{"id":8542,"date":"2024-11-19T00:01:28","date_gmt":"2024-11-19T05:01:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=8542"},"modified":"2024-11-19T00:01:28","modified_gmt":"2024-11-19T05:01:28","slug":"the-last-of-the-finest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2024\/11\/19\/the-last-of-the-finest\/","title":{"rendered":"The Last of the Finest"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"The Last of the Finest<\/strong> (1990)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Orion\/Action\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 106 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (strong language, violence, drug material)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: John Mackenzie\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Jere Cunningham, Thomas Lee Wright and George Armitage\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Michael Hoenig and Jack Nitzsche\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Juan Ruiz Anchia\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: March 9, 1990 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Brian Dennehy, Joe Pantoliano, Jeff Fahey, Bill Paxton, Michael C. Gwynne, Henry Stolow, Guy Boyd, Henry Darrow, J. Kenneth Campbell, Deborra-Lee Furness, Lisa Jane Persky, Patricia Clipper, Michelle Little.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: $1.5M (US)<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: **<\/p>\n

\u00a0After 30 years, I remember one thing about the cop drama The Last of the Finest<\/strong> and it\u2019s nothing to do with anything in the movie. I went to see it opening night at a Center City movie theater and they showed it with two of the reels reversed. It was the weirdest thing. One minute the characters are talking; the next, they\u2019re making off with some drug dealer\u2019s money. I mentioned it to a staff member on the way out, but seeing the reels in the right order wouldn\u2019t have changed my opinion. Let me put it this way. Great cast plus predictable plot equals mediocre movie.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The Last of the Finest<\/strong> stars Brian Dennehy (First Blood) as Daly, the leader of a team of cops looking to bust a major drug ring. The team also consists of Gross (Pantoliano, Running Scared), Rodriguez (Fahey, Psycho III) and Hojo (Paxton, Aliens). Just as they\u2019re getting close to making arrests, they\u2019re ordered to back down and wait for the DEA. They go ahead anyway and get suspended for their efforts after the bust goes south. Their continuing investigation of the main guy Reece (Gwynne, Cherry 2000) results in the deaths of an informant and one of their own. Facing a disciplinary hearing for his reckless actions, Daly resigns in disgust and the others follow suit. Now civilians, they decide to launch their own operation to put Reece out of business for good.<\/p>\n

\u00a0At some point, Daly and his men come into possession of $22 million in drug money belonging to Reece and his superior Norringer (Boyd, Body Double). Now they\u2019re faced with a difficult choice. Should they take the money and run or turn it over to the authorities? Either way, the cops and their families are in grave danger.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Because I didn\u2019t remember a single thing about The Last of the Finest<\/strong>, I figured rewatching it would be like seeing it for the first time again. I figured wrong. I might not remember anything about the movie itself, but I do recognize every single familiar plot element. It\u2019s all been done. Honest cops versus a corrupt system, drug dealers financing something bigger, cops avenging their murdered brother-in-blue and the dirty cop secretly working against our heroes (there\u2019s NEVER any doubt who he is either). Not to mention all the usual shootouts and chases intended to keep the audience interested. I want to know how the movie expects to achieve that when it\u2019s disinterested in its own story.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Frankly, The Last of the Finest <\/strong>is a bore. It\u2019s flatly directed by John Mackenzie, the same chap who gave us one of the best British gangster movies EVER, 1980\u2019s The Long Good Friday. He commits the cardinal sin of wasting a great cast on what\u2019s essentially a made-for-TV movie with bad language. I always felt Dennehy had leading man potential. The late actor, who passed away earlier this year, usually played supporting roles. He did a few co-leads like F\/X (w\/Bryan Brown) and the criminally underrated Best Seller (w\/James Woods). The Last of the Finest<\/strong> marks the first time his name and his name alone appeared above the title. He\u2019s the best thing about the movie. He\u2019s better than the material deserves. His character Daly is a tough Irish-Catholic cop with a family and a strong moral compass. It\u2019s perfect for Dennehy who always came off as the kind of guy you\u2019d like to throw a few beers back with at the local pub. He receives ample support from Pantoliano, Fahey and Paxton, one of whom makes his exit far too early. The actors work well as a team. The villains, on the other hand, are too inconsequential to even warrant a comment. They\u2019re your archetypical drug dealers; sleazy, well-dressed types who always appear to be one step ahead of the law. HO-HUM!<\/p>\n

\u00a0It would be wrong to say The Last of the Finest<\/strong> is a bad movie. It\u2019s not and that\u2019s the problem. It\u2019s not bad, it\u2019s not good, it\u2019s not anything. It\u2019s entirely and utterly forgettable. I have a feeling I won\u2019t remember much about it a week from now. It\u2019s already fading from my memory, so I\u2019m going to leave myself a little reminder to NOT rewatch it in 30 years. There\u2019s no need because there\u2019s nothing much to see here.\"\"<\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Last of the Finest (1990)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Orion\/Action\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 106 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (strong language, violence, drug material)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: John Mackenzie\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Jere Cunningham, Thomas Lee Wright and George Armitage\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Michael Hoenig and Jack Nitzsche\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Juan Ruiz Anchia\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: March 9, 1990 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Brian Dennehy, Joe Pantoliano, Jeff Fahey, Bill Paxton, Michael […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8815,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8542","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-action-adventure"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/The-Last-of-the-Finest-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8542","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8542"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8542\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8817,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8542\/revisions\/8817"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8815"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8542"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8542"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8542"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}