Rating: 
Summary: Good movie if you can truly suspend disbelief
Review: A good movie that could have been much better if they stayed away from the military theme. Having spent much of my life in the military, I had a very difficult time ignoring all the glaring flaws. For entertainment value alone it is quite good. The acting and action scenes are well done, however, the plot is confusing and so far off base that it drags down a great cast and crew to the level of a B movie action flick. If you think this is a realistic, or even plausible, depiction of a military prison, then you are very wrong.
Rating: 
Summary: A classic battle between Good and Evil with shades of gray.
Review: Starring Robert Redford as a three star general that has been sent to military prison, and "The Soprano's", James Gandolfini as his warden/keeper. Tension is high between the war weary General and the warden who has always been behind the lines, a watcher of battles never a participant. The warden rules with an iron fist, and not always by the rules; all is not as it should be in the Castle.The Castle refers to the Prison, which stands with a history of years past. There is some intense strategizing and battles hard won that make for a wonderfully entertaining body of work that will keep your attention and raise the hairs of indignity on the back of your neck. The end comes to you with patriotic overtones that will make you want to stand up and cheer. I really enjoyed this film and would highly recommend it. ...
Rating: 
Summary: A dreadful mess
Review: This movie is the worst movie to come along since Duets. The script is a unique blend of Shawshank Redemption, Taps, and Patton. The premise is a general has been sent to a military prison because of disobeying an order. Stripped of his rank, he's greeted by an insecure prison warden who hates saluting in his prison. Bad acting, bad script, and hammy plot twists put this in the company of Ishtar, the Exorcist 2, and Joe Versus the Volcano as one of the worst films ever released by a major studio.
Rating:
Summary: Redford as "Gladiator" character
Review: We do not easily tire of fallen super-heroes rising again. Russell Crowe's Roman general/gladiator figure and Charlton Heston's Judah Ben-Hur come to mind. We love seeing them re-assemble their scattered powers and claw their way back to the top. In this film the wonderful Robert Redford is a dashed, but previously mighty, three-star general, Eugene Irwin. The character has admittedly made mistakes in the past, but his heroic sense of honor and high-minded character are readily discernible. I never cease to admire Redford's ability to portray the human male at its most heroic best. "Inspiring" is not too strong a descriptor.
The use of prison-as-castle metaphor offers interesting possibilities for Redford's character, the Chess-loving, master of military strategy.
His nemesis, Warden Colonel Winter, is played with just the right amount of creepy smarminess by James Gandolfini (think: "borderline personality"). The supporting cast does a creditable job as well.
The plot, while not air-tight, is fairly serviceable and there is just the right amount of action/adventure (these ARE military people, and this IS a prison).
Special mention certainly goes to the screenplay, which is very well crafted and quite intelligent.
A good measuring stick for me is the length of time this film "stayed with me" after the credits were complete. I highly recommend this movie.
Rating:
Summary: don't take it as an example to follow.
Review: I have a bad habit of first reading other peoples' reviews and only then watch a movie or read a book. The Last Castle has so many good reviews, that I did not hesitate to watch it. The plot is very traditional indeed - good against evil, but it's only at first sight, actually it is one ambition against another. Colonel Winter, prison's warden and the main bad guy, vs. General Irwin, the convict and a good guy, as the majority of the viewers see him. Both men do not hesitate to involve in the conflict dozens of other men - the colonel involves his subordinates, the general his inmates, who respect him, mostly for his rank, I presume, and have no time to realize what a monster they respect. In my opinion General Irwin is a provocateur, a charismatic military officer without any sense of responsibility.
The inmates in the prison are constantly humiliated and, of course, don't like this: a normal reaction - nobody likes to be humiliated. Our hero general makes the resignation of bad warden (Colonel Winter) his goal, but instead of legal methods chooses illegal ones. He starts a conspiracy, which ends with an uprising. He, a 3-star general, should have thought about the results beforehand. And the results are great indeed! The general himself is killed (he's lucky to go this way!), at least one of the American soldiers, who was only fulfilling his duty, is killed, the damage to the premises is serious and all of the general's "tin soldiers" are to face yet another court martial for conspiracy, mutiny, illegal making and keeping of weapons, and much more' enough for many guys to stay imprisoned for many years ahead, but maybe under a better warden.
I'm not trying to persuade you not to watch the movie, on the contrary. There is a Russian saying "never think you have a life warranty against prison and poverty". Everything may happen to any one of us. Watch the movie and learn what you should not do under the circumstances. Even in the Soviet prisons during the Brezhnev regime a prisoner had a right to report any mistreatment on the part of the personnel. And the heroes of the movie live in a democratic society, or do they not? Doesn't a prisoner have a right to complain in the USA?
All this bedlam is Hollywood's idea of a good movie. It's not bad really - excellent actors, much action, and good pyrotechnics. Just don't take it as an example to follow.
Rating:
Summary: Staggeringly Bad
Review: This film is so outrageously awful it makes me ashamed to be American. What must people in other countries think when they see this RIDICULOUS, murderous behavior that masquerades as American patriotism? They must be scratching their heads in absolute confusion. An understandable argument may be, "Lighten up, it's just a movie." But I say film (fictional or non) is a very, very powerful medium, and filmmakers should be conscious of what they're putting into the heads of people worldwide. Besides the message, the dialogue and events in this picture are just downright silly. The prisoners, unbeknown by every guard at the prison (obviously), have constructed a large catapult that they've hidden somewhere in the prison yard. Was there a script available before they starting shooting this stuff? A very backward movie.
Rating: 
Summary: Unbelievable and irresponsible
Review: "The Last Castle" seems like a promising movie. It stars two great actors, Robert Redford and James Gandolfini. In addition, it features two less well-known, but talented actors - Mark Ruffalo (You Can Count on Me) and Clifton Collins Jr. (Tigerland, Traffic). However, it falters on many levels. The movie tells of a military prison and what happens when a thee star general (Redford) arrives as one of the inmates. The prison guard (Gandolfini) is supposedly exceedingly cruel and sadistic, but they really don't flesh that out enough for the audience to root against him. The inmates ask Redford for help in getting Gandolfini removed from the prison. He initially refuses, but later capitulates and becomes their leader. Redford becomes their de facto leader and they decide to take over the prison in order to get Gandofini removed. The acting is alright, although Gandolfini spends most of the film glowering in his office and Redford just stands around looking stoic. The movie asks the audience to root for the inmates when they become violent and take over the prison. At least one prison guard gets killed and several others get beaten - isn't that the same reason they are trying to get rid of Gandolfini? It simply doesn't make sense. I had a hard time rooting for the inmates, which caused the movie to fail for me completely. A disappointment.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent but could be better
Review: I really enjoyed watching this movie. Most the characters in The Last Castle were semi-well developed and each one of them had his own individual personality. This movie plays reverse roles, the inmates are not the real enemies but the man in charge of the prison is. It is cool to watch the inmates evolve from barbarians to a trained military troop. The only thing that I did not enjoy about the movie is the ending. It seems incomplete. Whatever happened to the other inmates? What happens to the Cor.? It left a few gaps in the storyline and a sequel is not likely going to be made.
Rating:
Summary: Turgid, Laughable, Unwitting Camp
Review: Enlivened by an energetic third act, this otherwise turgid, lumbering drama takes much too long to get to the fun stuff, and when it finally does, the film can't resist burying it in flag waving symbolism and a solemn trumpet score. Robert Redford, never straying far from his golden boy screen persona, here delivers a curiously flat, monotone performance as an iconic military general imprisoned for misconduct in battle (we surmise it was misconduct for noble reasons, though the film never tells us this; his character, after all, oozes nobility as though it comes from a tube.) Gandolfini, the film's black hat, is similarly straight jacketed in a one-note performance as the sadistic warden of the prison. Watching him here, one would never know he had the versatility he demonstrates in the "The Sopranos." The Castle's script is a laughable fright, full of ponderous dialogue leaded with chest thumping themes about military honor and self-respect. The accumulated effect of so much nobility is unwitting camp.
Rating:
Summary: Forever a Redford fan...
Review: I've been a Redford fan forever just as I've been a forever Paul Newman fan. In my opinion, FWIW(for what it's worth), these two guys have been and still are the greatest. I doubt anyone will come close to filling their shoes. I thought the acting was okay in the movie but the plot was a little lacking. Overall, this movie is so much better than some I've watched lately, that I have to say I enjoyed watching it. I rented another movie at the same time I rented "The Last Castle". Ben Kingsley played in some stupid mafia movie that I turned off after about the first fifteen minutes,wondering how the movie ever managed to get produced in the first place. Thus, at the time this caused me to think Redford's movie was probably a 5-star by comparsion. It wasn't until later after I'd thought about the Redford movie that I realized it wasn't a 5-star at all. So, if you want to watch the movie because Redford is in it, then you won't be disappointed. If you're expecting a great story plot, it could be a little disappointing.
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