The Last Ride is half action movie, half car commercial. I'm not sure which it started out as, a bright idea of the General Motors marketing department or a real film that had to whore itself out for funding, but the end result is surprising not terrible. Oh, don't get me wrong. This isn't a good movie. It has a badly constructed plot, an oddly disjointed generational theme and is about as exciting as watching somebody change a flat tire. However, there are plenty of worse ways to spend an hour and a half.
Ronnie Purcell (Dennis Hopper) used to steal military payrolls back in the Vietnam War era with the help of his wife and a Pontiac GTO named "The Judge". His wife gets killed and Ronnie gets arrested. 30 years later, Ronnie gets out of prison. His son Aaron (Will Patton) is a cop who ended up being raised by Darryl Kurtz (Fred Ward), the man who arrested Ronnie and now runs a successful security company. Ronnie's grandson Matt (Chris Carmack) is a gearhead who dabbles in street racing and various minor crimes. His girlfriend JJ Cruz (Nadine Velazquez) used to work in a chop shop but is trying to go straight so she and Matt can have a life together.
Matt and his grandpa team up to find "The Judge" just as Kurtz decides to frame them for murder. It turns out that Kurtz was Ronnie's partner in the payroll thefts, something he desperately wants to cover up. As Aaron discovers the man who raised him is a giant scumbag, he joins Ronnie's efforts to get the evidence of Kurtz' criminal past, which Kurtz' men promptly steal from them. Then Matt and JJ break into Kurtz' house to find evidence of all the underhanded and illegal things he's done as part of his security business, but they have to throw that evidence away to escape from Kurtz' armed thugs. Finally, Ronnie invites Kurtz out for a showdown in what appears to be a rock quarry, where he and JJ secretly tape Kurtz' confession before Ronnie inexplicably decides to kill himself and his old enemy by driving off a cliff. Oh, and while all that's going on, the movie repeatedly dwells on glamour shots of the 2004 Pontiac GTO.
The Last Ride is competently directed with mundane yet unobjectionable dialog and the cast does an adequate job, but the story they're telling is quite labored. For the first hour of the film, things repeatedly grind to a halt so one character after another can explain the overly involved plot and back story to the audience. Expository dialog is oftentimes a necessary evil in filmmaking. There's a limited amount of time and it's an efficient way of conveying crucial information to the viewer. Repeated use of the technique, though, is a sign of trouble. I lost count after a while, but this movie has at least 4 or 5 expository dialog scenes, which is at least 3 or 4 too many for this sort of thing. And by the time the good guys get incriminating evidence on the bad guys for a second time, only to lose it all for a second time, it's pretty obvious that much of what's going on is just to kill time between product placements of the 2004 Pontiac GTO.
Middle aged Aaron Purcell working through his father issues is also a weirdly distracting element at work in this movie. The old guy teaming up with the handsome young kid and a hot chick makes sense for this sort of thing. Sticking a 40something dude in the middle of all that and having him fuss and fume over the abandonment and betrayal of his father figures is like a piece of cucumber stuck in a bowl of chocolate pudding. It doesn't belong and somewhat spoils the taste.
Since The Last Ride is as much advertisement as entertainment, it's also extremely unobjectionable. There's no nudity, no bad language and the action scenes are about as tame as an episode of Mr. Roger's Neighborhood. Like most commercials that are trying to sell you something, this film doesn't want to distract you with anything with anything all that enjoyable. Every time you watch this and are thinking about something besides the 2004 Pontiac GTO, The Last Ride is failing in its primary mission.
Watching a 90 minute car commercial isn't exactly fun, but the filmmaking expertise used in making this commercial is high enough that it doesn't feel like a total waste of time. That's not saying much about the value of The Last Ride, but it is something.
Ronnie Purcell (Dennis Hopper) used to steal military payrolls back in the Vietnam War era with the help of his wife and a Pontiac GTO named "The Judge". His wife gets killed and Ronnie gets arrested. 30 years later, Ronnie gets out of prison. His son Aaron (Will Patton) is a cop who ended up being raised by Darryl Kurtz (Fred Ward), the man who arrested Ronnie and now runs a successful security company. Ronnie's grandson Matt (Chris Carmack) is a gearhead who dabbles in street racing and various minor crimes. His girlfriend JJ Cruz (Nadine Velazquez) used to work in a chop shop but is trying to go straight so she and Matt can have a life together.
Matt and his grandpa team up to find "The Judge" just as Kurtz decides to frame them for murder. It turns out that Kurtz was Ronnie's partner in the payroll thefts, something he desperately wants to cover up. As Aaron discovers the man who raised him is a giant scumbag, he joins Ronnie's efforts to get the evidence of Kurtz' criminal past, which Kurtz' men promptly steal from them. Then Matt and JJ break into Kurtz' house to find evidence of all the underhanded and illegal things he's done as part of his security business, but they have to throw that evidence away to escape from Kurtz' armed thugs. Finally, Ronnie invites Kurtz out for a showdown in what appears to be a rock quarry, where he and JJ secretly tape Kurtz' confession before Ronnie inexplicably decides to kill himself and his old enemy by driving off a cliff. Oh, and while all that's going on, the movie repeatedly dwells on glamour shots of the 2004 Pontiac GTO.
The Last Ride is competently directed with mundane yet unobjectionable dialog and the cast does an adequate job, but the story they're telling is quite labored. For the first hour of the film, things repeatedly grind to a halt so one character after another can explain the overly involved plot and back story to the audience. Expository dialog is oftentimes a necessary evil in filmmaking. There's a limited amount of time and it's an efficient way of conveying crucial information to the viewer. Repeated use of the technique, though, is a sign of trouble. I lost count after a while, but this movie has at least 4 or 5 expository dialog scenes, which is at least 3 or 4 too many for this sort of thing. And by the time the good guys get incriminating evidence on the bad guys for a second time, only to lose it all for a second time, it's pretty obvious that much of what's going on is just to kill time between product placements of the 2004 Pontiac GTO.
Middle aged Aaron Purcell working through his father issues is also a weirdly distracting element at work in this movie. The old guy teaming up with the handsome young kid and a hot chick makes sense for this sort of thing. Sticking a 40something dude in the middle of all that and having him fuss and fume over the abandonment and betrayal of his father figures is like a piece of cucumber stuck in a bowl of chocolate pudding. It doesn't belong and somewhat spoils the taste.
Since The Last Ride is as much advertisement as entertainment, it's also extremely unobjectionable. There's no nudity, no bad language and the action scenes are about as tame as an episode of Mr. Roger's Neighborhood. Like most commercials that are trying to sell you something, this film doesn't want to distract you with anything with anything all that enjoyable. Every time you watch this and are thinking about something besides the 2004 Pontiac GTO, The Last Ride is failing in its primary mission.
Watching a 90 minute car commercial isn't exactly fun, but the filmmaking expertise used in making this commercial is high enough that it doesn't feel like a total waste of time. That's not saying much about the value of The Last Ride, but it is something.