The Last Ride (2004)

It is a performances centric movie

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

Excellent characters with emotional depth. My wife, daughter and granddaughter all enjoyed it...and me, too! Very good movie! You won't be disappointed.

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

The Last Ride is half action movie, half car commercial. I'm not sure which it started out as, a bright idea of the General Motors marketing department or a real film that had to whore itself out for funding, but the end result is surprising not terrible. Oh, don't get me wrong. This isn't a good movie. It has a badly constructed plot, an oddly disjointed generational theme and is about as exciting as watching somebody change a flat tire. However, there are plenty of worse ways to spend an hour and a half.Ronnie Purcell (Dennis Hopper) used to steal military payrolls back in the Vietnam War era with the help of his wife and a Pontiac GTO named "The Judge". His wife gets killed and Ronnie gets arrested. 30 years later, Ronnie gets out of prison. His son Aaron (Will Patton) is a cop who ended up being raised by Darryl Kurtz (Fred Ward), the man who arrested Ronnie and now runs a successful security company. Ronnie's grandson Matt (Chris Carmack) is a gearhead who dabbles in street racing and various minor crimes. His girlfriend JJ Cruz (Nadine Velazquez) used to work in a chop shop but is trying to go straight so she and Matt can have a life together.Matt and his grandpa team up to find "The Judge" just as Kurtz decides to frame them for murder. It turns out that Kurtz was Ronnie's partner in the payroll thefts, something he desperately wants to cover up. As Aaron discovers the man who raised him is a giant scumbag, he joins Ronnie's efforts to get the evidence of Kurtz' criminal past, which Kurtz' men promptly steal from them. Then Matt and JJ break into Kurtz' house to find evidence of all the underhanded and illegal things he's done as part of his security business, but they have to throw that evidence away to escape from Kurtz' armed thugs. Finally, Ronnie invites Kurtz out for a showdown in what appears to be a rock quarry, where he and JJ secretly tape Kurtz' confession before Ronnie inexplicably decides to kill himself and his old enemy by driving off a cliff. Oh, and while all that's going on, the movie repeatedly dwells on glamour shots of the 2004 Pontiac GTO.The Last Ride is competently directed with mundane yet unobjectionable dialog and the cast does an adequate job, but the story they're telling is quite labored. For the first hour of the film, things repeatedly grind to a halt so one character after another can explain the overly involved plot and back story to the audience. Expository dialog is oftentimes a necessary evil in filmmaking. There's a limited amount of time and it's an efficient way of conveying crucial information to the viewer. Repeated use of the technique, though, is a sign of trouble. I lost count after a while, but this movie has at least 4 or 5 expository dialog scenes, which is at least 3 or 4 too many for this sort of thing. And by the time the good guys get incriminating evidence on the bad guys for a second time, only to lose it all for a second time, it's pretty obvious that much of what's going on is just to kill time between product placements of the 2004 Pontiac GTO.Middle aged Aaron Purcell working through his father issues is also a weirdly distracting element at work in this movie. The old guy teaming up with the handsome young kid and a hot chick makes sense for this sort of thing. Sticking a 40something dude in the middle of all that and having him fuss and fume over the abandonment and betrayal of his father figures is like a piece of cucumber stuck in a bowl of chocolate pudding. It doesn't belong and somewhat spoils the taste.Since The Last Ride is as much advertisement as entertainment, it's also extremely unobjectionable. There's no nudity, no bad language and the action scenes are about as tame as an episode of Mr. Roger's Neighborhood. Like most commercials that are trying to sell you something, this film doesn't want to distract you with anything with anything all that enjoyable. Every time you watch this and are thinking about something besides the 2004 Pontiac GTO, The Last Ride is failing in its primary mission.Watching a 90 minute car commercial isn't exactly fun, but the filmmaking expertise used in making this commercial is high enough that it doesn't feel like a total waste of time. That's not saying much about the value of The Last Ride, but it is something.

THE LAST RIDE ***1/2 Great title for an okay spy/action/heist-gone-wrong tale that has an ex-convict (Dennis Hopper, nearly 70 years of age at the time) getting back at the foul cop-turned-forces manager (Fred Ward) who sold him out in the first place. A young renegade (Chris Carmack, admittedly impressive), the grandson of the former jailer, gets caught up in the mess when he decides to help his long-lost grandfather carry out the plan. The script is similar to that of 'The Recruit' and 'Partners' since it doesn't cover much ground or develops its characters very well in spite of a promising storyline. (I think Rob Cohen should stick to directing...) It's a real shame; still, fairly good entertainment.

I have just seen 'The last ride'on DVD and I really liked it very much, not only because Will Patton, who is in fact my favorite actor, apart from Gerry Butler, is an excellent character actor, but also because the story itself is very interesting. Since the very beginning I was caught by an attractive argument so that I enjoyed this movie very much.I am waiting anxiously to buy it on DVD because I love Will, he has showed his enormous talent for acting in all his films so I hope he will be nominated for the Oscar awards one day. On the other hand it is clear that the American productions are much better than those made in Europe, without any doubt and although some of them are not good, (there is always an exception to the rules), in general American action movies, like 'The last ride' are better and more interesting. I do not why but the case is that I personally prefer those films made in the States and not only because of Will but also because I love them and that is all. In conclusion, this is a very recommendable film with good performances and an interesting story.

This was really a fun movie that had some great car action. The trailer I saw on TV looked pretty good but I didn't have much expectation since it was a cable movie. I ended up pleasantly surprised. The old and new GTOs looked great in the movie and the autoshow scene was pretty cool. I really liked Dennis Hopper's character and really liked the younger talent. The ending was a big surprise! I didn't see that coming. There was a nice development of the characters while still maintaining the action that I was looking for. The creator of the "Fast and the Furious" and "XXX" didn't disappoint for this cable flick. While, it may not have been worthy of the big screen, I would actually watch it again. For a made-for-TV movie, I gave it a 9. I usually won't bare to sit through made-for-TV movie. This one was worth it.