Let's forget for a moment that this film is actually based on a true story. An FBI agent goes undercover as a film producer to capture a mob boss who has influence in movie business. He meets an aspiring writer-director to produce his fake movie but ultimately falls in love with the art of film-making.Quite interesting plot. And the point of the film shifts from capturing the mob boss to the tidbits of film-making. The characters are extremely well-written, especially the agent Joe Devine and the once-famous actress Emily French. Among the actors, Alec Baldwin as Devine shines bright in comparison with Matthew Broderick as the naive writer-director. Toni Colette is also awesome as Emily French. And one should not forget the brilliant short performance of Joan Cusack as Devine's short course teacher of film business.The film is overall humorous enough, but there are certain parts of humor that's quite unnecessary e.g. the scene where French urinates publicly in a wine glass, or the scene of Devine's dog Sacha's funeral. The nature of humor in such films should be a bit dry and satirical, not such cheap and forced. Apart from these complaints, "The Last Shot" is quite an entertainment.

At first glance, 'The Last Shot' appears to have all of the trappings of extremely hilarious comedy of misadventures, misconceptions, and misunderstandings. But in retrospect, it was only moderately so, and probably because of much of the deadpan acting and not enough quirkiness within each character (not one of which that would border on characters common to spoof, but more of a deviation that would at least make the situations seem much more bizarre and humorous). Perhaps if Stanley Tucci (see The Imposters) or Martin Scorcese (see After Hours and Search & Destroy) had been given this material, the results would've been much better.This is the story of a federal agent (Alec Baldwin) trailing a mobster (Tony Shaloub) who has been involved with teamster corruption. The agent poses as a producer and picks up some shmoe writer (Matthew Broderick) who has been desperately trying to sell his script and, as this producer, claims he will finance the film, and even asking the writer--already astounded by the ease at which his film has been approved by this producer--to direct. The director believes he has found his golden opportunity, while the half-hearted "producer" is only interested in getting as far as necessary so that he can initiate a deal with the teamsters and nab his guy. What may seem like comparable to the hilarious mockumentary, 'Cannes Man,' in fact only tends to provide such extremes only in unusual intervals. Perhaps for lack of material, or not enough of a story to go on, the resulting comedy is at best a mediocre one with the potential to be much better.Props, however, to Toni Collette (always an excellent actress) for playing the bizarre, self-indulgent Emily French, and Joan Cusak (wasted here in a minor role) as the neurotic producer and the agent's mentor.

The Last Shot is a supposedly true story about the FBI, undercover on a fake film set, known only to the few agents involved, trying to lure in an unsuspecting mobster in order to arrest him. With the actors and actresses involved, I expected more. A lot more, actually. While this was not a bad movie, I was still a bit disappointed.Director Steven Schats (Matthew Broderick) and fake producer Joe Wells (Alec Baldwin) are making a movie called Arizona, which Schats and his brother happened to write. Along the way, Wells, AKA FBI Agent Joe Devine is talking the FBI into going further and further into actually shooting the movie until it seems that the FBI is actually interested in offering Devine a 3 picture deal.Meanwhile, the casting is beginning and actually getting the attention of worthwhile movie stars, most notably Emily French (Toni Collette). Toni is visually stunning in this movie.This movie was not too hard to watch, but still, I thought the talent could have made something much better. I miss the charismatic Broderick of Ferris Beuller. Most of the humor seemed to be of low value shock attempts, with the constant cursing. I am not against it, but in this case, it just seemed more childish and cheap than funny. Overall, not too bad but there are plenty of better movies to choose from. 6.5/10

THE LAST SHOT is best viewed with a bit of info to let the patient viewer understand what is coming. The opening titles are clever, dealing with movie paraphernalia that serve as matrices for the stars and production staff names and should give a sense of what is to come. But it isn't until the first 20 or so minutes into the film that the significance of the movie can be appreciated.Based on an apparently true news article, THE LAST SHOT takes a pot shot at not only Hollywood, but also organized crime, production magnates, the FBI, and little people with big dreams lost in the elusive utopia of fame.The plot is well outlined on these pages. Suffice it to say that the FBI sends Joe Devine (Alec Baldwin) to Hollywood to pose as a producer to lure the underground crime lord Tommy Sanz (Tony Shalhoub) to surface and be caught. Devine needs a script as he discovers from the gross Fanny Nash (Joan Cusack at her hilarious best) and gradually encounters Steven Schats (Matthew Broderick) who with his pathetic brother Marshall Paris (Tim Blake Nelson) has written an unmarketable, non-salable script called 'Arizona'. Devine grabs on to the project, making Schats the director (his dream come true) and casts the film with has-been actress with box office draw Emily French (Toni Collette who looks terrific and adds yet another priceless cameo to her brilliant repertoire) and Valerie Weston (Calista Flockhart) who just happens to be Schats' squeeze.The process of film-making and the infectious delirium of Hollywood affects everyone in this film - even the FBI and especially Devine who softens into a man who wants to provide the 'littleman' Schats with his dream. The humor is broad, WAY over the top, crude, and slapstick and in so many ways this movie mimics all of the intangible oddities that make Hollywood what it is. The performances by Baldwin, Broderick, Cusack, Flockhart - and, well, all of the inserted cameos - are excellent. Once you get the premise of this film it moves from being inane to being a really terrific parody with some sensitive metaphors. Grady Harp