44
Metascore
24 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 78Austin ChronicleAustin ChronicleFrom Lloyd Ahern's breathtaking, earth-toned cinematography to Freeman Davies' uncommonly graceful editing, Last Man Standing is a real class act, an old-fashioned thriller propelled by wildly violent, decidedly modern action sequences.
- 63ReelViewsJames BerardinelliReelViewsJames BerardinelliAs a shallow tale of conscienceless bloodshed and revenge, Last Man Standing is reasonably effective. But as an updated version of the far better-realized Yojimbo, it's an unqualified failure. Last Man Standing is a surface picture -- it looks good, sounds good, and moves quickly -- but there's no depth whatsoever.
- 63Baltimore SunStephen HunterBaltimore SunStephen HunterThe movie, in fact, is a lot like Willis' performance: impressive in an iconographic way, but really not nearly as much fun as it should be. It's like watching a spitting contest between totem poles. [20 Sep 1996]
- 60EmpireAdam SmithEmpireAdam SmithThe film's real strength is the way it sounds, with Ry Cooder's jangling score competing with thunderous gunplay for the shell-like's appreciative attention.
- 50San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleSan Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleHill and his cast, including Christopher Walken as a sadistic hood, struggle to score a victory of style over substance. But substance, or a lack thereof, wins.
- 50The New York TimesJanet MaslinThe New York TimesJanet MaslinLast Man Standing comes to life only with rapturous gunfights that add Sam Peckinpah to the film maker's pantheon of heroes, and that are ear-splitting enough to jolt the audience out of its seats. These scenes have their firepower, but they would have larger impact if anyone cared which of the film's gangsters lived or died.
- 50SlateDavid EdelsteinSlateDavid EdelsteinIn Last Man Standing, we don’t much care; Hill is too busy crafting a classic to pull us in. Apart from those high-impact action scenes, he leeches the movie of immediacy.
- An apparently unintentional parody of the he-man school of filmmaking, in which gunfire replaces dialogue and escalating violence passes for story development.
- 38San Francisco ExaminerWalter AddiegoSan Francisco ExaminerWalter AddiegoIt has the distinctive look of a Walter Hill picture, but in the end boils down to little more than a Bruce Willis action vehicle.
- 25Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertChicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertLast Man Standing is such a desperately cheerless film, so dry and laconic and wrung out, that you wonder if the filmmakers ever thought that in any way it could be ... fun.