Last Man Standing is the1996 remake based on the immortal Akira Kurosawa's 1961 Yojimbo. There is a reason you don't mess with the best: you will invariably get beaten into the dirt by it. Even the Clint Eastwood western, A Fistful of Dollars pales in comparison, and that is a classic western. Last Man Standing is an object lesson in leaving greatness alone. The plot revolves around a loner who suddenly arrives in a town, which is a battleground for two rival prohibition gangs. He sees a chance to make a few dollars by playing the gangs against each other, but as fate and cliche would have it, the plan goes pear shaped. Quickly. It amazed me that this movie was only an hour and forty one minutes long, it felt like it would never end. Director Walter Hill apparently thought that by slowing the pace down, he was building drama and tension. Nope. He put the movie in park and only occasionally into first gear. The all too infrequent action sequences were to short and jumpy, and the dialogue seemed to be an awful mess, with cliches and one liners flying faster than the bullets.
Bruce Willis seemed to be in his usual zone here as the brutal, and very tough to kill hero. Delivering lines without his normal humor was kind of weird to see, but it was how John Smith was written. Christopher Walken again played the psychotic hitman to his best, actually toning his usual crazy down. It was tough watching these two actors downplaying their roles, as this seemed a perfect opportunity to go nuts, but it is what it is.
See the original Yojimbo and miss this. Kurosawa delivers an infinitely better movie at a savings of ten minutes. Last Man Standing could have been better had the writers LOOSELY based it on Yojimbo, not remained slavishly devoted to the original script. Leave the classics alone. 5.25/10
See you tomorrow, and GO WATCH A MOVIE!!
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