Monday, November 17, 2008

Review: The Last Castle

I don't recall ever hearing about The Last Castle, which was apparently released in 2001, but I couldn't pass up the chance to watch James Gandolfini and Robert Redford in a movie.

From director Rob Lurie and writer David Scarpa, The Last Castle depicts a military prison run by Col. Winter (Gandolfini). Three-star General Irwin (Redford) is sentenced to the prison for failure to follow an executive order that led to the death of his soldiers. Irwin unintentionally humiliates Winter, who looks up to the general, by pointing out that the colonel has never been to war. He then takes his time to evaluate the conditions of the prison.

From watching the other inmates, Irwin discovers that Winter is responsible for the mistreatment of the men. He gradually finds ways to irritate Col. Winter and disobey the rules of the prison. His actions culminate in Irwin's organization of the court-martialed soldiers in an uprising to take over the prison.

The Last Castle is an entertaining movie with a great pace to the story. The action isn't over the top like in most movies coming out of Hollywood. However, it still could've been better. There was an attempt to develop the characters, but it didn't go far enough. There was very little back story revealed about the characters, creating a lack of interest in many of them. The progression of the story was also a bit predictable.

Still, it's not a bad way to spend a few hours. It has enough talented actors to make it worthwhile.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

This is a nice movie. I especially like the ending when the Winter thought that Irwin was going to hoist the flag upside down.

Only after Winter shot Irwin did he discovered that the flag was hoisted in an upright position.