THE LAST MINUTE is the story of Billy Byrne (Max Beesley) who is "The Next Big Thing". He is like some rock star, artist,
actor, or director. He is on the high of a promising career only to have it be dismissed by everyone and Billy is replaced
by someone else. You first see him getting caught up in his career, do appearances, have his pictures taken by a Nazi Fashion
Photographer (Udo Kier), and come back to his long-suffering girlfriend Janey (Kate Ashfield) in London to go clubbing. On
the night of visiting clubs, Billy is given an invitation to come to a club called Prosthesis that is so hip that it is absurd.
People at Prosthesis are dressed in a cross between hospital and S&M wear. Billy is introduced to Percy (Jason Isaacs),
a murderous gangster who can also sing. Percy has an argument with the DJ and whacks him in the nose more than once, then
Percy starts singing. That is the last great night Billy has before his career is pulled apart by the critics.
From
there, Billy loses everything from being mugged at the local small store by the clerk, his girlfriend kicking him out and
saying it's over, getting kicked out of a club, and being mugged again right outside the club by two guys. All during Billy's
rise and decline, he meets Anna (Emily Corrie) whom resides in catacombs with an Oliver Twist type gang led by Grimshanks
(Tom Bell). Of course, Billy thinks he can go back to his life only to find out he has nowhere else to go. Billy continues
his descent and he begins to lose himself as he thinks going to Greenland will cleanse him (but he should be going to Iceland
though).
THE LAST MINUTE is directed by Stephen Norrington (BLADE, DEATH MACHINE, and THE LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY
GENTLEMEN) and it has to be the best movie of his career so far. This is a cult movie with great acting, stunning visuals,
cool visual tricks, and a movie that will leave you talking about all the different things put into it. THE LAST MINUTE puts
forth things like what did you do this week, is the black dog always at your heels when you're successful and can you keep
ahead of the black dog, can creative energy affect the street lights around that person, and is time working against you because
you didn't take chances to do what you want to do (and time has passed you by).
DVD design: THE LAST MINUTE has a
wealth of special features that can be accessed two ways: by clicking on the question mark icon or by clicking on another
button that leads you to another menu. THE LAST MINUTE has menu upon menu where you can access some special features or access
the next menu. Each menu takes you to a different place in the movie. Some menus are linked by clips from the movie (played
out like a bad TV transmission) while two menus are set up like website pages (for Greenland and Iceland). The menus have
an animated design to them from the black dog running towards you in an alley, a dancing S&M freak in Prosthesis, Grimshanks
looking at you, and a video clip playing in the Greenland and Iceland website menus. there were some problems I did experience
while accessing the Character Tree that paused the menu (and I had to hit play which played the cast/crew bios). Despite that
one flaw that popped up while playing it on my DVD player, I have to say THE LAST MINUTE is the best designed DVD I have this
year and the movie is destined to be a cult movie. Listen to the director commentary track because Stephen does tell you in
detail what he did and what was happening during the production (and the free editing time that he got from director James
Cameron).
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