User Reviews

THE LAST SHOT is best viewed with a bit of info to let the patient viewer understand what is coming. The opening titles are clever, dealing with movie paraphernalia that serve as matrices for the stars and production staff names and should give a sense of what is to come. But it isn't until the first 20 or so minutes into the film that the significance of the movie can be appreciated.

Based on an apparently true news article, THE LAST SHOT takes a pot shot at not only Hollywood, but also organized crime, production magnates, the FBI, and little people with big dreams lost in the elusive utopia of fame.The plot is well outlined on these pages. Suffice it to say that the FBI sends Joe Devine (Alec Baldwin) to Hollywood to pose as a producer to lure the underground crime lord Tommy Sanz (Tony Shalhoub) to surface and be caught. Devine needs a script as he discovers from the gross Fanny Nash (Joan Cusack at her hilarious best) and gradually encounters Steven Schats (Matthew Broderick) who with his pathetic brother Marshall Paris (Tim Blake Nelson) has written an unmarketable, non-salable script called 'Arizona'. Devine grabs on to the project, making Schats the director (his dream come true) and casts the film with has-been actress with box office draw Emily French (Toni Collette who looks terrific and adds yet another priceless cameo to her brilliant repertoire) and Valerie Weston (Calista Flockhart) who just happens to be Schats' squeeze.

The process of film-making and the infectious delirium of Hollywood affects everyone in this film - even the FBI and especially Devine who softens into a man who wants to provide the 'littleman' Schats with his dream. The humor is broad, WAY over the top, crude, and slapstick and in so many ways this movie mimics all of the intangible oddities that make Hollywood what it is. The performances by Baldwin, Broderick, Cusack, Flockhart - and, well, all of the inserted cameos - are excellent. Once you get the premise of this film it moves from being inane to being a really terrific parody with some sensitive metaphors. Grady Harp

I suppose I went to this movie for the actors: enigmatic Alec Baldwim, charming Matthew Broderick, turned-sardonic Tony Shalhoub, mafia man Ray Liotta (who resembles a "cappo di tutti cappo" even as the director of the FBI) and thin Calista Flockhart. In the end I came to like it because of what it actually is: a frank story about goodness and dreams and not "another" cover up story for a gang heist.

So you've got undercover agent Joe (Baldwin) who is so dedicated to his job, that he lets someone cut his finger off, just in order to get a longer sentence. Then there's Steven (Broderick), a want-to-be film director, who's still searching for his pot of gold...ah, luck. The rest of the characters orbit gently around these two propellers, spawning a genuine web of film-making personnel. Joe and Steven get to know each other when the detective plans to frame a certain low-ranker of the notorious Gotti family (in this particular case, Tommy Sanz, played by Shalhoub) and decides to pose as a film producer in order to fulfill his assignment. He meets Steven, the fate less anonymous screenwriter and the cameras start rolling...well, more or less.

The film proves to be a productive comedy - as in you'll get plenty of chances to prove your laughing capabilities - and is also dubbed by a layer of "sensfullness", meaning it's a smart comedy. Not all the time,I have to admit, but often enough. If I were to compare it with, let's say, "Get Shorty", a rather similar movie, I think I'd go for this one simply because its got more juice to squeeze. Director/screenwriter Nathanson efficiently parodies a lot of wacko attitudes of Hollywood, even though some of these particular scenes did seem to have been forced into the film. All in all, I'd say it's worth your time!

And one more thing...the intro credits are simply brilliant!

This was funnier than we thought it would be, we really enjoyed it. It's no Matrix or Shawshank but it's not supposed to be. As far as comedies go, it was creatively warm and mostly...entertaining throughout! (which is hard these days to find in most films)

Everyone did a good job with some good chemistry. Broderick was perfect for this role and I'm finding Alec Baldwin, (personal opinions aside), is becoming an actor I really appreciate in these types of roles so good for him. So, if it looks the 'least' bit interesting to you, then go and see it, I bet you'll enjoy it. Support a good lil film that has much more to offer you then most of the packaged crap out there.

The simplest way to describe The Last Shot is offbeat. This film is not for everyone, but I enjoyed it. It is a little disturbing to think these things really happened. The cast is fantastic, especially Baldwin. Broderick makes up for his disastrous turn as Harold Hill (in the Music Man). I would like to add here that Joan Cusack, who didn't make the opening titles or any of the posters, is absolutely hilarious. Ray Liotta should not have been cast. His presence is too big for the part he's playing. Overall, it's a clever film. My kudos to the editor.

The Last Shot is a supposedly true story about the FBI, undercover on a fake film set, known only to the few agents involved, trying to lure in an unsuspecting mobster in order to arrest him. With the actors and actresses involved, I expected more. A lot more, actually. While this was not a bad movie, I was still a bit disappointed.

Director Steven Schats (Matthew Broderick) and fake producer Joe Wells (Alec Baldwin) are making a movie called Arizona, which Schats and his brother happened to write. Along the way, Wells, AKA FBI Agent Joe Devine is talking the FBI into going further and further into actually shooting the movie until it seems that the FBI is actually interested in offering Devine a 3 picture deal.

Meanwhile, the casting is beginning and actually getting the attention of worthwhile movie stars, most notably Emily French (Toni Collette). Toni is visually stunning in this movie.

This movie was not too hard to watch, but still, I thought the talent could have made something much better. I miss the charismatic Broderick of Ferris Beuller. Most of the humor seemed to be of low value shock attempts, with the constant cursing. I am not against it, but in this case, it just seemed more childish and cheap than funny. Overall, not too bad but there are plenty of better movies to choose from. 6.5/10

From 2004, "The Last Shot" is one crazy movie, with comedy ranging from stupid to silly to hilarious. The movie stars Alec Baldwin, Matthew Broderick, Calista Flockhart, Tony Shaloub, Toni Collete, Ray Liotta, and Joan Cusack. Baldwin is Joe Devine, an FBI agent who thinks the way to capture a big mob boss is to deal with the Teamsters by pretending to be producing a film in Rhode Island. The script he gets from a fledgling writer Steven Schats (Broderick) is called Arizona and is based on the tragic death of his sister Charlotte. Of course, he first has to get Schatz to change the location and a few other things.

Before you know it, the fake filmmaking becomes real as Devine gets into producing and convinces the FBI that they can capture even more mobsters by actually doing the film. Soon the FBI offers him a three-picture deal.

Some of the dialogue is the funniest stuff you'll ever hear, and some of the situations are hilarious. Everyone is excellent, but Toni Collette as insane movie star Emily French is a standout, as is Cusack as a Hollywood agent and Tony Shalhoub as the badly scarred mobster they're after, who says, "My wife set fire to me while I was asleep. Six months later, our marriage fell apart." Parts of this film were laugh out loud funny, a highlight being Collette's audition as well as the opening scene of the film, an FBI sting, and Cusack's talk to the people who are going to work on the film.

Some people will not like "The Last Shot" at all, but it's really worth seeing for the fun it pokes at the film business, for the performances, and some great quotes.

The best part of this film was the opening credits (or "titles") done in a splendid, imaginative way with the names appearing on objects associated with a movie theatre. I also liked Toni Collette's outrageous performance of a diva dying to be cast in a career-saving role. There is also a great scene in which it appears as though literally everyone in L.A. has a written a screenplay that they are dying to see produced.

But, alas, the rest of the film was not very funny. The over-the-top approach to every moment became predictable, and the timing of the lines could have been crisper, especially in the scenes between Alec Baldwin and Matthew Broderick.

There was potentially a good film idea here. But just like the "Arizona" film that was the centerpiece of the story, the screenplay for "The Last Shot" seemed written by amateurs.

Joe (Alec Baldwin) is proud of the undercover work he does in catching mob guys. When he gets transferred to Providence, he goes all-out to try and bring down Tommy Sanz (Tony Shalhoub). His idea is to pretend to be a movie producer and bring in the mob in the production of it.

Turns out that in Hollywood, it's pretty easy to find a script. Anybody off the street will have one. Meet Matthew Broderick, he plays Steven Schats, the poor schmuck who actually thinks Joe wants to make his movie.

"The Last Shot" is actually very funny. Broderick and Baldwin are very funny together, and all the compromises that Broderick has to make to get his film made are hilarious. Calista Flockhart plays Broderick's actress/girlfriend, and her character is similar to Ally McBeal, but she's funnier.

Unfortunately the story doesn't go far after it's pretty good premise, but it is a short and funny ride. Enjoy "The Last Shot" for what it is - funny, plain and simple.

At first glance, 'The Last Shot' appears to have all of the trappings of extremely hilarious comedy of misadventures, misconceptions, and misunderstandings. But in retrospect, it was only moderately so, and probably because of much of the deadpan acting and not enough quirkiness within each character (not one of which that would border on characters common to spoof, but more of a deviation that would at least make the situations seem much more bizarre and humorous). Perhaps if Stanley Tucci (see The Imposters) or Martin Scorcese (see After Hours and Search & Destroy) had been given this material, the results would've been much better.

This is the story of a federal agent (Alec Baldwin) trailing a mobster (Tony Shaloub) who has been involved with teamster corruption. The agent poses as a producer and picks up some shmoe writer (Matthew Broderick) who has been desperately trying to sell his script and, as this producer, claims he will finance the film, and even asking the writer--already astounded by the ease at which his film has been approved by this producer--to direct. The director believes he has found his golden opportunity, while the half-hearted "producer" is only interested in getting as far as necessary so that he can initiate a deal with the teamsters and nab his guy. What may seem like comparable to the hilarious mockumentary, 'Cannes Man,' in fact only tends to provide such extremes only in unusual intervals. Perhaps for lack of material, or not enough of a story to go on, the resulting comedy is at best a mediocre one with the potential to be much better.

Props, however, to Toni Collette (always an excellent actress) for playing the bizarre, self-indulgent Emily French, and Joan Cusak (wasted here in a minor role) as the neurotic producer and the agent's mentor.

The Last Shot is a charming and inventive comedy starring Alec Baldwin and Matthew Broderick. Baldwin plays an FBI agent that has gone undercover as a Hollywood producer in order to take down the mob. Matthew Broderick is the unknowing writer/director hired by Baldwin to make the movie. Things quickly get out of hand and the movie goes from a cover story to a multi-picture deal backed by the FBI. Baldwin loses himself in his cover and begins to work in earnest with Broderick to make the film actually happen.

The humor is clever and the film pokes fun at Hollywood and the movie industry in general. Joan Cusack has a wonderful part as an overstressed Hollywood producer that the FBI calls in for advice on how to make a film that they don't actually intend to make. The movie becomes ever more funny as Baldwin desperately tries to get the film made while still catching the mobsters he was after in the first place. The desire to make the film is so infectious that even the mob ends up wanting a piece of the action. The Last Shot is very light and funny but there is just a hint of sadness to it. In all it is a quality comedy and I recommend it.

I rented this movie to watch on a plane because of the fantastic cast - Baldwin, Broderick, Shalhoub, Collette, Liotta, and on and on. Even the smaller supporting roles are filled by actors like Joan Cusack and Callista Flockhart and Tim Blake Nelson. wow.

Unfortunately, this is ruined by an idiot plot (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idiot_plot). People make idiotic decisions solely to provide the setup necessary for comic situations to exist.

Try though I might, I actually wound up shutting my laptop on this move in favor of reading the Southwest Airlines flight magazine - that says it all.

Some satires about the process of making movies point out to the craziness that process creates among the people involved, which is the idea behind "The Last Shot". It also depicts how most projects go through transformations the people that wrote them, as different people that know nothing about movies get involved.

Jeff Nathanson, the director and screen play writer of this funny movie has clear ideas about the concept that too many cooks spoil the broth. He has combined two different elements in his conception of the film. On the one level, there is the FBI investigation on racketeers and on the other, he brings a man who yearns to direct movies into the picture by offering him a phony deal in which supposedly a film is going to be produced, but only as a cover up to trap a mafioso in Rhode Island.

The idea of recruiting Steven Schats, an employee of the Graunman's Chinese Theater in Hollywood to direct his film "Arizona", is something that Joe Devine, an FBI man, dreams to get the results he wants. The film, which makes no sense at all, undergoes a change when Joe tells Steven the production will be shot in Providence, in order to take advantage of a deal with that state's cooperation with the movie industry. The young director gets horrified when he discovers how dissimilar the new location is in comparison with the real Arizona.

The plot gets complicated as Tommy Sanz, the mafioso who decides to cooperate in letting the movie company use the trucks he controls, to the production company in exchange of an executive producer credit in the movie. The arrival of Emily French, an actress of obscure talent, but with great physical attributes, contribute to create more confusion in the preparation of the movie. Also, Steven's girlfriend, Valerie, and his brother, Marshal, show up to make matters worse.

Alec Baldwin plays Joe Devine, the producer with great charm. Matthew Broderick also has an opportunity to shine in the movie. The wonderful Toni Collette appears as the sexy Emily French in great form. Tony Shalhoub is seen as Tommy Sanz, the racketeer. Calista Flockhart, Tim Blake Nelson, Buck Henry, James Rebhorn, do good work in the film. Joan Cusack makes the most of her character and a cameo by Ray Liotta round up the familiar faces in the movie.

"The Last Shot" is a delightful movie to watch as it's clear the director, Jeff Nathanson, clearly understands what make these people tick.

This is a brilliant small budget movie that deserves much more buzz and play that it has received. It is similar in plot structure to Joseph Heller's Catch 22.

Both start out with an odd but "realistic" beginning. Each progresses in small steps to more and more outlandish and unbelievable situations with a blurred line between possible and "this can't really be happening."

In Catch 22, the story begins with an odd but possible situation in the European theater in World War II. At the end of the story Milo Minderbinder, an American officer, is contracting with both the Germany and the Allies to bomb the other's military installations.

In the Last Shot, the story begins Baldwin, an FBI agent trying to make a name for himself, voluntarily allowing the bad guys to cut of one of his fingers so that he can charge the bad guys with more serious crimes.

The plot progresses with Baldwin setting up a façade of making a movie to trap other Mafia types. Obviously, no one expects that the movie will ever be made. It then progresses to a point where Baldwin and his superiors at the FBI are making what appears to be a real deal for a "three picture deal" and negotiating over marketing rights.

That progression, together with some wonderful side trips,cameos by Joan Cusack and Buck Henry, caused something that is rarely heard in multiplex theaters with relatively small audiences-outright loud laughter and even a bit of applause as the movie ended.

This movie is not Gone with the Wind or Citizen Kane. It is just good fun with laughs enhanced by the progression of not likely but possible to outright absurdity. The kicker is that the movie, according to the producers was based on a true story. If so truth may really be stranger than fiction.

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.

I decided to rent this mainly because of Toni Collette and Calista Flockhart but I don't mind Matthew Broderick or Alec Baldwin. It's from the writer of Catch Me If You Can and The Terminal (both films that I really liked) so I decided to give it a whirl. One word to describe how I felt by the time the credits rolled would be unsatisfied. Yes, the film, although at times very subtly done, has some hilarious moments (for instance when Calista Flockhart starts cursing at a kennel of dogs threatening to kill them). Also, as always, Toni Collette is a hoot as is Joan Cusack. But the film's main flaw is poor plot development. The film has virtually no twists and the outcome is something so simple, you can smell it right at the start of the movie. For me, the film ended too abruptly and way too short (the version I saw was 83 minutes long). Alec Baldwin is good as always as is Matthew Broderick but Ray Liotta is completely and utterly wasted (he's only in the movie for about 5 minutes) and if this was the movie that Calista Flockhart thought could be her comeback then she was sadly mistaken because although every scene she's in is an utter delight, her absence affects the movie at times. Joan Cusack is great as always but as I said with Ray Liotta is completely wasted (she's in it for even less than 5 minutes).

I don't know. Maybe my expectations of this film were too high but all I know is that the film had looked so promising from the outset but really didn't have a lot to give. However, for the few funny moments it has and for brilliant acting from the cast, it earns a 6 but for the dismal attempt for laughs before the film comes to a complete standstill, a point is deducted which gives a final verdict of: 5 out of 10

Pleasantly entertaining comedy has an irresistible premise and brilliant cast but lacks big laughs. In fact, the most effective comedy comes in throwaway bits around the edges rather than from the main plot--Joan Cusack in her brief scenes as a foul-mouthed agent is a hoot as is a clip from a sleazy Cinemax B thriller featuring a not completely surprising cameo.

Calista Flockhart is underutilized but along with Toni Collette seems to be most aware that she is in a farce and both actresses bring welcome energy to their scenes. Alec Baldwin and Matthew Broderick are perfectly cast but the material doesn't exactly let them shine, which is a shame. Much of the comedy feels flat and muted, like the writer/director was afraid to really let loose in farcical Preston Sturges mode, opting for a lower-key approach that is certainly safer if your script isn't funny (what's more painful than a movie straining to be funny when it isn't?) but in this case leads to fatally diminishing returns since the material cries out for more energetic treatment.

The writer/director might want to watch Ruthless People to see where he went wrong. If that film had been directed like The Last Shot, even with the exact same cast and script, it would have been considerably less funny and would have undoubtedly flopped, like The Last Shot is inevitably going to.

That's not to say The Last Shot won't make a good rental or that people won't enjoy watching it on HBO, but it could and should have been much funnier and isn't really worth a trip to the theater--that is, of course, providing that you even get the chance to skip it in the theater. In Chicago it opened on a whopping 3 screens.

"The Last Shot" is a mediocre comedy B-flick which tells of an FBI agent (Baldwin) who poses as a film producer and sets up a film shoot as a cover for a mob sting operation. Broderick is a Hollywood wanabe with a screenplay who gets tapped for the film project while Collette shines as the self-absorbed star. There's little new in this flick which tries to blend comedy with heart while tossing a bunch of Hollywood type characters into the mix with the sting op which gets lost in the messy conglomeration constituting the bulk of the film. "The Last Shot" offers a good cast of familiar faces but plays out like the kind of low level flick which you might want to Tivo/DVR from cable and save for some time killing entertainment. In the grand scheme of things this little flick falls somewhere between "The Last Nine Yards" and "The Last Ten Yards". Probably not worth the price of a rental. (C+)

The story of what happens when the FBI pretends to make a movie to catch the mob is true. The film thats been made from the tale is at times very very funny. The problem is that some odd acting choices lessen the humor of what should have been a much funnier movie. Matthew Broderick, for example, seems to have been stuck in his stage role from the Producers and comes off as an annoying nebish, at least to me. This isn't to say that the film isn't funny. It is. This is a film that contains many smiles and many laughs and really deserves to be seen. The problem is that through a good portion of this film you keep wondering why this isn't better. I have no answers. Still its definitely worth seeing, with my rating of six out of ten coming more out of disappointment than lack of quality. A really good "lost" film.

Wednesday, September 29, 2004

message to Roy Disney for whatever its worth

There were several unsafe, against union protocol and contract practices that occurred in the many weeks that I was shooting the film, as one of a handful of extras who were labeled in the script and storyboards as Stevens friends (Matthew Broderick played the role of Steven). Among these practices was the biggest flub of all: The pivotal Helicopter Scene where myself and about 5 others were directed by the Stunt Coordinator to stand under the hovering helicopter that was 10 ft above the ground (if a 6 man jumped up, he could've touched it, see the movie, it shows all) which is in every way a STUNT CONTRACT ROLE. Myself and the others participated about 3 times and then refused, unless given a contract. As there was no SAG rep on the set, we had no one to vouch for us, and the production grew livid at our request and literally started ripping our wardrobe off of us and placing it on other stunt people. This was indication enough as to how integral we were to the shot, and how we were getting a stunt contract stolen from right under us. We got the exact shots that we participated in, as well as the exact cameras that took those shots, as well as the storyboards showing US while the helicopter flew and hovered over our heads and presented it to our REP at the Screen Actors Guild, who in turn was going to present it as a claim on behalf of the 5 of us to Disney. A year went by and 4 of us (all except one) were sent a check of $20 for our troubles. Here is the aftermath of how Disney has made us feel:

Written by myself on 9/28/04

SOO.. has everyone seen the film yet? I had a chance on Sunday. I must say Disney is all about the profanity, nudity, gangster violence and cheap shots at typical shoddy-haven't we- heard-all-this-before-the-Player-etc "Hollywood biz" humor... ah, when Disney can stoop this low, well, there's your answer to family values, downward spiraling morals of society as a whole and well, a bleak bleak future of quality entertainment.

Or am I giving them too much credit?

regarding that helicopter scene...

What exactly did OUR SAG "REP" say?!? There was no evidence of us being in that shot; and After reviewing the dailies all he saw were people scattering before the chopper came in; and that he could do nothing about it; as well as there was so much debris he couldn't make out anything. This is correct, right, or am I leaving anything out?

(Even though when we chose to stop participating, they ripped our jackets and hats off of us and put them on stunt people who WERE UNDER CONTRACT DOING EXACTLY WHAT WE HAD JUST BEEN DOING in the shots that we had specifically named, down to which camera and everything! This alone is evidence that you don't need to weed through crushed walnut shells to uncover. )

Well, if you go with THAT line of thinking, than there isn't any evidence that ANYONE was in the shot. I guess all those people were just figments of our imagination, and hell... did the entire shoot happen at all? Or maybe I simply died the night our shuttle bus was breaking every driving rule in the book, including crossing a double yellow line, driving on the wrong side of the road, and zooming way past the speed limit down a very steep hill in Antelope Valley in the wee dark hours of the morning, just to try and get us back to our cars in the nick of time so they wouldn't HAVE to pay us Golden Time... and everything since has ALL BEEN A DREAM. Ah! A dream is a wish your heart makes, to quote from the Disney cricket... and I must have wished this...

I also must have wished to see myself speaking on the big screen one day. Who knew the wish would come true while chumming it up with Matty Broderick? It must be a dream, as don't exactly remember speaking nor a boom over my head, and when did that other guy have that huge run-on sentence monologue in the same scene? We must've both been dreaming... how weird! Too bad my dream didn't include a contract for my on-camera speaking role...

---

After talking with our SAG "rep"

He told me after reviewing the dailies all he saw were people scattering before the chopper came in, but he says there was so much debris he "couldn't make out anything".

I ask him why would they put Stunt people with us and sandwiched us in. He says "I Don't Know"

I said didn't you ask them that, he Says "NO", he says he had to plead with Disney for the $20.00

I ask about the SAG lawyers taking on the case. He says "it's out of their jurisdiction"

The only way to get anything is to get an outside lawyer to go after Disney and then SAG for not providing the service and protection we pay them for.

They know we probably will not do this so they will make there back handed deals with these production companies.

------------------------- Dear Roy, I'm sure your father never intended for his name to be used in this manner.

The Last Shot is a quirky, enjoyable art-house comedy based on the true story of an FBI agent, Garland Schweickhardt, who was in charge of an elaborate operation named "Dramex" to nab mob influences in the film business.

The Schweickhardt character in the film is named Joe Devine (Alec Baldwin). After a brief character establishing scene and an amazing title/opening credits sequence (featuring movie theater objects) that's one of the most creative and cute ones I've seen yet, Devine is transferred to the Providence, Rhode Island FBI office and learns of Tommy Sanz' (Tony Shalhoub) illegal mob dealings with the local teamsters. He figures that the best way to bust Sanz is to set up a fake film shoot and try to get him to make a deal to avoid having to use (and more importantly pay for) union truckers. So Devine, who knows next to nothing about the film business, poses as a producer and heads to Hollywood.

He gets a crash course in the industry from insider Fanny Nash (Joan Cusack in a hilarious extended cameo), and he begins his search for a script and director. Enter struggling screenwriter Steven Schats (Matthew Broderick), who has a day job as a ticket taker at Mann's Chinese Theater and who lives next to a noisy (of course) dog kennel, a fact that profoundly annoys his struggling actress girlfriend, Valerie Weston (Calista Flockhart). Schats has been shopping his script, "Arizona", for a number of years to no avail. Devine sets up a meeting with him and immediately offers him a deal, including casting power, final cut and points. Of course Schats jumps on the deal.

There's only one problem. The script calls primarily for location shots in the desert, including Hopi Indian cave scenes. It's integral to the story. But Devine insists that they shoot in Rhode Island. The bulk of The Last Shot hinges on a few different conflicts, including the FBI's reservations about Devine's plan, which keeps snowballing and turning into a more far reaching lie.

Although it's not every day that the FBI sets up a bogus film production, director and writer Jeff Nathanson uses his debut film as a helmer to comment on various levels of the typical craziness of the movie business. Devine's FBI superiors function as executive producers who are regularly perplexed about where their money is going, but who are easily enough talked into furthering their support as Devine pitches additional time and resources they need to acquire. On a more literal level, Nathanson is also able to spoof agents, directors, actors, and many processes, such as location scouting and casting. Much of this material is hilarious, and viewers do not need to have any intimacy with the film industry to "get it", or to get that there is probably a lot more truth to these scenes than is usually admitted.

The cast is excellent, including Baldwin and Broderick. They may not be the first two names many cineastes would think of when they imagine an art-house film propelled by humorous but poignant performances, but The Last Shot just shows why such conventional wisdom views are off the track. A lot of sizable stars take roles with far less screen time than normal--including Shalhoub, Flockhart and Ray Liotta, but this is a well-written script that turned out to be well directed, so it was a good move for them.

At the same time that Nathanson enables a somewhat sarcastic, cynical view of the film-making process, there is a parallel plot featuring Devine that emphasizes a much more romantic view of the lure of the business. It becomes increasingly clear as The Last Shot unfolds that Devine is no longer concerned with just or even primarily nabbing mobsters. He's trying to plunge deeper into making his "fake" feature because he's falling in love with the idea of film-making. There's a particular line of dialogue delivered by one of Devine's superiors in the FBI, having to do with continuing Devine's project, that is not only a hilarious line in context, it's virtually the climax of the film. Devine has triumphed. The sham has become not what he tells Schats, but what he tells his supervisors. The subsequent conclusion of the film is thus heartwarming and a bit melancholy/tragic at the same time. It's a nice change of pace from more stereotypically "Hollywood" endings.

This is a very good, near-excellent film that has not received the attention it deserves. Although there is an art-house atmosphere to it, it's really more of a mainstream film that should have opened wide in multiplexes with a big publicity campaign. I never even noticed the film on its theatrical release, and I live in New York City and usually pay attention to what's playing the art-house theaters. I only noticed the DVD through my weekly scouring of release schedules to make sure I don't miss anything. Give it a chance and make sure you tell a friend or two about it.

Alec Baldwin in it, whom I can't stand. In the movie, Baldwin(Joe) is a FBI agent who plays the role of a movie producer in order to try to get racketeering charges against mobsters. He goes to LA and finds Steven, a wanna be movie writer/director. He tells Steven he would like to produce his script, Arizona. Steven is thrilled. Then he finds out it will be filled in Rhode Island when the background is the desert. So, they go to RI and look at all these outdoor sceneries saying how they will make it into a desert. That part was funny.

Joe gets caught up in the film and really wants to make the movie. He keeps talking his bosses into extended the scheme in order to get more charges filed. He starts to care about Steven and the film and you know it's going to be sad when Steven learns the truth.

FINAL VERDICT: An ironic tale of Hollywood and how desperate people are to be a star. It's got some laughs, but it isn't something special. I only gave it a 5 because Alec Baldwin is so annoying.