown what this big thing is that was supposed to make him a huge star; we’re not even shown what type of artist he is. Is he an actor, singer, painter, filmmaker, graphic artist? Who knows? But then it doesn’t really matter as Billy is just one of countless disposable pop figures.
After his massive failure, we then follow Billy on a “Twilight Zone” type journey as it seems the entire world has turned on him. The f*****g guy even gets mugged at a liquor store…by the store clerk! Billy’s life spins more and more out of control until he finds himself living underground with a bunch of homeless kids. Hey, maybe that’s where Britney Spears will end up, right? Wallowing in the muck like a Ninja Turtle, drinking Rot Gut Beer, eating pizza and talking to rats.
“The Last Minute” looks and sounds just like “Blade,” there’s just no crazy black guy with fangs and a sword jumping around. And club scenes seem to be what Norrington knows how to do best as the club scene in “The Last Minute” definitely rivals the jaw-dropping opening scene in “Blade.”
“The Last Minute” is all over the place, with the brutal shooting of a child taking place one minute and then a song and dance number taking place the next. This type of “Bet you can’t guess what I’m gonna do next” filmmaking is commonplace with today’s hip, new directors. Thing is, Norrington is a far better filmmaker than a lot of the bozos out there just trying to prove how wacky they are. Behind the craziness of “The Last Minute,” there’s still a finely crafted film.
And when you’re done watching the movie, you’ve got all of the extra stuff to play around with on the DVD. Seriously, there are so many layers of animated menus with extra material that I couldn’t even get through it all. So go ahead, knock yourself out. This disc is good stuff.
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