Rating: 
Summary: Pleasing visit down memory lane......
Review: Looking for a sentimental Brit flick that leaves you feeling good? Try LAST ORDERS with a stellar ensemble of favorite actors- Michael Caine, Helen Mirran, Bob Hoskins, David Hemmings and Tom Courtenay. My husband and I thoroughly enjoyed this tale of old friends who travel from their favorite pub in London to the Margate Pier to scatter the ashes of one of their group, Jack, who has made the request his `last orders' (phrase used when the bar is closing). Using flashbacks, the Fred Schepisi, director of SIX DEGREES OF SEPARATION, weaves a wonderful tale of one man's life as seen through the eyes of the friends and family who loved him. Jack Dodd (Michale Caine) and Abby (Helen Mirran) were married for over 50 years. One of Jack's friends (Bob Hoskins) is a buddy from his WWII days who made his fortune playing the horses. Another (David Hemmings), is an ex-prize fighter. Yet another (Tom Cortenay), is an undertaker who began his career of tending to the dead during the war. Their son (Ray Winstone) is a successful Mercedes-Benz dealer who makes a good deal more money than his dad who never recovered from the fact his son would not join him in the family meat business. On the trip to Margate Pier, each friend and family member recalls Jack, whose ashes are to be taken to the seaside place he and Abby visited years earlier. Each of them remembers a charming vignette that took place with Jack in London, southern England (Kent County) and/or the Middle East at some point during the last 50 years of the 20th century. This film is a must for the dedicated Anglophile and those nostalgic for past times. The transfer of the film is excellent and the beautiful shots include visits to a WWII memorial in Kent, Canterbury Cathedral, and Margate Pier which is really a sort of paved boardwalk ("the jetty washed away years ago").
Rating:
Summary: Pleasing visit down memory lane......
Review: Looking for a sentimental Brit flick that leaves you feeling good? Try LAST ORDERS with a stellar ensemble of favorite actors- Michael Caine, Helen Mirran, Bob Hoskins, David Hemmings and Tom Courtenay. My husband and I thoroughly enjoyed this tale of old friends who travel from their favorite pub in London to the Margate Pier to scatter the ashes of one of their group, Jack, who has made the request his 'last orders' (phrase used when the bar is closing). Using flashbacks, the Fred Schepisi, director of SIX DEGREES OF SEPARATION, weaves a wonderful tale of one man's life as seen through the eyes of the friends and family who loved him. Jack Dodd (Michale Caine) and Abby (Helen Mirran) were married for over 50 years. One of Jack's friends (Bob Hoskins) is a buddy from his WWII days who made his fortune playing the horses. Another (David Hemmings), is an ex-prize fighter. Yet another (Tom Cortenay), is an undertaker who began his career of tending to the dead during the war. Their son (Ray Winstone) is a successful Mercedes-Benz dealer who makes a good deal more money than his dad who never recovered from the fact his son would not join him in the family meat business. On the trip to Margate Pier, each friend and family member recalls Jack, whose ashes are to be taken to the seaside place he and Abby visited years earlier. Each of them remembers a charming vignette that took place with Jack in London, southern England (Kent County) and/or the Middle East at some point during the last 50 years of the 20th century. This film is a must for the dedicated Anglophile and those nostalgic for past times. The transfer of the film is excellent and the beautiful shots include visits to a WWII memorial in Kent, Canterbury Cathedral, and Margate Pier which is really a sort of paved boardwalk ("the jetty washed away years ago").
Rating: 
Summary: A film worthy of the cast
Review: Not only is the film bittersweet, but so is the watching of it for me. I've derived so much pleasure over the years from several of this excellent cast in superior films. Back to the early 1970s when Helen Mirren was a sassy girl in "O Lucky Man," and later when she and Bob Hoskins were perfectly matched in "The Long Good Friday." Hoskins went on to other sterling work in "The Dunera Boys" and "The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearn," and Mirren to fame and excellence in such as "The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover."
Way back, I go, with Tom Courtenay in "Billy Liar," and through to his stunning and heartbreaking performance in "The Dresser." Michael Caine in so many things, of course, not the least of which was "Educating Rita." This is a good film, filled with pathos and tenderness. Thank goodness it is good enough to deserve a cast of this caliber. I hope it stimulates viewers to revisit some of their even greater works, as well as to make "Last Orders" part of their collections.
Rating:
Summary: Life, death, and what it all means.
Review: Prime British actors, Michael Caine, Helen Mirren, and Bob Hoskins, give us utterly believable characters in this intricate story about the mourners of Jack Dodds, a butcher from Bermondsey, London. Jack's 'last orders' come as a surprise to his family and friends, but nevertheless they respect his request and do him proud. The lifelong drinking partners of Jack set out from their local pub to the seaside resort of Margate to carry out his final wishes ' that his ashes be scattered from the end of the pier. The friends, an ex-boxer, a car salesman, an undertaker, and a betting man, take his ashes on a day trip to Margate to do the honors, using a showroom Mercedes to send Jack off in style. Along the way, they stop off at places significant in Jack's history and their own heritage, plus a few pubs, and reflect on their relationships with Jack and his family, and on their own decisions in life. Meanwhile, back in London, his wife dwells with her own compromises and choices as she visits their severely disabled daughter, a girl Jack never could accept. Last Orders is a poignant and mostly gentle story of the people who have surrounded Jack Dodds during his adult life. The film is laced with flashbacks to earlier times and the long-ago causes of how their lives are inextricably tied together now. The complexity of these interwoven lives highlights the humor, tolerance, and interdependence necessary for successful life long bonds of family and friends. This movie deals with universal human questions regarding life, death, personal faults and strengths, and what it all means, all wrapped up in a package of superb acting and a wholly satisfying story.
Rating:
Summary: Last Wish Must Be Honored!
Review: The butcher Jack has recently past away and his last wish was to have his ashes spread over the ocean. His closest friends and relatives decide to aid him in his final request. The four men who undertake the journey to the coast discuss and ponder their relationships with Jack throughout the trip. Seventy years of Jacks memories are covered on the road to the seaside and these memories bring out the compassionate qualities of the four men. The trip becomes an enlightening experience for both the characters and the audience that will soften the hardest of hearts.
Rating:
Summary: Well done but very hard to understand
Review: The movies central characters are a bunch of bar buddies that have spent their adult lives in and around one another. When one of them dies, the life of the party; Michael Caine, his last orders are for his ashes to be poured in the Ocean off a local seaside resort pier. This requires the bunch of them (his 3 bar buddies and his son) to drive about a day away to complete this last task for their friend. The dialogue is very well done, but I'm sorry to say for me, very hard to understand. As an American, the dialogue was fast and with too many British figures of speak to pick up quick. I'm sure I missed 25% of the movie. Given that, what I did catch was marvelous. As with any group of people that spent their lives together, they are intertwined with tensions and there is a history behind each one. The movie flashes back to bits of recollection and gives some history for the tensions involved. I thought this was very well done. It gave you the true feeling that many have when a person passes away: He was just sitting here yesterday! This is really brought home with the flashbacks. Michael Caine is the central character and the man that has passed away. His character and his past is well portrayed as well as that of his friends. You get a sense of what pulls them together as well as what repels them about one another. It is not a bigger than life story, but one you can easily imagine yourself being part of. Here you see how some men grieve; silently, quietly and most often alone. You can also see as we all do, when another dies, we all start to take stock as well. This is not a horribly sad movie, as the remembering is not done in a maudlin way. These men remember their friend, the fun they had together, the animosities each have felt at time, then like with most of us, life goes on.
Rating:
Summary: Well done but very hard to understand
Review: The movies central characters are a bunch of bar buddies that have spent their adult lives in and around one another. When one of them dies, the life of the party; Michael Caine, his last orders are for his ashes to be poured in the Ocean off a local seaside resort pier. This requires the bunch of them (his 3 bar buddies and his son) to drive about a day away to complete this last task for their friend. The dialogue is very well done, but I'm sorry to say for me, very hard to understand. As an American, the dialogue was fast and with too many British figures of speak to pick up quick. I'm sure I missed 25% of the movie. Given that, what I did catch was marvelous. As with any group of people that spent their lives together, they are intertwined with tensions and there is a history behind each one. The movie flashes back to bits of recollection and gives some history for the tensions involved. I thought this was very well done. It gave you the true feeling that many have when a person passes away: He was just sitting here yesterday! This is really brought home with the flashbacks. Michael Caine is the central character and the man that has passed away. His character and his past is well portrayed as well as that of his friends. You get a sense of what pulls them together as well as what repels them about one another. It is not a bigger than life story, but one you can easily imagine yourself being part of. Here you see how some men grieve; silently, quietly and most often alone. You can also see as we all do, when another dies, we all start to take stock as well. This is not a horribly sad movie, as the remembering is not done in a maudlin way. These men remember their friend, the fun they had together, the animosities each have felt at time, then like with most of us, life goes on.
Rating:
Summary: an excellent movie
Review: thie was an excellent movie. the story was interesting the scenery and location were excellent. I really enjoyed this movie.I was sorry when it ended. see this movie.
Rating:
Summary: The extraordinary in the ordinay
Review: This is a lovely little movie, in a very small, unflashy, quiet way. For me it was about the extraordinary that we encounter in our ordinary lives -- the unbearable cruelness and sweet kindness that humans can show each other. I cried, but also was warmed by this gentle little flick. The cast is wonderful and really bring life to these flawed, complicated and very human characters. There is a lot pressed into this movie, and perhaps some of the stories could have been better developed, but isn't life like that sometimes too, half-realized, barely glimpsed?
Rating:
Summary: Order it first....
Review: This movie describes perfectly the life, the atmosphere in England. The characters are so real. Excellent acting by Bob Hoskins, Michael Caine and all the cast. I was particularly impressed by Helen Mirren's performance, comparable to her performance in Greenfingers.
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