Last Resort (2023)
Directed by Jean Marc Mineo
Written by Jean Marc Mineo
Starring Jonathan Patrick Foo, Clayton Norcross, Alex Santi
Release Date January 6th, 2023
Published January 2nd, 2023
Last Resort is not going to be mistaken for a good movie. That said, as a throwback to the kind of terrible movie that was prominent in the 1980s, a bloody, B-movie action flick, Last Resort has a particular charm to it. Jonathan Patrick Foo as Michael, a mercenary living in Thailand and on the brink of divorce from his put-upon wife. We don't know he's a mercenary when we first meet him, only that he lays on the couch watching cartoons all day.
We will learn that Michael was a particularly vicious mercenary when his wife and daughter end up part of a hostage situation inside of a bank. Michael's mercenary mentor, Cooper (Clayton Norcross), happens to be the leader of this particular group of bank robbers/terrorists. He's after some kind of deadly MacGuffin that is held inside the bank for reasons that are left unclear. Of course, it doesn't matter why the thing the bad guy's need is in this bank, the point is to get Michael to the bank to kill the bad guys.
Michael arrives and after briefly being detained by the dumbest cops, he gets himself inside the bank and starts to the killing of faceless minions. These scenes are brutally violent with bloody, bone-cracking, battles that play exactly like an 80s B-movie. The budget is low, but the sound design and fight choreography are superb in giving the fight scenes a great deal of energy and fun. The physicality and staging even manages to become suspenseful at times, not that the fate of the main character is ever in question.
Find my full length review at Geeks.Media