Last Man Standing (1996)

Last Man Standing (R) - Review

"Entertain Hard"

A lone mercenary arrives in a border town that is occupied by two disparate gangs of criminals whose weapons are soon turned on each other by the shifting loyalties of the merc.  Sound familiar?  That's due to the script being based on Akira Kurosawa's masterful samurai film "Yojimbo," However the similarities are soon lost as its set in the border to Mexico and the criminals are bootleggers in Prohibition era Texas.  Despite having a credible action director in Walter Hill (48 Hours) and action star in Bruce Willis (Die Hard), the film is a joyless, violent enterprise that lacks the wit and wisdom of the 1961 original.  Willis' sleazy and double dealing John Smith can't crawl out from the shadow of Toshiro Mifune's (7 Samurai) humorous and antiheroic Yojimbo, but Bruce's role isn't helped by his soulless voice over narration and a haircut only Gomer Pyle would love.  The cast is filled with 90s character actors (most notable Christopher Walken as a heavy), but the action is mostly flat and the accompanying hard rock guitar soundtrack is completely tone deaf.  There's no subtlety to the crash of the twin 45s and the resulting violence actually packs quite a wallop, but the production design is a dreary dust bowl of look a like sets.  This Americanized rethink is grim yet limp bore, and sacrifices the basic fun tone to differentiate itself from its originator.

4.5 Willis in an Undershirt out of 10 (MEDIOCRE)