Rating: 
Summary: Very good film, a character study as well as action movie
Review: I skipped this film in theatres because the TV advertisments implied that it had a raucous rock-n-rap soundtrack. Well, the DVD version did not, suprisingly, but despite two rather loud songs, the score was very subtle and mysterious, thus very nice. The story was excellent, although a bit implausible. From what we've seen with recent military scandals, rarely is an officer courtmartialled and even rarely is he convicted. In this film, though, Eugene Irwin having (implausibly, after all his years of experience and training) disobeyed a direct order is then (implausibly) courtmartialled and sent to the Castle for ten years imprisonment. Irwin is played expertly by Robert Redford -- a fantastic and understated performance as a man who is committed to military discipline, leadership, and compassion. Redford does Irwin's character so well that you hope real military leaders are this strong and this decent. Playing opposite is James Gandolfini as the prison warden, Colonel Winter, who eventually becomes the bad guy. Gandolfini's character is less defined, more shallow than Irwin, so these two don't clash in expected displays of strength. Irwin is straightforward, Winter repressed and even whiney. The outcome is determined by the men's characters and not by the events. A film on many levels, with a bit too much violence for my taste, but the main characters and supporting cast are very well acted and presented. Definitely a guy film, but well worth being viewed by women (like me) because the character aspects are quite intriguing. Unfortunately, only a few women appear in very minor roles, like Hollywood wanted to remind you that women do still exist. Robin Penn Wright is on camera for about three minutes in a cryptic role and though she gives a good performance, you feel like her character was gratuitous. Despite these shortcomings, I highly recommend this film. It was interesting from start to finish. Fascinating characters manage to hold your attention and tell a very good story.
Rating: 
Summary: Totally absorbing with fast moving plot
Review: The film stars Robert Redford as a 3-star general who has been stripped of his rank and sent to a military prison run by James Gandolfini of "The Sopranos" fame. From the beginning there is conflict between the two men as Redford views Gandolfini as a tin soldier who has never been in real battles. As the film goes on, we see Gandolfini as nothing short of a sadist who punishes the men severely for every infraction of his silly rules. The story moves fast and the audience identifies with the plight of the men who have lost their pride in being soldiers. Redford orchestrates psychological strategies to rattle Gandolfini as well as armed conflict. The plot moves so fast and is so involving that I got totally absorbed in the film, rooting for the prisoners as they fought for dignity under Gandolfini's heavy hand.Redford is a good actor and played his part well. He has lines in his face, which make him look real. James Gandolfini is magnificent and shows the range of his acting skills because the role called for a complex and nuanced performance. As I was watching the film, I was so caught up in the story that there was no time to think about the holes in the plot. By the next morning though I felt it was all rather contrived and silly. I was impressed by the clarity of the DVD picture and the extras at the end of the film, such as the director's voice-over as we watched scenes that had been cut. All this added to my viewing enjoyment. As for the film itself, it will appeal to those who, like me, enjoy war movies. Don't expect to cry and don't expect to laugh. There's high drama in the film, but it doesn't go to the heart. But I do find it enjoyable to just sit back, relax, and let the film take me where it wants.
Rating:
Summary: Creative
Review: This movie is creative, but at a less intuitive rate. There is much to be gathered here, despite the predictability on the surface. I think it speaks much to the next 20 years of the United States. Give it a viewing and then give it a couple days to grow on you. The acting is very good, as is the cinematography. The editing is very good, as is the transfer to DVD. Overall, one to put on your second-tier viewing list.
Rating: 
Summary: Weak Screenplay
Review: I used to listen to Rod Lurie on KABC talk radio each Saturday. He had a show on movies and he was very entertaining. His views were strong and very unlike the political correctness that started to sweep this country. I remember when he got his first screenplay together and had to leave the show to direct his first movie. He is the rare movie critic that actually switched careers to make movie. For that, he deserves respect by all. Now...this film was weak. I agree, the core antagonist/ protagonist relationship was weak...in fact, very weak. The warden was insulted because he has never really done a tour of duty, so collecting war memorabilia is for the weak. This is his soul motivation to prove himself. Yes, man is that fragile, but it needed to be developed thoroughly to base an entire movie on. The rest of the flic makes one wonder if these guys are really in a prison. There is almost no conflict among the prisoners...they seem so united and too respectful of Redford's character. The movie lacked energy and intensity. The scene with the rocks that Redford dragged went on and on with no climax that moved me. In short, this was a good looking Hollywood movie that was boring...you keep wondering why this movie was made. Maybe on repeat viewings it will be insightful...however not by me. I'm glad I borrowed it from the library! Keep trying Rod!
Rating: 
Summary: Redford, Gandolfini rise above murky story
Review: "The Last Castle" is one of those rousing, flag-waving movies that are supposed to make the audience feel proud and thrilled to be a part of whatever institution or tradition the movie is touting. On a technical level it succeeds as well as any other old-fashioned, by-the-book film does. It contains wonderful performances by Robert Redford and James Gandolfini, which are enough to make it worth watching. Unfortunately, they are hampered by a screenplay which either a) has a morally questionable premise, or b) is too murky to allow the ironies of story to be easily understood. Either way, it prevents a good movie from being a great one. The title refers to a military prison; It's old and foreboding. [The movie was shot on location at an abandoned Tennessee State Prison.] Col. Winter [Gandolfini] is the warden. He runs the place with a bully's iron fist. His office is in stark contrast to the rest of the prison. With its picture window overlooking the yard, its wood paneled walls and its immaculate collection of Winter's treasured war memorabilia, it's the lair of a refined sadist. The arrival of Gen. Irwin [Redford], who has been sentenced to ten years, signals the end of Winter's perfect little world. The colonel admires Irwin and even thinks he doesn't belong there, but, when he overhears a remark the general makes about the memorabilia's being the sign of an officer who's never seen battle, he becomes quietly enraged. Some of the prisoners start coming to Irwin with stories about the dreadful way that Winter runs at place. He tries to ignore them. After all, these aren't saints and choirboys. One day an incident occurs that Irwin can't ignore because it insults the core of his being as an officer and a gentleman. Irwin and Winter are now on a collision course, one that will lead to a remarkable and violent conclusion. Watching Redford and Gandolfini is like watching two remarkable athletes or dancers at work. Each gives his role an authenticity younger performers should study. Redford, of course, is a film icon. His forte is playing basically decent characters thrown into a moral quandary. Gandolfini is perfection. His colonel's dangerous personality is always visible just beneath his civilized demeanor. He is truly frightening. Mark Ruffalo and Clifton Collins Jr. are very good in supporting roles. Although the flaws in the script won't affect viewers who pay attention only to the action aspects of the movie, they were enough for me to be dissatisfied. Some are minor and are the results of lazy editing. For example, it is never explained how the prisoners construct the weapons used in the climax with a hundred guards looking on. The major one is a confused sense of moral righteousness. Irwin is certainly smarter and kinder than Winter is in his techniques for getting the men to obey and follow him, but he is just as manipulative. In his own way, he is also monster underneath his far more likeable facade. The explanation of why he is in prison is proof enough of this. Considering the insight into characters and their motivations that director Rod Lurie showed in his previous movies, "The Contender" and "Deterrence", I suspect this is what we are supposed to see. And yet the ending contradicts and distorts this point of view. It presupposes that we have to have a hero, and that's a copout that's bad enough to seriously mar the movie overall.
Rating:
Summary: Touching Story of Human Dignity
Review: "The Last Castle" is a novel about the inherent value of human life. Even the worst of prisoners and other undesirables are still human beings and if we look deep enough, we can find nobility and value in them too. I enjoyed this film and its' message. The story's plot revolves around a remarkable man, Lieutenant General Eugene Erwin played by Robert Redford, and his sentencing to a ten-year prison sentence at a military prison for a crime unmentioned until later in the film. As Erwin is brought to prison, we meet the leading antagonist, Colonel Winter, played by James Gandolfini, a quiet soft-spoken man and the prison warden whose personality seems to be much deeper than his civilized exterior. After Erwin and Winters meet some ten minutes or so into the movie, we can see that the rest of the film will be about a test of wills between the two. The film's climax culminates in the prisoners staging an overthrow of Colonel Winter and his guards by the prisoners led by Erwin. The director really thought up some innovative ideas for how prisoners might deal with helicopters, riot cars with hydraulic hoses, and guard towers. Many of the other reviewers wrote that they thought the prisoners' solutions to the helicopters, riot cars with hydraulic hoses, and guard towers were a bit far fetched. I don't agree and found everything plausible if not very likely. The prisoners use food trays as shields like Roman Legionnaires in Tetsudo formation (a solid line of shields) to protect themselves from the water cannon on the riot car and some of the prisoners crawl under the building and cut off the water main feeding the water cannon. They then use the water cannon to shoot a grappling hook attached to a chain, which entangles the helicopter's landing skids. Even better, then a prisoner, who is also a helicopter pilot, shimmies up the chain and overpowers the helicopter pilot. See what I mean about plausible but farfetched? Meanwhile the prisoners have built a trebuchet (a gravity catapult) and are using rubber medical hose to lob bags of flammables at the guard towers. I got a particular chuckle out of this one since I remember engineering students at university hooking gigantic piece of rubber medical hose between two antennas on our dorm's roof to hurl water balloons at an opposing dorm. I can definitely vouch that rubber medical hose works fine for lobbing things great distances. However, the crown jewel of the film is Redford's portrayal of General Erwin. Redford gives Erwin a force of character and a determination that makes it hard not to like him. He's very believable as a general. The film also relates that Erwin is a former POW and Vietnam veteran. Redford's lines about the experience correspond with every novel I've read about the POW experience in Vietnam. Once again, Redfrod's performance rang true. A minor subtheme for the film is chess and all of Erwin's moves are related to a chess game including the eventual overthrow of the prison. One reviewer wrote that Erwin was just as much a manipulator as Gandolfini's Colonel Winters and to this point I disagree. Erwin portrays a general who leads men by example and respect. This is called leadership and has nothing to do with manipulation. A general leads men to accomplish a task that he or she may or may not agree with. A manipulator USES men to accomplish tasks for the manipulator's own ends. There is a strong difference between the two. I highly recommend this excellent drama. Review by: Maximillian Ben Hanan
Rating:
Summary: Slightly entertaining, not worth owning
Review: I'm glad I saw this film on HBO instead of paying money to rent it. While it was moderately entertaining, I wouldn't be interested in adding it to my home movie collection. The film starts out with two incidents that it fails to follow up on. The first is a fight in the military prison between two inmates. The music and fight leads you to believe that this will be like a lot of prison films: people leading very hard lives, getting beat up on a daily basis, and having to fight to survive. There was virtually none of this. None of the prisoners are the least bit scary, and you expect them to hug each other by the final scene. Robert Redford is immediately given respect for being a general, and doesn't have to earn anything for himself. The second surprise is that Redford's situation is left a mystery until halfway through the film. It's alluded to several times early on that he is a 3 star general and he doesn't deserve to be in prison. When it is finally revealed why he is in prison, it is a letdown. You're expecting it to be a fairly prominent part of the film, and he's portrayed as someone who doesn't deserve to be there. The director brushes over the explanation and the viewer learns that Redford, like every other prisoner, DESERVES to be in jail. This makes it very difficult to root for him when he decides to lead a gang of murderers and prisoners in an uprising against the warden. The other main problem with this film, is that Gandolfini doesn't come off as a very bad character. Unlike the classic prison movies, you have a prisoner who deserves to be in jail, fighting against a warden who is supposed to be evil, but is never developed fully enough to show this. The whole time through the end of this movie, I kept thinking, these guys are killing innocent American soldiers who were stationed at the prison and are simply following orders. While not many are killed, there are definitely a couple who go down permanently. I'm supposed to be excited about this? Overall, a lackluster hero, a weak villain, and a lack of a single escape attempt makes this a very weak prison movie. This movie is tailor-made for Dolph Lundgren or Jean Claude Van Damme, not Robert Redford.
Rating:
Summary: Ruffalo is the shiznay
Review: basically because I like Mark Ruffalo and he's done some other brillant movies like XX/YY and My Life Without Me and so forth and that's why I viewed this and I liked it. Robert Redford and Gandolfini play a great game in this movie and Ruffalo is along for the ride. My favorite scene is when Ruffalo steals the helicopter and plows a guard with the end of it and blows a station up(a great action sequence). also I noted that there's a surprise actor named Steve Burton in this flick, who you may or may not know plays Jason on General Hospital. a must see for prison movie fans
Rating: 
Summary: "They've been around for thousands of years"
Review: But the film seems longer. Ooh, there are some cynics out there. The catapault was obviously hidden in pieces around the prison. Under pillows. In the latrine. Up the inmates left trouser legs. Up...other places. Behind the cigarette vending machine. Behind the poster of Rita Heyworth. Then they constructed it in er, a minute flat and er.... Will the Special Edition have an alternative ending? Redford winches up the American flag. Then after a minute they take it down and someone puts up the Iraqi flag. End titles. Arabic music. Like it, centurion?
Rating:
Summary: Very Good Movie
Review: The Last Castle rides high on a wave of American patriotism, respectful of military service and protocol, and primed to ignite anyone's passion for justice against corrupted ideals. This intense prison drama begins when a court-martialed three-star general (Robert Redford) is sentenced to military prison for defying a presidential command. The prison's warden (James Gandolfini) is a jealous martinet who's never seen combat, and when the jailed general seizes command of the prison to protest the warden's abuse of power, The Last Castle erupts toward a classic showdown between integrity and cowardice. This movie is very good and has a good cast to compliment the story line. Have fun watching it.
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