The Last Year

Starring:Ron Petronicolos, Mike Dolan, Patrick Orion Hoesterey, Merrick McMahon, Elizabeth Flesh, Seth Adams, Rand Smith, Penelope Ma, Craig Staswick, Joe Olesh, Lawrence Rinzel, Jason Sumabat, Dale Ferranti, Jason Freeman (III), Duane Waddell, Randy Lee (IV), Rocky Traylor, David Running
Director: Jeff London
Studio: Wolfe Video
Product Type: DVD

Panic in the Year Zero/The Last Man on Earth

Average customer rating:

One good, one OK
Great stuff
The post apocalyptic world is not a pretty place
Last Man
Last Man Standing(I don't know what that's supposed to mean)

Panic in the Year Zero/The Last Man on Earth
Starring: Franca Bettoia , Antonio Corevi , Christi Courtland , Emma Danieli , and Carolyn De Fonseca
Director: Ubaldo Ragona
Manufacturer: MGM (Video & DVD)
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B000787YOA
Release Date: 2005-09-20

Amazon.com

Vincent Price gives an atypically restrained performance as the sole survivor of a worldwide plague that revives its victims as bloodthirsty vampires. During the day, he canvasses his abandoned hometown, tracking down and stalking his former friends and neighbors, always making sure to return before nightfall, when the dead rise to assault his fortified house. Hope arrives in the form of an apparently normal young woman (Franca Bettoia), but her agenda proves to be even more sinister than that of the vampires.

Based on the 1954 novel by coscripter Matheson (whose displeasure with the final product spurred the use of a pseudonym), this Italian-made production is best known for its influence on George Romero's Night of the Living Dead. The similarities between the two films go beyond the presence of shuffling zombies and housebound heroes; both feature taboo-breaking scenes of interfamilial murder, and both end on bleak, dystopian notes. While The Last Man on Earth lacks the political and darkly satirical shadings (and graphic gore) that make Night of the Living Dead a more memorable experience, the combination of Bava-esque Gothic atmosphere and bleak, documentary-style camerawork by directors Ragona and Salkow (the brother of Price's agent Lester Salkow) lend themselves to moments of pure frisson that compare laudably to Romero's film. Matheson's novel also provided the source material for the awkward 1971 Charlton Heston vehicle The Omega Man. A planned third version, helmed by Ridley Scott and starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, was shut down in its earliest stages due to skyrocketing budget costs. --Paul Gaita

Customer Reviews:

One good, one OK.......2007-06-14

"Panic in the Year Zero" is an outstanding movie. It is as timely today as it was when made. "The Last Man on Earth" is OK and Vincent Price carries the day. It did show its European production style with a lot of fits and starts and no smoothness in continuity.

Buy the set for "Panic in the Year Zero" which is thought-provoking and a good survival primer. Watch "The Last Man on Earth" on a rainy day.

Great stuff.......2007-05-26

I remember seeing Panic when I was just a little (like maybe eight or nine years old) kid. It was on TV and I thought it was great. Having watched it now, as an adult and having grown up during the Cold War, I see just how great it really was. In a sense, it was visionary in its portrayal of society's reaction to a nuclear attack. Miland's performance was incredible as were the other actors in the film. Add to that fact that Miland also directed this film and I believe it truly shows the man's talents and genius. Yes, there was a level of nostalgia for me as I watched it, but the film points to some very significant issues that I feel we all need to address.

I have not yet watched Last Man but will do so soon.

The post apocalyptic world is not a pretty place.......2007-02-26

I bought this(these) movies basically because I enjoy the MGM Midnite series(bringing you b-movies gems of the past at a decent price).
Panic in the yEar Zero is a good/alright movie-it's the first movie that Ray Milland directed, and it was written by Jay Simms,who also wrote the cult favorite "Creation Of The Humanoids".
The real reason I bought this was to get a decent print of "The Last Man On Earth"-written by Richard Matheson(under a pen name of Logan Swanson).
There are other print on dvd around (and probably a lot cheaper too)but this is a great print, and as a extra BONUS there's an video interview with Richard Matheson as well.

Last Man.......2007-02-16

I really just bought this for "The Last Man on Earth". For years I have picked up various copies of this movie only to be disappointed by the quality of the picture and sound. When I saw this MGM version I bought it and hoped for the best. I can honestly tell you this is the best version I have seen. Fantastic sounds and picture for a 40 year old movie. Based on the Matheson novel "I Am Legend", this movie is a must for Price fans and fans of the vampire/zombie genre. Panic in the Year Zero is really just a bonus for me. I had never seen the movie. Though it is very dated, I guess it was quite racey for the times, and probably very scary with the Cuban Missle crisis right around the corner. This film is of nice quality as well. This is well worth the asking price.

Last Man Standing(I don't know what that's supposed to mean).......2007-02-02

I received this movie in a very timely manner and it was in great condition. The DVD looked like it was transferred directly from the film itself. It was grainy and had that old theater quality,which at first I was a little annoyed by, but as the movie continued, it sort of made everything a little more authentic, like listening to a record on vinyl.

The movie itself was a mixed bag. Anything with Vincent Price is at least worth a look, and this movie served as not only a very close adaptation of a well known story(I am Legend by Richard Matheson) now under production at a major studio, but as a direct inspiration for one of the best horror films ever-Night of the Living Dead. All those facts about the movie peaked my interest and I was very excited to be able to see it. I came away from the experience satisfied, if a tad underwhelmed.

The plot of the movie revolves around a plague that has devastated the world population. All the victims of the disease die, then return as a weak strain of vammpire. We're not talking abuot typical vampires though, they have all the weaknesses but none of the strengths. They're physically weak, and their brains function at minimal capacity. Vincent Price plays a man who is apparently the only surviving member of humanity. By day he wanders the streets collecting supplies and finding the vampires resting places and killing them. By night he holes up in his barricaded house and waits out the inevitable attempts to break in by an ever growing grouop of the undead, one of which was an old friend. In the last quarter of the movie, he stumbles upon another survivor who is not what she appears.

The pluses of the movie are several, Vincent Price being one as his performance oozes a quiet desperation and his excitement at finding someone else alive is palpable. He has the weight of carrying the film and does so wonderfully. The night attacks have a great creepiness about them and you can definatly see a direct link to NOTLD in these scenes. The biggest difference being the fact that these living dead creatures talk. One of them(Vincents characters friend) pounds away endlessly at the barred window calling his name over and over in a dry, monotone wail. Its a great spooky moment. The scenes during the day are well done too. Showing the monotony of having his set routine planned out every day and there are several striking images, most namely a giant fire pit that burns constantly giving him a place to dispose of bodies. The shortcomings of the movie however almost balance out the good stuff. the movie is a little dated and the acting of most of the secondary characters(primarily introdcued in flashback) verge on cheesy in that old Hollywood Melodramatic vain. Scenes of Mr Price and his family(who contacted the disease) vary from forced to heartbraking as Mr Price has to deal with watching his daughter die. For the most part though these scenes are a little overexplanatory and sometimes unnecessary. These scenes provide some of the main frustration with the movie, portraying the bleakness and hopelessness of the story but done with clunky overbearing acting, along with that old hollywood opinion that audiences can't figure things out for themselves, so explain,explain,explain. Mr Price has several voiceovers at the beginning of the movie as well that seem extraneous. His voiceovers when used as a tool to set up the story and portray his lonliness work very nicely, but when used to illustrate very simple points the really don't need verbalization, become very frustrating very quickly.

All in all though,if you like classic horror and if you want to see an old school end of the world flick that has the guts to tack on a bleak ending that most movies of that era wouldn't, you could do alot worse.

Last Year at Marienbad (Anno scorso a Marienbad)[ NON-USA FORMAT, PAL, Reg.2 Import - Great Britain ]

Average customer rating:

The Perfect Film

Last Year at Marienbad (Anno scorso a Marienbad)[ NON-USA FORMAT, PAL, Reg.2 Import - Great Britain ]
Director: Alain Resnais
Manufacturer: StudioCanal
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B000F2SN0M

Product Description

Great Britain released, PAL/Region 2 DVD: it WILL NOT play on standard US DVD player. You need multi-region PAL/NTSC DVD player to view it in USA/Canada. LANGUAGES: French (Dolby Digital 2.0), English (Subtitles), ANAMORPHIC WIDESCREEN (2.35:1), SYNOPSIS: In a huge, old-fashioned luxury hotel a stranger tries to persuade a married woman to run away with him, but it seems she hardly remembers the affair they may have had (or not?) last year at Marienbad. SPECIAL FEATURES: Trailer(s), Short Film, Scene Access, Interactive Menu, Documentary, Cast/Crew Interview(s),

Customer Reviews:

The Perfect Film.......2006-08-28

People tend to either love or hate this film. Whilst some adore it's labyrinthine, non-linear structure; the playfulness of the imagery; and the innate contradictions between the voice-over narrative and the visual imagery, others consider this irrelevant and tedious.

The subtlety of the film in both the auditory and visual modes encourages examination. Why do the figures in the garden cast shadows, when the garden itself doesn't? The film has the texture of a dream, reminiscent of the eerie paintings of Paul Delvaux and Giorgio de Chirico.

This is a film that all students of the subject should see. It is not an easy film to watch, but an endlessly rewarding one to consider and reconsider. It is a film for those who believe art should challenge.

Average customer rating:

Brave and unique experiment in cinematic narrative technique
Essential viewing for cinephiles
a journey into the surreal.......
Look, the Emperor is naked!
Unutterable elegance

Last Year at Marienbad
Starring: Delphine Seyrig , Giorgio Albertazzi , Sacha Pitoëff , Françoise Bertin , and Luce Garcia-Ville
Director: Alain Resnais
Manufacturer: Fox Lorber
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: 1572524308
Release Date: 1999-03-23

Amazon.com

One of the most ferociously iconoclastic and experimental films of the French New Wave, Alain Resnais's 1961 feature, winner of the grand prize at that year's Venice Film Festival, is based on a script by Alain Robbe-Grillet. At its center is what seems to be a simple but unanswerable puzzle: Did its protagonist (Giorgio Albertazzi) have an affair the year before with a woman (Delphine Seyrig) he just met (or possibly re-met) at his hotel? The inquiry becomes an unsettling experiment in flattening the dimensions of past, present, and future so that any difference between them becomes meaningless, while Resnais's coldly formal but oddly dreamlike geometric compositions make space itself seem a function of subjective memory. Add to that Resnais's trademark tracking shots--long, smooth, a visual correlative of a wordless feeling--and this is a film that truly gets under the skin in almost inexplicable ways. One of the most influential works of its time. --Tom Keogh

Customer Reviews:

Brave and unique experiment in cinematic narrative technique.......2007-03-06

Tired of feeling blase about the movies you see? Unable to remember details about them? Look no further, you will definitely remember this movie (if you can sit through it without managing to throw the nearest heavy, metallic object through your TV screen!), and you will either love it or loathe it; this is anything but run-of-the-mill or forgettable.

To describe Last Year at Marienbad is extremely difficult other than to say the movie should be seen as an experiment in cinematic narrative. It is among other things, mostly a depiction of memory, fantasy, imagination, detailed description and emotional distance on film. To some it will seem like a bold experiment, while just as many people, if not more, will think it bizarre and pretentious.

For the first two thirds of the way at least, you will feel indifferently toward the characters even if you are enthralled by the plot ... which is doubtful. Even the most patient viewer will sometimes wonder about the point of making a movie like this. Action-packed this definitely is not. Nor is it dramatic, sexy, suspenseful, stressful, unsettling or any other word one uses to describe human emotions. Most of the time the characters display hardly any emotion at all. Odd, considering allusions to possible marital infidelity, the possibility of psychological illness and one character all but stalking another. Often the people seem more like mannequins or props than actors. Many a shot looks like a tableau in which barely anyone or anything moves. Wind, footfalls, breathing, vocal inflections -- for the most part these are absent. It is set in an opulent mansion and shot with a cold, Versailles-like formal symmetry, and the story is told mainly vocally, rather than visually, using a mostly low-key, evocative narration and accompanied and punctuated with organ music that seems like it was taken from a silent horror movie.

Yet, despite it all, I found it fascinating and hypnotic. Whether others will like it is extremely difficult to say. As for the moral of the story ...? Well, good luck with all of that.

Leave it to the French to make a movie that seems almost devoid of plot, conflict and emotion. Just like a French author produced a 200-plus page novel, a couple of years ago, that did not contain a single verb. Strange? Yes. Brave? Also. But in the case of Last Year at Marienbad, I leave it to each individual viewer to decide if the experiment succeeded.

Essential viewing for cinephiles.......2007-02-19

A man approaches a woman. He tells her of a past liaison they've had but can't recall all the details. She has no memory of this past. The scene is repeated in a different setting, sometimes the garden, sometimes a corridor or the dining room, but always at the hotel where they are staying. Every time they see each other additional details of this possible affair are provided but we're never sure of their veracity. Occasionally a second man, who might be the woman's husband, is with her. Sometimes the men are at a table playing a variety of games, one of which initially seems without rules and which a beginner can never win, according to the speculation we overhear in the background (later we overhear that a beginner always wins but this is never demonstrated).

Each shot is very carefully composed. Often the only movement is the camera's as it slowly glides between the actors, who are frequently motionless, resembling well-dressed mannequins. The effect is like moving through a photograph, unpacking the details of a moment in time.

Is it all a dream? Is the man's account of the past true? Is he manipulating the woman or is she just pretending that she can't remember any of his stories?

TimeOut's annual film guide describes the film as "either some sort of masterpiece or meaningless twaddle." The film requires patience to sit through. It seems to have a language of its own and how you judge it will partly depend on the effort you are willing to exert to learn this language. Time, memory, perception - all are manipulated in the film, preventing the formation of a solid foothold for understanding and suggesting that the process of cognition is the film's true subject. Through both its use of the medium and choice of subject matter, Last Year at Marienbad pushed the boundaries of cinema to another level. It is an important viewing experience in the education of a film lover.

Fox Lorber's DVD release offers few extras to help in unravelling any of the film's mystery, providing only actors' filmographies, a trailer and a list of the awards the film received. Interestingly, the film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay - something that seems unthinkable in the artistically conservative climate of today's mainstream.

a journey into the surreal..............2007-01-21

I first saw LAST YEAR AT MARIENBAD in 1994, a time where I had had limited exposure to the works of filmmaker Alain Renais. MARIENBAD tells an obscure and (almost) frustratingly ambiguous story centered on three people and very unclear recollection of the past that may have occurred (then again, it may have never occurred). "X" (Giorgio Albertazzi), our leading man, approaches "A" (Delphine Seyrig) at a social gathering (held at a chateau), asking "Didn't we meet at Marienbad last year?" The response to this question is no response at all. "X" persists with ""Didn't you say you would leave your husband and we would run away together?" Of course, the husband, "M" (Sacha Pitoëff) is there, so their "dialogue" is cut short. And, that's all you really need to know, because if I took the plot any further I would probably make you dizzy.

Resnais's style of filmmaking and storytelling could be described as trippy, quite surreal and completely absurd, at times. There is a menacing quality to the constant cuts, re-cuts, angular camera breaks between people and ambiguity. The first time I saw the film, I was on my toes because the whole atmosphere of the story swells with unresolved frustration. It makes you wonder, as the viewer, if all of this vagueness will erupt into something dire (like murder, an affair, or something completely unforeseen).

Some of the most unusual and memorable camera shots are here. Particularly, the scene in the garden that I have seen recalled in film and art books. I am referring to the scene in the garden. You've gotta love angular topiary art; especially, when it is thrown in for the effect, as a backdrop for an absurdist interlude between two vague subjects. Scenery is a very important part of the story, and the triangular shrubs are just one example of this. LAST YEAR AT MARIENBAD will leave you talking for days, after you watch it. It will also leave you with many questions about the nuance and double entendre that comes with the absurdity of two people who can't even get their story straight on an event that (could have) happened the year before. What was Resnais' real reason for making this whole plot so unfulfilled? Maybe it wasn't even about a love affair! The plot thickens. Watch it and draw your own conclusions. A truly great example of the French New Wave (la Nouvelle Vague)--a great period for French filmmaking, that produced some of the most thought-provoking films of its era (the late 1950s and 1960s) that still leaves us truly spellbound today.

Look, the Emperor is naked!.......2006-04-14

There is a kind of non-language spoken at some universities which is designed to sound profound but really says nothing whatsoever. Last Year at Marienbad, written by Alain Robbe-Grillet , manages to achieve this same emptiness in film.

Of course, real academics know better than to confound thought with empty words, and real directors and writers know better than to waste time pretending that saying nothing is in any way profound, but evidently director Alain Resnais and writer Alain Robbe-Grillet do not know this basic tenet of moviemaking.

The entire plot of Last year in Marienbad focuses on the question of whether two people did or did not meet the previous year and have an affair. If they can't remember, why should we care?

The film has no real plot. There is no character development. The scenes are shot in a hotel and a garden which are purposely made as generic as possible. Everything is blanded out to go along with the non-message conveyed in the script. What's the point?

Some reviewers claim this is a masterpiece of the New Wave, a deeply symbolic Existential statement. Balderdash. A film needs to say something, do something, show something the audience wants to see before it can make any claim to quality. If you watch this film you will be giving away 94 minutes you could have spent contemplating your navel.

Any film that tries to do nothing, even if it succeeds, should be left on the shelf while audiences seek out movies that say something, do something, show something. Samuel Beckett managed to make an entertainment out of Waiting for Godot. Luigi Pirandello managed to make Six Characters in Search of an Author worth watching, but the same cannot be said of Alain Robbe-Grillet's Last Year in Marienbad. It just doesn't make it.

This film is philosophically pretentious claptrap.

Unutterable elegance.......2006-03-09

Whatever this is about, once you've seen it, you'll know you've seen something. What I mean is, whatever else you've ever seen, this is something else. Setting aside the helpful and fascinating extra features that came with my disc, by someone called Ginette Vincendeau, and suspending any attempt at prosaic understanding while watching, soak up the incomparable sensation of atmosphere, the sonorous sounds, the stunning sights, the sublimely stylish manner in which the images unroll. It almost makes the effort of interpretation unnecessary. But then, watch it again, and listen to all the explanations offered on all sides: hardly anyone can help coming up with their own ideas. And they are almost all different, since every viewpoint will alter the perspective of any object. There's the viewer who tells us it's actually the story of Orpheus and Eurydice. (Jan 2007: since what he says really does make excellent sense, I feel compelled to acknowledge him and point to his review. He is Robert Amsel; see his review of December 3, 2002.)

That long, tall, thin, skeletal fellow is Death, who could lose, but always wins. This place is Limbo: the Underworld, where memory is erased, and time and place have no meaning, make no sense. Could definitely be. Why does Death say he could lose? Answer: Amor Vincit Omnia. There are slight hints of Cinderella and her slipper; or the awakening of the Sleeping Beauty. The Life Force defeating Death and escaping from his dreary clasp. This is partly what Ginette puts forward. But she admits, I think, that this is too mechanical a reading; like the marionette-like dance, and the empty pleasantries of the half-heard conversations. This is a game, within a play, within a film, within a theatre, or on an unanticipated dvd. These people exist at one of civilization's high points, the eighteenth century enlightenment, baroque at the point of rococo, where order is everything, yet giving way to distortion. Or else they are an image of everyday life, its forms and conventions: this is a dateless reality of actually unrealized desires. Watch it a third time, and it becomes erotic. It is the product of a totally European sensibility, a specifically Franco-Germanic sensibility: America is far too adolescent a society ever to have created anything to equal it, in spite of Ginette's instancing Hitchcock, and Kubrick's "The Shining" --- which is lamentably feeble in its supposed emulation. It is easy to recognize genius: you know that however hard you might try, you would never come up with anything to match it.

Average customer rating:

Some hits; some misses
good story, but very bad acting
Some good acting but on the whole a bad film
A Fairly Good Story Distorted by Extremes
Mediocre (as expected from London), but with some good performances

The Last Year
Starring: Ron Petronicolos , Mike Dolan , Patrick Orion Hoesterey , Merrick McMahon , and Elizabeth Flesh
Director: Jeff London
Manufacturer: Wolfe Video
ProductGroup: DVD
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Almost Normal
Dante's Cove
Regarding Billy
Third Man Out
Adam & Steve (2005)

ASIN: B000F8O38M
Release Date: 2006-05-16

Description

It's a new school year at Bible College, but Paul has a problem: over the summer, he's realized that he is gay, and feels torn between his true nature and religion. To complicate matters, he's attracted to a new student at school - Alex. As he and Alex grow closer, rumors begin to spread across the campus, and the two friends become the target of hate and face possible expulsion from school.

Customer Reviews:

Some hits; some misses.......2007-04-17

I enjoyed Regarding Billy enough to be interested in this movie just because it was directed (and written, I think) by Jeff London, a movie-maker who makes sweet, innocent movies about Average Gay Joe's falling in love and having diffiulties and successes unique to gay folks.

This movie is no exception, and, like his other movies, is stunningly successful at times and embarrassingly amateur at other times.

I like to end on a good note, so let's start with the "bad". There is too much going on in this overlong movie and many unnecessary and underdeveloped characters which muddy up the central story and theme. Some of the peripheral actors are really bad. Some of the dialog is really forced. (Some of it actually made me squirm.)

Now the good. The principal young men in this film are great. Ron Petronicolos and Mike Dolan are absolutely mesmerizing together and it's a joy to see their subtle and somewhat unexpected romance blossom. It's the love story part of this film that's the great part, and I can watch it over and over. True to Jeff London, it's not smarmy and tacky, but wonderful and refreshing.

I'd love to give this film more stars, but it wouldn't be true. You have to take the good with the bad here, and it's certainly worth your time and attention. If you like this film, you'll love Regarding Billy which is a love story without a lot of distracting side stories, and features two similarly talented and refreshing characters and actors.

This film is "worth it" just for the scene when Dolan tells Petronicolos (clearly smitten with each other) that he wishes he didn't make him so nervous (and there can be no turning back.) Enjoy.

good story, but very bad acting.......2007-04-08

don't waist your money on this one. this move has good story behind the very bad acting.

Some good acting but on the whole a bad film.......2006-04-27

Like others I do what I can to support and promote independent films. This film tells an important story (citing the real Bible to debunk and confront homophobes and others distorting the teachings of Jesus), but it is not a good film (slow, stilted dialogue, lots of pregnant pauses and searching for lines, some bad acting, poor direction, poor editing, predictable story). It was a very long film to endure. However, Ron Petronicolos and Craig Staswick are particularly good so for them I give it one star. Mike Dolan is also good. I am sure they will go on to bigger and better things.

A Fairly Good Story Distorted by Extremes.......2006-04-19

Jeff London ('Regarding Billy') seems to be a director and writer who is committed to investigating the various degrees of problems young gay men face as they live in a homophobic society. His films resound with an honest feeling but too often he settles for stereotypes at both ends of the spectrum and that tends to weaken his work.

The setting is a Bible College somewhere in America where hunky Paul (Ron Petronicolos) is entering his 'last year' of study, his summer having been disrupted by an incident that is revealed later in the story. He re-joins his longtime roommate Robby (Patrick Orion Hoesterey) but keeps asking about his good friend Hector (Merrick McMahon), a subject no one wants to address. He meets Hector's roommate Alex (Mike Dolan) and gradually Alex lets Paul know that he is gay. Paul learns that the Bible College has discovered Hector is gay and the Dean (Rand Smith) and his henchmen are out to have Hector expelled. Paul's changed ways are noted by Robby and he finally confides that his summer incident was a gay experience in a restroom - a fact that Robby finds repulsive at first but soon comes to support Paul's anguish about his parent's disapproval and punishment.

As Paul's feelings for living who he really is surface he finds solace and sanctuary with Alex and the two become lovers. The Dean's spies gradually intimidate the group of four (Paul, Alex, Hector and Robby) and disciplinary action is taken. Among Paul's discoveries in his rebellion against the Bible College's stance against gays is the fact that the dean is a closet case and that is the reason for the rough action against Hector (with whom the dean had an assignation). It all comes to a tragic end for some and a sense of freedom for others - to find out who belongs to which category requires watching the film!

The movie has its moments, due largely to the ability of the actors Petronicolos, Dolan, and McMahon, but it sadly is buried by otherwise mediocre to poor acting from the rest of the cast. The work of Rand Smith, Penelope Ma (who plays the dean's wife), and Lawrence Rinzel (who plays Paul's father) is particularly weak just when strong acting could have supported the flimsier portions of the script. London needed to spend more thought on Bible Colleges, finding that more razor sharp line between right wing bias against gays instead of opting for the usual clich?s that are found everywhere. That dividing line among young men challenged by sexual identity would have made a far more successful film. But the film is worth watching for the performances of the three lead actors - strong young men each! Grady Harp, April 06

Mediocre (as expected from London), but with some good performances.......2006-01-25

A film that could have been a serious depiction of young gay men attempting to reconcile their religious convictions with their sexuality becomes instead an often unbelievable melodrama bordering occasionally on gay porn fantasies. (When a supposedly straight student in a Bible college tells a gay student in the locker room "Take my 8 inches," you know you're far removed from reality.)

The film is also hampered by a pair of truly execrable performances by Rand Smith and Lawrence Rinzel. Poor Ron Petronicolos in the leading role of Paul has to play a number of scenes opposite these utterly talentless "actors." Hunky Petronicolos appears to be quite a good actor (despite some unfair comments posted here), but one wonders how much his performance was hampered by having to play opposite these pitiful performers. (Penelope Ma as Smith's wife seems marginally better than Smith, but it's hard to tell, as their scenes together are badly written and any actor would suffer having to play opposite Smith.)

There are some very good performances in this film: Sexy Petronocilos is a star in the making, and Mike Dolan as his boyfriend is also clearly a young talent to be watched. Merrick McMahon (who is by the way a gifted musical theater performer) nails his Latino character, accent and all, and his scene atop the tower is truly devastating and beautifully performed.

Other reviewers here have justly criticized the largely unbelievable depiction of the homophobic jock Bible college students (their locker and dorm room scenes must be seen to be believed), though I did buy the possibility that the Dean's homophobia may have come from a repression of his own sexuality and hiding of his secret sexual exploits (as the example of former Spokane mayor Jim West illustrates.) It also seems clear that the writer should have done his homework better, as a number of the references to (Catholic) Saints would not seem to fit an evangelical Christian university.

Director London might also have thought twice about casting straight actors in gay roles. Petronicolos and Dolan are both very good actors, but they never once come across as anything but straight, and Patrick Orion Hoesterey tries valiantly to appear straight, but is no more believable as a heterosexual than are Petronicolos and Dolan as young gay men. (It's called gaydar, Mr. London, and you insult your audience when you assume that we do not have it.)

Ultimately, The Last Year is the work of an only marginally talented writer/director (sad, because he has the means to make movies, but the results can never be anything but mediocre). There are many many good moments in the film, and I was often gripped by the performances of the talented young actors.

Kudos to obviously straight Petronicolos and Dolan for committing to the passionate kissing and cuddling scenes. I could (almost) buy those moments.

Then there are scenes and aforementioned performances that defy credibility and doubtless led to the ridicule the film was apparently submitted to at the Philadelphia Gay/Lesbian Film Festival.

Still, to give the film one star is to put it on the level of something like the truly horrendous Issues 101 when The Last Year is a seriously flawed (yet noble) effort, with at least some aspects worthy of a look. I hope to see more of Petronicolos, Dolan, and McMahon's work in the future.

Average customer rating:

Some hits; some misses
good story, but very bad acting
Some good acting but on the whole a bad film
A Fairly Good Story Distorted by Extremes
Mediocre (as expected from London), but with some good performances

General | Drama | Genres | DVD | Video

Gay & Lesbian | Drama | Genres | DVD | Video

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( L ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video

General | Indie & Art House | Stores | DVD | Video

Almost Normal
Dante's Cove
Regarding Billy
Third Man Out
Adam & Steve (2005)

ASIN: B00009AV9E
Release Date: 2003-05-27

Customer Reviews:

Some hits; some misses.......2007-04-17

good story, but very bad acting.......2007-04-08

don't waist your money on this one. this move has good story behind the very bad acting.

Some good acting but on the whole a bad film.......2006-04-27

A Fairly Good Story Distorted by Extremes.......2006-04-19

Mediocre (as expected from London), but with some good performances.......2006-01-25

L' Ultimo Capodanno / Humanity's Last New Year's Eve - Region 2 PAL

Average customer rating:

L' Ultimo Capodanno / Humanity's Last New Year's Eve - Region 2 PAL
Director: Marco Risi
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

Region 2 Pal
1:39:00 Confirmed Runtime
Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound (German / Italian Options)
Unrated
NO English subtitles / soundtrack

ASIN: B000RTG1WU

Product Description

Millions of unsuspecting adolescent fanboys flocked to see The Matrix Reloaded (2003) and came away with a whole new obsession: that sultry and shapely apparition of brunette feminine fire who played the beguiling Persephone. The passion-flushed supermodel face. The fleshy bombshell bust. The mesmerizing curves of twisting seat meat... she is Monica Belucci !!!!

Kremlin-9: Last Year of Stalin.. Last Days of Stalin.

Average customer rating:

Kremlin-9: Last Year of Stalin.. Last Days of Stalin.

Manufacturer: Vox Video
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Special Interests | Genres | DVD | Video

The Goebbels Experiment
Hitler's Diaries, Starring Adolf Hitler. The Rise & Fall & Mind & God of Adolf Hitler

ASIN: B00078M2O2

Product Description

LANGUAGE (AUDIO): RUSSIAN (DD 2.0); SUBTITLES: NO SUBTITLES; No zone restriction; Documentary, Historical, Russia, 2004, 78min; Format: Full screen, 4:3

DVD:

DVD

DVD

DVD

No Tomorrow

Kenneth Williams - An Audience With Kenneth Williams

Thomas & Friends: Best of Thomas, Percy & James [Pla

DVD: An Easter Bunny Adventure

Der weiße Rausch