Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3368 in DVD
• Released on: 1997-11-19
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
• Formats: Black & White, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, Letterboxed, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English, French
• Subtitled in: English, Spanish, French
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 101 minutes

Amazon.com
Best known for making movies about men and violence, director Walter Hill scored a misfire with this ambitious but ultimately dreary remake of Akira Kurosawa's samurai classic Yojimbo. The story's essentially the same but the setting has been switched to a dusty, almost ghostly Texas town in the 1930s, where two rival Chicago gangs are locked in an uneasy truce. Bruce Willis plays the lone drifter who allies himself with both gangs to his own advantage, working both sides against each other according to his own hidden agenda. The violence escalates to a bloody climax, of course, with Christopher Walken, David Patrick Kelly, and Michael Imperioli as trigger-happy lieutenants in a lonely, desolate war. Fans of gangster movies will want to see this, and, if nothing else, Hill has brought his polished style to a vaguely mythic story. It's far from being a classic, however, and although its action is at times masterfully choreographed, the movie's humorless attitude is unexpectedly oppressive. --Jeff Shannon

Customer Reviews

The Baxters and the Rojos are Back
This is a remake of Fistful of Dollars. Bruce Willis plays Clint Eastwood in a reimagining of the classic now set Prohibition's gangster era. It's still a lonely town on the Border with two warring factions in uneasy truce when the loner walks in, or in this case drives, to upset everything.

Unintentional Comedy Factor almost pushed this two stars...
This movie is absolutely terrible. However, it does have a great unintentional comedy factor that made it worth getting through at least once! I mainly picked this up because I tend to like a lot of Bruce Willis' action films, even if they are pretty cheesy at times. This one is probably the most ridiculous out of all the others I've witnessed so far. Sometimes movies can be awesomely bad and actually retain some re-watch value; unfortunately "Last Man Standing" didn't really have that quality for me.

The premise of the film isn't actually all that bad. It takes place in the small town of Jericho, not far from the Mexican border I assume. It feels like it has a very 1920's/1930's gangster kind of feel to it during the times of Prohibition. Basically there are two rival gangs in Jericho and they appear to take clandestine shipments up from Mexico to transport to the bigger cities. I must emphasize that these are probably small time gangsters in comparison to the major players in places like Chicago and New York City. It's as if they couldn't cut it in those major areas, but could be dominant in a smaller place. This movie kind of plays out like "The Untouchables" meets a Clint Eastwood Western.

Bruce Willis' character John Smith is on the run. We never learn from where, and I doubt we ever really learned his real name. Naturally the town's local gangs treat him like a nobody, so sure in their power. Problem is we get the impression that Smith was involved with some of the real gang activity in the big cities, most likely in the guise of a hit man. Smith knows he's up against a bunch of cocky upstarts and feels no shame pitting them against each other. Not to mention playing a round of "who's the better killer?" Willis' character really has no interest in controlling the town; he simply doesn't like either of the gangs.

Doesn't sound like that bad of a premise really, and truthfully it's not. However, the terrible acting adds to the cheesy factor so much more. What really topped it in this film was what happens whenever Willis shot anyone. I'm not going to say I'm an expert on shooting people, but I do know some general things about physics and guns. I can safely say that this movie is outrageous! The first guy Willis shoots flies through the air like fifty feet. Willis shot him with a pistol! It wasn't even a Magnum; it was like an older first generation twelve shot pistol! My friend theorized that maybe it's like increasing the force because the bullets hit the same exact spot each time so the body flies further away! (Obviously he was joking.) This happens a lot of the time whenever Bruce shoots someone and the unintentional comedy factor is amazing! Not to mention when Christopher Walkin shows up you can't help but feel good about that. Unfortunately Walkin didn't have a major presence until the last parts of the film and he had very few lines.

Aside from that one funny factor this movie didn't have too much else. The story wasn't horrible, but it wasn't something I could see myself watching multiple times. If a movie has horrible re-watch value then it must not have been very good for me, especially since I can watch movies over and over again! It's not bad to watch at least once, but there isn't much beyond that. If the premise sounds interesting then I would say give it a shot, but don't expect a highly intriguing or new plot.

1.5 out of 5

last man standing
This is my most favorite movie of all times. I love it so much I have played it 4 times in a month..I had it before on a disc I copied from the tv and lost it ..I saw it on amazon and got it right away..