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Last Dance (1996)
Rate:
4
Viewed:
7/04, 7/25
7/25:
Remember when Sharon Stone went serious after being Oscar-nominated for Casino?
Well, it backfired...big time. Two films of hers released in 1996 were
Diabolique and Last Dance. Both lost millions and
millions of dollars at the box office. That forced her to do nothing for the next two years. When she came back,
her career kept getting worse and worse, leading to the permanent loss of her A-list status.
It wouldn't have mattered if Dead Man Walking didn't
come out the year before. Last Dance has serious issues of its own, and gender has nothing to do with it.
Then, it suffers greatly in comparison with the other film. I just can't believe how identical both are scene
for scene. As a matter of fact, they were being filmed at the same time.
One, there's no emotional core. As a result, I didn't feel anything for the woman on death row named Cindy
Liggett. Two, Sharon Stone, actually a supporting actress here, gives a performance that's semi-weak and
semi-pathetic. I find it easy to laugh at her as a tough wannabe who fails to match up with the evilness of
Sean Penn's character.
Three, Rob Morrow, as Rick Hayes, is occasionally phony and inappropriate when he should've been 100%
professional. It feels like he was falling in love with Cindy, and that's the very first case he started working
on? Worse, Rick still doesn't know what he's getting into, and Cindy isn't somebody to deal with or to pity on.
No matter how hard he wants to get people on the side of his client, he's never convinced me once that this is
somebody worth caring about.
Watching how the death sentence was carried out and thinking back to
Dead Man Walking, I found everything to be done improperly. For example,
the condemned female prisoner is allowed to have men in her cell, and they stay there all day when staying behind
the bars makes more sense. Then, she walks to the gurney unshackled that's seemingly next door in the manner of
"Oh, all right...take me away. Whatever." In other words, everything is so laxly done that unexpected problems
can arise.
If there are positives, the legal stuff is interesting to watch. It's what I paid attention to the most. Then,
there's the pretty good performance given by Randy Quaid. As a matter of fact, if he played Rick, I think it
would've made for a more credible picture. Anyway, Randy Quaid is certainly a tall guy, standing at 6'5".
Jack Thompson and Peter Gallagher help out and thus do well.
All in all, Last Dance was DOA in 1996, having been completely overshadowed by
Dead Man Walking.