The Last Movie Star (2018)

Undescribable Perfection

Simply A Masterpiece

Good start, but then it gets ruined

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

If you are fan of either, it is a must view on Amazon Prime!

The Last Movie Star: Written and directed by Adam RifkinThe Last Movie Star stars Burt Reynolds as a former aging movie star who accepts a lifetime achievement award being given by a film festival run by kids fresh out of film school in a bar in Nashville. He thinks he is going to be given first class treatment when it is quite the opposite. He is taken by surprise with sitting coach, being chaffeured by Ariel Winter's barely running junkyard ornament and staying at a motel 6 like establishment. But being back in his home state reliving his life makes him confront what has become of it.I have to say first off that I was pleasantly surprised by this movie. I was expecting a funny little comedy and I got a poignant thoughtful treatise on aging and being grateful for what you have. I was caught offguard to say the very least. This is Burt Reynolds' show all the way and it is easily his best performance since Boogie Nights perhaps even better than. He brings such raw emotion to the proceedings that you are blown away. He deserves all kinds of awards for what he brought to this film.This movie also has a whole host of interesting actors from Ariel Winter in a very loud bombastic performance, Clark Duke who we might remember a bit from Hot Tub Time Machine(the first one obviously) and Nikki Blonsky from Hairspray. I have to admit that the little film festival that could brought back some memories of film festivals very similar to that I attended. I might have a tiny bit of a bias when it comes to that. I loved even the terrible films I saw. It was a treat to relive that. This was a warm and exceptionally well done movie with the Burt Reynolds' performance of a lifetime attached to it. This was a pleasant watch and you will not regret seeing this wonderful movie. I give this movie a B.

The 80-something Burt Reynolds stars in a touching part written especially for him by director Adam Rifkin. As a worn-out and hard-aged has-been named Vic Edwards, Reynolds is virtually reflecting on his own cinematic career at the final stages of his life. Once a celebrated and highly venerated movie star and sex symbol during the 1970s and early 1980s, Vic as an old and frail shell of a man can scarcely bear to look at himself in the mirror each morning. He is a lonely and faded relic of the past, living at home with only his pet dog as a companion. When he is forced to put his dog down due to illness, Vic is then truly all by himself.One day while out sharing a typical luncheon with his one friend (Chevy Chase), Vic reveals that he has been approached to be guest of honor to receive a special lifetime achievement award at a special screening of his life's work, in Nashville, Tennessee. Though completely disinterested at first, Vic is convinced by Chevy to take advantage of this last opportunity for personal glory and recognition.From the moment he touches down in Tennessee, everything seems to go wrong. Vic is picked up at the airport by a young, rude, tattooed millennial brat named Lil (Ariel Winter). She is to chauffeur him around in a barely-running wreck of a car, as she argues endlessly with her boyfriend on her cell phone when driving. Worse still, the hotel Vic is staying at is a cheap fleabag dump. The indignity of the situation is brought home for good once Vic arrives at the venue and discovers this glorious event is being held at a local bar, and hosted by little more than a fanboy group of devoted geeks who like watching Vic Edwards films in their basements. Completely humiliated by the experience, Vic leaves and asks Lil to drive him three hours to his hometown of Knoxville. It is there where the fallen idol will come to terms with who he was, who he is now, and what he will do with what remains of his future. Reynolds gives a very endearing performance. Ariel Winter is properly irritating and gruff as hell at first, but as the story moves ahead, she managed to win me over as her character goes through an awakening along with Reynolds'. Although I am nowhere near Burt's age at this time, I am well over middle-age and this movie made me take more stock in myself as well. It is a very human story and quite rewarding. It's also so refreshing to enjoy an actual story with characters in a new movie for a change, instead of suffering through endless CGI trickery and special effects overkill (though some such liberties are sparingly taken in a few dream sequences incorporating moments from Burt's popular movies, such as DELIVERANCE and SMOKEY AND THE BANDIT). Well worth watching, especially for older viewers. *** out of ****

There are few male movie stars such as John Wayne, James Stewart, Henry Fonda of the 40s and 50s and 60s era, and after like Clint Eastwood, Paul Newman, Robert Redford, who when the movie is below average, they would still give a good performance. Burt Reynolds is in that group. He always gave his best. The last time I saw Reynolds was on an episode of Fastn Loud where they were replicating the Smokey and the Bandit Transam. At the time I thought, Burt has really aged, and proberbly he won't make another movie. How wrong I was. What a really refreshing movie, Burt gave an excellent performance as a semi-biographical actor. Don't miss it. After watching Deliverance again, you realized Burt made alot of mistakes with his movie career, but we still love him. Amen