Last Run (2001)

User Rating:

4.8/10   

Director:

Anthony Hickox

Writers:

Anthony Hickox (writer)
Robert Syd Hopkins (writer)

Release Date:

8 September 2001 (South Korea)

Genre:

Action | Crime | Thriller

Plot:

Frank Banner used to specialize in helping Soviet spies defect safely to the West. Banner's wife was shot to death aiding such an escape...

Plot Keywords:

Spy | Cold War | Espionage | Ukraine | Mask

Cast

Armand Assante	...	Frank Banner
Corey Johnson	...	Jon Neely
Barna Illyés	...	Georgi Kaminski
Anthony Hickox	...	Riley Chapin
Annabel Brooks	...	Tina
Viki Kiss	...	Kerlov
Edit Illés	...	Kerlov
Sándor Téri	...	Yuri (as Sándor Tery)
Martin McDougall	...	Junior
Niki Barabás	...	Number Two
Norman Austin	...	Number One
David Foxxe	...	Leo Schiff
Ralph Brown	...	Simon
Ornella Muti	...	Danny
Jürgen Prochnow	...	Andrus Bukarin

Also Known As:

Hot Zone (USA) (working title)
The Man Outside (USA) (working title)

MPAA:

Rated R for violence and language.

Runtime:

Argentina:92 min | Netherlands:91 min | USA:98 min (DVD)

Country:

UK | Hungary

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Iceland:16 | South Korea:18 | Argentina:13 | USA:R

Filming Locations:

Budapest, Hungary

Goofs:

Factual errors: In the opening scene, Tina pulls out a revolver with a silencer on it. The way a revolver is built means that most revolvers cannot be silenced.

Movie Connections:

References Doctor Zhivago (1965)

Soundtrack:

Barrel Organ (B)

Excellent B-flick

I feel kinda sorry that LAST RUN didn`t get a theatrical release. It is a perfect B-film that Joel Silver and Jerry Bruckeheimer should be churning out between blockbusters. Hickox masterfully direct East European locations, as good as Michael Oblowitz on a good day.

The plot is straight eighties spy yarn. A team of ex-CIA enforcers are hired to extract a former Soviet bigwig that has some useful post-Cold War know-how. The team is led by hardboiled Assante who lost his wife in the last extraction job.

The script follows the plot and gives us enough detail to care for the characters, gives us enough suspense and twists to care for the plot and sets up some nice action set-pieces.

Sadly, Hickox never cut it in mainstream Hollywood and his resume is quite mixed, look at bizarre failure JILL RIPPS or INVASION OF YOUR PRIVACY but in this one he does some A-work with a direct-to-video budget. Every set-piece is smart and juggular and able to grip you by the neck and yet never blow early and uncover the flat budget. Give this man a 25-million-per-actioner-Joel-Silver-treatment (ROMEO MUST DIE, EXIT WOUNDS, CRADLE 2 THE GRAVE) and he`ll outgun Bartkowiak by a mile.

The problem with Hickox making it in Hollywood is that his filmography is too hectic for PR managers. The director of JILL RIPPS is a hard-sell. It is so sad that PR schemes are more important than actual movies in contemporary Hollywood. I cherished the times when Anthony`s dad Douglas was making pictures, when directors were either auteurs or anonymous executors hired to make pictures for pictures` sake. And yet I hope there are enough people unaffected by this PR business who can enjoy a good B-movie and consider Hickox an author that he truly is.

I hope Hickox yet unreleased film BLAST! that seems to be heading to theatres proves to be a surprise hit. We need this man back!