The Last Supper (1996)

the audience applauded

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

Jude (Cameron Diaz), Pete (Ron Eldard), Paulie (Annabeth Gish), Marc (Jonathan Penner) and Luke (Courtney B. Vance) are liberal grad-students having a dinner in Iowa. It's a yearly tradition that they invite someone to have an open discussion. It's a stormy night. Pete invites over Zachary Cody (Bill Paxton) whose car broke down. Soon, Zachary shows himself to be a racist, religious redneck. He's a Desert Storm vet and a Holocaust denier. The discussion turns heated with Zach holding a knife to Jewish Marc's throat. Pete tries to turn the table but Zach breaks his arm. Marc kills Zach by stabbing him in the back. The group argues. Luke convinces them to bury the body. Sheriff Alice Stanley (Nora Dunn) is investigating a missing woman. The group decides to kill more people being the judge, the jury and even the executioners.This group is too smart to not call the cops after killing Zach. At least, the two girls who had nothing to do with the killing would go to the cops. It would be a better story to not have the liberals stumble into the first killing. Let them be fully cold-blooded killers in a school project sort of way. The whole thing feels very manufactured. This is more of an exercise rather than something with real feelings and real characters. This is something made up around a warped dinner party.

This is a dark comedy/drama about extreme political views and intolerance. The point of the movie is that some people just wants to be told right and have whatever opinion they have prevail in society.The message is supposed to be that both extremes are just as bad, and the arguments of both parts are just as simple minded and void of deep, that's intentional. But also that both have the right to exist and is healthy for a society to have a wide variety of opinions. None of the characters are supposed to be geniuses or deliver any intelligent argument, on the contrary: they're meant to be very close minded. It's obvious that the characters are supposed to be opinionated, self righteous and vapid...not to mention over the top stereotypes (and i mean both the hosts and the guests). The movie itself it's an exaggeration to illustrate a point.As the plot progresses the characters get more sucked into violent actions (by conviction or group pressure), the bodies start to pile up and the situation spirals out of control. The only character that is more on the normal side, is the cop/sheriff (Nora Dunn). Side note: I liked her performance by the way, and I usually don't like her acting, but she was OK in this one (although not very memorable).I'm sad to see some of the people who made reviews for the movie didn't get what it was meant to say or bother to watch this all the way through (because it's mentioned in the movie near the end, in case you are a bit slow). But that is exactly the point of the movie, some people just wants to be told right and have whatever opinion they have prevail in society.On the comedy side, it's got a mild feel of screwball without going too crazy with it, that was very enjoyable. To put this in other words: it doesn't go into Clue or Arsenic and old lace territory, is more subtle but is still noticeable. The comedy moments are very controlled, but is still very funny if you relax and just watch it, instead of taking sides. To sum it up, the plot is original enough to be interesting and it's very funny if you don't get defensive. It delivers what was promised.

This movie is a raw satire about intolerance. It' s not really about political right or left wing views, but about people who fail to understand what freedom of speech really is. The main characters don' t think about their own limits - just the other people' s. This group of elite students conceived their own mission, a mission to get rid of everybody who they think have the wrong opinions about the society. As mention in the movie - i you travel back in time and met the young artist Adolf Hitler, knowing what he would do as a grown man, would you kill him to save millions of lives? I probably would, but to change history - what consequences would that make for the future? That' s the question I asked myself... This is the debut for director Stacy Title, the theme is controversial, and the product has a visual style that appeal to me. The actors are very good, Title and her staff have apparently picked the right cast, and everybody did an outstanding job - even the guest stars. Stacy Title haven' t done anything memorable later in her professional career - which makes me wonder why, for with this production, she hit the nail on the head.

It's 1909 and you're alone with a young artist named Adolph. Do you kill him? A hypothetical question becomes real for a group of friends (Cameron Diaz, Ron Eldard, Annabeth Gish, Jonathan Penner, and Courtney B. Vance) that inadvertently have a gung ho ex-Marine (Bill Paxton) for dinner.They decide that the world could be a better place if they removed some of those who pollute it with their thoughts, words, and actions. Come on, you've probably thought of the idea too. Wouldn't America be a better place if someone had gotten rid of a few right-wing nut-jobs before they could do serious damage to the country? They choose one each Sunday - anti-gay (Charles Durning), anti-literacy (Pamela Gien), anti-environment (Jason Alexander), etc. - you guessed it, until they come up with what they consider the ultimate prize - a Rush Limbaugh type (Ron Perlman) that causes them to pause. Is he really bad, or just out for money and publicity? Is that a bad enough reason to kill him?The answer and ending were a perfect ending to a funny movie.