The Last Shot

Films/DVD Asylum

Movies from comedy to drama to your favorite Hollyweird Star.

Apparently, a real life premise in which an F.B.I. agent in the organized crime section, played by Alec Baldwin, "stuck" in Houston, attempts to make the "big time", which is apparently New York. His brother is played by Ray Liotta, so can cannot advance too fast, otherwise it looks fishy.
Baldwin is transferred to Rhode Island. There, he is assigned to collar a crime figure who is involved with the teamsters and local trucking, played by Tony Shalhoub. Baldwin figures that because movies need trucks, the F.B.I. will produce a film to trap Shalhoub.
So Baldwin flies to Hollywood and meet with a manager played by Joan Cusack. She tells him that he first must have a script. He asks where can he get one. She tells him that this is Hollywood, everyone has a script. The next shot shows him sitting on a park bench with every loonie pitching their script and ideas.
Eventually, he winds up at a dog pound, probably still in mourning from his dog which committed suicide in the jacuzzi. There, he meets Matthew Broderick, who is a ticket taker at Gromman's Chinese Theatre, and his girlfriend, an aspiring actress played by Calista Flockhart. Broderick happens to have a script, which he co-wrote with his brother played by Tim Blake Nelson, who is trapped in a Bonanza recreation in the Southwest with their father. Baldwin buys the script, and hires Broderick to direct, and gives him carte blache.
The only catch is that the film must take place in Rhode Island, not in the Arizona desert. A local river becomes the Colorado River. A storage garage becomes an Indian cave.
The F.B.I. big wigs believed that the film was merely a cover, but then Shalhoub also wants to become a Hollywood producer, so Baldwin convinces the F.B.I. to fund the film. They begin casting, and hire a deperate actress played by Toni Collette to play the lead character. Everntually, the F.B.I. give Baldwin a three picture deal, but no merchandising.
The film is very well acted. The nactors are aided by a funny, taut, and crisp sreenplay. They clearly demonstrate great chemistry with each other. Collette, in particular, goes over the top in her performance. The story is merely a clothesline for the jokes, of which there are many, intelligent, and very funny. I never thought that urinating in glasses was funny until Toni Collette does so. The film comes in at a crisp one and a half hours.
If you are in the mood for a funny, lighthearted comedy, intelligently written, and very well acted, then this little gem is recommended.

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Topic - The Last Shot - jamesgarvin 16:57:54 11/13/05 (0)

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