Last Orders

Starring:Michael Caine, Tom Courtenay, David Hemmings, Bob Hoskins, Helen Mirren, Ray Winstone, JJ Feild, Cameron Fitch, Nolan Hemmings, Anatol Yusef, Kelly Reilly, Stephen McCole, George Innes, Laura Morelli, Sally Hurst, Denise Black, Sue James (III), Meg Wynn Owen, Kitty Leigh, Alex Reid (III)
Director: Fred Schepisi
Studio: Sony Pictures
Product Type: DVD

Average customer rating:

Interesting story--but multiple cast flashbacks just never work for me
A marvelous ensemble cast
Closing Time
Last rites?
A small gem

Last Orders
Starring: Michael Caine , Tom Courtenay , David Hemmings , Bob Hoskins , and Helen Mirren
Director: Fred Schepisi
Manufacturer: Sony Pictures
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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Similar Items:

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ASIN: B000069HQ4
Release Date: 2002-08-13

Customer Reviews:

Interesting story--but multiple cast flashbacks just never work for me.......2007-06-02

The novel was fascinating, but executing it on a big screen obviously was a huge challenge. Both my spouse and I got lost when the film flashed far enough back to change cast members. Much of the quips were wonderful, dry British humor--and if I just kept up with them, it was fine. It also helped to have read the book recently enough to make connections with the characters.

A marvelous ensemble cast.......2006-10-30

What a beautiful film, with a marvelous ensemble cast. Michael Caine (as "Jack") is brilliant and in a class by himself; and his love of acting is evident in each role he plays, always superbly. And the addition of Helen Mirren (as his wife "Amy") brings together two of the world's finest actors, and worldwide treasures. Bob Hoskins is always terrific, as is David Hemmings, and of course Ray Winstone (as Jack and Amy's son, "Vince"). It is so nice to see Tom Courtenay (first acclaimed in "The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner" and "Doctor Zhivago"), as well as the lovely Kelly Reilly (as young Amy).

For those who love British films at their best, in contrast to crass American special-effects movies, this is well worth viewing. The four men set out on a journey to honor Jack's final wishes; and it is moving in ways that are soft and tender, and beautiful. Amy adds that special touch, both in her youth and the winter of her life. Ah, to be a fly on the wall watching these great talents bring their magic to the silver screen--after waiting two and a half years for the money to make the film.

"Last Orders" is also about a father and son, who pretend that they do not need each other, but who need and love one another very much, which is true of most fathers and their daughters too. Also, right at the height of something--as director Fred Schepisi reminds us in the "Special Features" that are included on the disk--something goes wrong. Or as John Lennon reminded us in prophetic words from his last album: "[L]ife is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans."

Closing Time.......2006-06-19

Fred Schepisi's film adaptation of Graham Swift's brisk novel about death and Britishness, or the death of Britishness, is a textbook case of how a bad script can stymie a brilliant cast.

The screen comes alive whenever Michael Caine's on it, even when he's in a hospital bed. But he's never on for more than a few minutes before a flashback sweeps you back to his disturbing younger double, or shifts to one of his four mates, all of whom have stories and flashbacks of their own that need to be crammed in. Despite all the cuts, the snippets themselves are amazingly static for a film--four men driving in a car, four men standing at a pub, a man and a woman sitting on a bench: that's about 80% of the screen time right there.

The characters seemed representative rather than real personalities: East Enders who fight in the War, bet on horses, run family butcher shops, go hopping of a summer, and mark their major life events down the local felt too pat, too pasteboard, to interest even the actors. London appears through a warm gauze of color and memory that doesn't really do justice to the personal histories the film sets out to tell. The cast is a Who's Who of the last 40 years of British cinema--I wish they'd been given more room to stretch out and pour their own histories into the characters.

Last rites?.......2006-01-10

Viewers should beware of films which use flashbacks spanning so many years that two (or more) separate casts are required to portray one set of characters. This film is no exception. The actor representing the Michael Caine character (30 or so years earlier) was the only moderately credible such casting, there being a strong physical resemblance; though Field could also have played a similar role for Peter O'Toole. But disparities of the younger representations of Bob Hoskins (Anatol Yusef), Helen Mirren (Kelly Reilly), and several others were so severe that their initial appearances imparted a "Who-are-these-clowns-anyway?" air to the proceedings, until one finally makes the connection about an hour later.

Add the unremitting cockney accents in which this reviewer found it impossible to understand more than half of the dialogue (the remaining half requiring the utmost concentration); the incessant, minute-to-minute flipping back and forth between three different timeframes (present, near-present, and distant past); and that the entire film is basically a set of anecdotal reminiscences; and the film degenerates into a mish-mash of incoherence.

Not recommended.

A small gem.......2005-12-24

An unassuming and unpretentious British movie about beer drinking mates who set on the last journey bringing one of their own to his last resting place. That deceased mate came in the form of Michael Caine. As the son of the deceased (or was he?) played splendidly by Ray Winstone, he drove all of them to the seaside called Margate but not before he took a few detour to various locations that stirred up "ghosts" of the past. The movie came in the reminiscence format and as a good slow movie would gradually unfolded itself, it left us with clues which got audience begging for more. In the end, the little clues became the total sum of the movie. It seemed that amid the peace and tranquility on the surface, there always seemed to be some "dirty laundry" or secrets that probably should remain as they were. As best of mates, whilst some saw what they didn't mean to see, they were non-judgmental and took their friends as who they were. A movie that would linger in your mind after you watched it and a movie that would have you reflected upon your relationships with your friends and family members. Quite poignant but a fair reflection of reality. Highly recommended. No extra features in DVD other than subtitles selections

Average customer rating:

Interesting story--but multiple cast flashbacks just never work for me
A marvelous ensemble cast
Closing Time
Last rites?
A small gem

Last Orders [Region 2]
Starring: Michael Caine , Tom Courtenay , David Hemmings , Bob Hoskins , and Helen Mirren
Director: Fred Schepisi
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Drama | Genres | DVD | Video

( L ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video
Similar Items:

Cause Celebre
Critical Care
A Shock to the System
The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone
The Long Good Friday

ASIN: B000067A7F

Customer Reviews:

Interesting story--but multiple cast flashbacks just never work for me.......2007-06-02

A marvelous ensemble cast.......2006-10-30

Closing Time.......2006-06-19

Last rites?.......2006-01-10

A small gem.......2005-12-24

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