Last Hour (2008)

 

Last Hour (2008)- * *

Directed by: Pascal Caubet

Starring: Michael Madsen, DMX, Tony D'Amario, Tommy Wong, Krystana Ferentz,  Pascal "Kobe" Caubet, Monica Cruz, Paul Sorvino, and David Carradine

When a group of "dangerous men with guns" are summoned to a house somewhere in China, a potentially volatile situation presents itself. They all have nicknames, and they are: Monk (Madsen), Mr. Casino (D'Amario), Black Jack (DMX), Poker (Caubet), and Shang (Wong). A woman nicknamed Poison (Ferentz) invites them into the house. After a lot of mutual suspicion, they find out they can't get out and they only have an hour to live. Detectives Mike Stone (Carradine) and Rosa Mulero (Cruz) from the NYPD follow them to the house and a standoff begins. And what does Steinfeld (Sorvino) have to do with any of this? Will it be THE LAST HOUR for our assembled houseguests?


If you loved the utter incoherence of Diamond Cartel (2015), also starring Madsen, you'll also love The Last Hour. It's pretty surprising that they weren't directed by the same person. The Last Hour isn't a movie in the traditional sense that we all know, it's more of a 95-minute series of disjointed, puzzling incongruities. If you've seen one or the other of these whackadoo outings, you'll know what we're talking about. If you haven't, it's hard to recommend them outright, but we can guarantee you won't see anything like them.


This isn't to be confused with The Last Hour (1991) starring Michael Pare and Shannon Tweed - this particular Last Hour is directed by, and stars, a French gentleman named Pascal Caubet who goes by the name Kobe. The Last Hour was his first and last theatrical (i.e. not a telefilm) outing to date and lord only knows what he was thinking.



The first third or so of the film jumps from Reno, to New York, to San Diego, to "Somewhere in Eastern Europe", to Beijing, to Miami, to Macau, to Hong Kong, and probably some other places we've forgotten. With each place, we seemingly get a new plot. When we finally land at the "13th Precinct" in NYC, we find out that this particular precinct doesn't use lights. New York's finest wander around in literal darkness as they try to solve crimes.


Before all this, we get a trailer-like montage of scenes that we're about to see. Then during the opening credits, many of them are illegible. Perhaps they were trying to be so cool, they forgot to include a readable font. At some point we're introduced to Michael Madsen's hair, which looks like someone glued a kid's stuffed lion doll on his head. Kobe's accent is impenetrably thick most of the time.


DMX seems to be trying to inject some much-needed energy into the proceedings, but it all comes up against the brick wall of the quizzical, shoulder-shrugging randomness of the film itself. He mainly ends up yelling and pointing his gun at people, which is what almost every character does. Points should also go to Tony D'Amario as Mr. Casino, who was one of the better characters. He was known for his appearance in District B13 (2004), but, sadly, The Last Hour was D'Amario's final screen appearance. While D'Amario passed away in 2005, the film was released three years later, in '08. His career was just getting going. That was truly unfortunate.


More than likely thanks to the fact that Caubet somehow managed to wrangle a very solid B-Movie cast together for this, it received a DVD release. There are no features on the disc which might explain what the heck we just watched. Because none of this makes any sense, it's hard to care about the characters or what happens to be happening to them. If none of the above bothers you, feel free to check it out, but you've been warned.

Comeuppance Review by: Brett and Ty

Knock Off (1998)

Knock Off (1998)-* * *

Directed by: Tsui Hark

Starring: Jean-Claude Van Damme, Rob Schneider, Lela Rochon, and Paul Sorvino












Set in Hong Kong, Knock Off is the tale of how the fashion industry intersects with the Russian mafia and the CIA. As if you didn’t already know. Tommy Hendricks (Schneider) is a fashion designer and his pal Marcus Ray (Van Damme) is shocked when he discovers “knock off” goods on the streets of Hong Kong, such as “Pumma” sneakers. But it’s all just a ruse to smuggle high-tech weaponry such as extremely dangerous and destructive bombs that explode with green flames. 

When the marketing manager for V-Six jeans, Karen Lee (Rochon), gets involved - as anyone might if they were somehow embroiled in a scenario that involved Exploding Counterfeit Jeans (or ECJ’s, as we like to call them) - they meet the mysterious Harry Johanson (Sorvino) and the stage is set for a lot of high-octane fights, stunts, chases and battles. Will these knock off products finally get our heroes...knocked off? Find out today!

The purpose of movies, especially movies like this, is to entertain. And Knock Off certainly does. It seems to work overtime to please the viewer with all sorts of fast-paced and off-kilter scenarios, and the vibe becomes infectious. Just as director Tsui Hark did the previous year with JCVD in Double Team (1997), he teams him up with a wacky American sidekick. With Double Team, unforgettably, it was the one and only Dennis Rodman. Here, it’s with unlikely action star Rob Schneider. We even get some brief Schneider-Fu, and, unfortunately, he also appears shirtless. Both Rodman and Schneider were hot in the 90’s - which is easy to forget these days - which just adds even more to the nutty feel of these movies.

If it’s one thing Knock Off has, it’s style, and we’re not just talking about fashion. Hark’s direction is filled with energy and overflowing with unusual camera angles (such as “shoe vision”) to the point where it can be described as cartoonish. Far from a bad thing, the whole venture seems very “Hong Kong” and he probably figured, after Double Team, ‘to hell with the American market, I’m doing this my way.’  

What reinforces that are the fun, Jackie Chan-style stunts and fights. Sammo Hung is credited as Second Unit Director, and this may seem insane, but you can actually tell. It’s his action style all the way.  JCVD gets a great intro to his character in the film, and both he and Rob Schneider both wear zany Hawaiian shirts for most of the movie’s running time. Clearly they are the height of fashion. JCVD also has his typical funny faces on display, adding to the charm of the movie.

While it was nice to see Paul Sorvino on board, though he seemed a tad bit confused (though wouldn’t you be?) - especially in the scenes where he, Rochon, Schneider and Van Damme are all together (talk about powerful casting) - truly the biggest coup were getting the Mael brothers of Sparks fame to do the music. Their closing credits title song is very slick, clever and catchy, like most of their other work. You’ll be singing “It’s a knock off...” for weeks. Yes, weeks. Varouje Hagopian did additional music, and we’ve seen that name before (he seems to do the music for a lot of Billy Blanks movies). In the end, if it’s zany, colorful, well-choreographed action you seek, Knock Off is a great choice.

Comeuppance Review by: Ty and Brett 

Also check out write-ups by: DTVC and The Video Vacuum!