Film 12/52: The Last Boy Scout/Last Man Standing (1991/1996)

 

I had already planned for The Last Boy Scout to be our 'L' movie when the news broke that Bruce Willis was withdrawing from acting due to the onset of cognitive issues. The Last Boy Scout is a Tony Scott film written by Shane Black, so I'm not quite sure how I managed to dodge this one for so long, aside from what I recall were scathing reviews at the time of its release. When I realized that the film was in our library on a multi-feature disc with Walter Hill's Last Man Standing, I thought, what better way to celebrate Bruce's sad news than a double (or double-L) feature of these two films that had never been screened in The Slaughtered Lamb Cinema.

I was pleasantly surprised how entertaining The Last Boy Scout was, even though all the ingredients were there for an enjoyable Tony Scott concoction. Sure, Damon Wayans took some getting used to, but I got over whatever reservations I had about him midway through the film. It's got all the glitz, gloss and pyrotechnics one might expect from a Tony Scott film, along with the snappy dialog that Shane Black is so well known for. It's not my favorite film from either man, but it fares far better than its reputation.

Willis plays Joe Hallenbeck, a down on his luck former secret service agent/current private detective. In classic hard-boiled fashion, his wife's cheating on him, his daughter (Danielle Harris) shows him no respect, and his best friend, well, let's just say that he's not doing Hallenbeck any favors when he recommends him for a job protecting a young Halle Berry (an exotic dancer and girlfriend of Wayans' excommunicated pro quarterback). That sets the story in motion, and Willis and Wayans are drawn together to run afoul of a truckload of stereotypical bad guys, and some fresh ones as well (including the late, great, Taylor Negron, who is very far removed from the roles he played in 'Savage' Steve Holland's comedies). Halle Berry is the real surprise here, in one of her earliest film roles. She steals every scene she's in. 

Much to my surprise, Vonna was quick to proclaim The Last Boy Scout was her favorite of the films we've screened thus far in the series. As a 'mis-matched buddy' flick, it's nowhere near as good as Black's Lethal Weapon (directed by Richard Donner) or The Nice Guys (directed by Black himself), though it's arguably more entertaining than Tony Scott's Beverly Hills Cop 2! I'm glad I can check this one off my 'unseen' list, as I've enjoyed many of the films of Tony Scott and Shane Black have made through the years. I would have even considered turning this into a triple feature had a copy of Black's The Last Action Hero (directed by John McTiernan) been in the Slaughtered Lamb library...

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Walter Hill's Last Man Standing is a remake of Akira Kurosawa's Yojimbo (and, as an extension, Sergio Leone's A Fistful of Dollars). Willis was an interesting choice to fill the shoes of Toshiro Mifune (and Clint Eastwood), burdened with an occasional, overbearing voiceover. Fans of those original films will find some things to appreciate in this prohibition-era take on the tale, with Willis coming between two warring factions in a town in the middle of nowhere (just off the Mexican border), but it ultimately drags on. 

The number of bullets that fly through the film's run-time make me wonder if the armorer on set had the hardest job! And those bullets run through quite a few members of an impressive supporting cast. The great David Patrick Kelly (Twin Peaks' Jerry Horne) reigns on one side of the town, with Christopher Walken as his main button-man, along with R.D. Call (who it took me the entire running time to place from his role in Stephen King's Golden Years). On the other end of town, Michael Imperioli is amongst the opposition. Bruce Dern is the town's emasculated sheriff, and William Sanderson plays a character that could have been an ancestor of the one he'd go on to portray on Deadwood a few years later. The biggest surprise in the cast was a young Leslie Mann as a talkative hooker that Willis is with during the first failed attempt on his life. 

Things play out as expected in this kind of story, even for those unfamiliar with the earlier versions. At every turn, crowds of bad guys can barely manage to get off any shots at our two-fisted hero as he mows them down, reloads, and mows them down again. At one point, Willis is beaten to the point of being unrecognizable, and just when you think a character will have to realistically deal with the pain and suffering he endured, he's back on his feet to deliver the final justice the story demands. One last thing that stood out, and not in a good way — is how when Willis' character shoots people, they tend to fly across the room, street, and town, providing a few unintentional laughs.

All in all, it was fun watching a pair of Bruce Willis films this week that we hadn't seen previously. Thankfully, as he wraps up his acting career, he does so leaving behind an impressive body of work. Some of my favorite performances from his body of work can be found in Die Hard, Death Becomes Her, Striking Distance, Pulp Fiction, The Fifth Element, and Looper.