Almost called it a wrap before the end of the first reel

THE LAST SHOT (2004)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

Purportedly based on a true story involving an FBI sting to nab mobsters under the pretext of making a fake movie, "The Last Shot" might have worked had it been released back in the early 90's. Such a story of a movie-within-the-movie being made in Hollywood, or actually in Providence, Rhode Island, resembles leftovers from any post-"The Player" knockoff we have seen a million times minus any humor or satiric potential. As I said, it is refried leftovers.

Alec Baldwin plays an FBI agent who gets his finger cut off by some anonymous bad guys in a separate sting operation. His own dog, Sasha, kills herself by jumping into a jacuzzi because he is never home with her! So far, this film smacks of tastelessness and under-imagined black comedy potential. The real-life John Gotti is coming to Providence so Baldwin gets the bright idea to fake a movie shoot so as to bust Gotti and all his minions into using non-union trucks in a deliberate...oh, who cares. By the climactic third act that involves Ray Liotta as another federal agent, the whole plan comes apart anyway and the plot becomes as thin as shaved ham.

Poor Matthew Broderick (who has appeared in a slew of bad movies) is the screenwriter and proposed director of this idiotic screenplay that Baldwin uses as a cover. Question: why do most Hollywood satires feature such incredulous and unbelievably dumb script ideas in their movie-within-the-movie? Broderick's script titled "Arizona" deals with an angel in the desert named Charlotte (played by Toni Collette) and suicide and a series of flashbacks, but it is material that even jaded Hollywood executives would never want to make. I guess the joke is that Baldwin's fed wants to make it and actually believes in it. To make matters worse, Pat Morita and Russell Means appears as themselves in fleeting cameos - couldn't the filmmakers have given those two something to do beyond introducing themselves at a script meeting? As for Toni Collette, she is far too over-the-top as a diva who plays the title role in the "Arizona" script. I'll second more cartoonish hollering and hysteria from Calista Flockhart as Broderick's manic-depressive girlfriend who threatens to kill pooches - where is PETA when you really need them? Wasting any opportunity to have Tony Shalhoub in a movie wastes our time and patience.

Written by Jeff Nathanson without a shred of irony or comedic potential, "The Last Shot" falls flat on its face. Except for one scene where Baldwin mimics an obscene producer's phone call, there is not one laugh to be had from the entire movie. It is behind-the-scenes moviemaking by the numbers.