FemaleFirst.co.uk: DVD: Last Orders [2002] [DVD]

Last Orders [2002] [DVD]
enlarge	Director: Fred Schepisi Actors: Michael Caine, Bob Hoskins, Tom Courtenay, David Hemmings, Helen Mirren Studio: Prism Leisure Category: DVD List Price: ~~£5.99~~ Buy Used: £0.98 as of 22/11/2009 22:01 GMT details You Save: £5.01 (84%) New (9) Used (40) Collectible (1) from £0.98 Seller: gr8play Rating: 6 reviews Sales Rank: 23286 Format: Anamorphic, PAL Language: English (Original Language) Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over Region: 2 Discs: 1 Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1 Number Of Discs: 1 Running Time: 106 Minutes Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2 Dimensions (in): 7.1 x 5.4 x 0.6 EAN: 5014293143455 ASIN: B000067A7F Theatrical Release Date: 2001 Release Date: July 28, 2003 Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days


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Editorial Reviews: Amazon.co.uk Review With ILast Orders/I, Australian-born writer-director Fred Schepisi has done a fine job of bringing Graham Swift's Booker Prize-winning novel to the screen. Schepisi simplifies the book's complex structure a little (we get flashbacks within flashbacks, often switching time and place mid-way through a line of dialogue), but it's all handled so lucidly and sensitively that we're never left in any doubt as to when and where we are.p The setting is Peckham, South London. Jack, a butcher, has recently died of cancer, leaving instructions that his ashes should be scattered off Margate Pier. Three of his oldest friends and drinking companions, Ray, Lenny and Vic, plus Jack's son Vince, meet at their local pub to carry out his wishes. Jack's widow, Amy, doesn't join them; she has an errand of her own to attend to. During the day's drive to the sea, memories and associations crowd in on each of them, reflections on love and fate and death in richly layered profusion.p Schepisi has assembled a cast of British cinema's most seasoned professionals: Michael Caine, Tom Courtenay, Bob Hoskins, David Hemmings, Helen Mirren and Ray Winstone. The location settings--South London and Kent--exude authenticity, with Brian Tufano's widescreen photography adding dignity. For Schepisi this is a personal project, and he's clearly in love with his material. Just occasionally the film skirts sentimentality, but it's pulled back from the edge by its humour, honesty and commitment to wry, downbeat realism.p BOn the DVD/B ILast Orders/I arrives on DVD in a clean anamorphic 16:9 transfer with Dolby 5.1 sound. There's a good range of extras: interviews and filmographies for all six principals plus the director; a "making of" featurette (everyone genuinely seems to be having a great time); written production notes; and not just the theatrical trailer, but a "trailer evolution video" showing alternative versions, plus ditto for the film's publicity poster. --IPhilip Kemp/I

Customer Reviews: Showing reviews 1-5 of 6 1 2 Next » "Four geezers and a box." September 30, 2004 Mary Whipple (New England) 24 out of 24 found this review helpful Three friends who have known Jack Dodds, a butcher, for almost fifty years, along with Jack's son Vince, meet at their local South London pub carrying a box containing Jack's ashes. Jack (Michael Caine) has died of heart failure, leaving a last request--that his ashes be cast off the Margate pier, several hours to the south of London. Ray (Bob Hoskins), a gambler; Vic (Tom Courtenay), an undertaker; Lenny (David Hemmings), a former prizefighter and heavy drinker; and Vince (Ray Winstone), Jack's son, a car dealer, set off for Margate in a Mercedes Benz that Vince has borrowed to honor the occasion. pAs the men drive south, they reminisce about Jack, joke around, sing songs, irritate each other, and even threaten each other in the emotion of the moment. Director Fred Schepesi, who adapted the screenplay from the Booker Prize-winning novel by Graham Swift, alternates present scenes from the car with contrasting or ironic scenes from Jack's life in the past, contrasting the deadness of the present trip to Margate with the liveliness of the past, showing the relationships among the various characters. Jack's wife Amy (Helen Mirren) has chosen not to come with them for the "ceremony." She is making her weekly visit to their mentally handicapped daughter June, now fifty, whom Jack has never accepted. pThe nature of each man's relationship with Jack, with spouses and children, and with each other during World War II and after are all presented in flashback--from Vince's affair with Lenny's daughter, to Ray's relationship with Amy, and Jack's last minute bet with Ray to pay off a debt. As the men's relationships evolve onscreen, the viewer recognizes that these are the kinds of relationships that ordinary men spend their lives developing. The viewer comes to know not only Jack, but also the four men in the car heading south to scatter his ashes, and on a larger, universal scale, other men who have shared long friendships, jokes, and common experiences . pIt is a tribute to the cinematography (Brian Trufano) that I didn't really notice it until the film was over--so apropos to the action and thematic development that it never called attention to itself. The original music (Paul Grabowsky) sets the scene at the beginning of the film but does not intrude on the character development or the interior action thoughout the film. The sensational cast in this wonderful ensemble drama, the sensitive directing, the fully developed themes, and the overwhelming feeling that these characters and situations are real make this one of the best films I've seen in ages. Last Orders, First Class August 11, 2002 Jordynne Olivia Lobo 11 out of 13 found this review helpful I laughed. I wept. p 'Last Orders' radiates, warmly, all that is good, some of what's not so good, in our species. At the ending I felt so much like asking, 'More, please?' But there isn't more than what the producer, writer, crew, cast, we of the audience bring to 'Last Orders'. This is more than a film: it's a reverent monument to people everywhere. p I shall watch 'Last Orders' again and again and again, and hope there will be some such lovely friends who will weep, and then smile, as they fling my ashes into the sea. Viewing for a contemplative, rainy day afternoon December 29, 2002 Joseph Haschka (Glendale, CA USA) 12 out of 15 found this review helpful especially, lifelong friends in the short term? This is a question explored by LAST ORDERS, which in common usage means the final drink requests before the closing of an English pub.pSet in London and southeast England, the film opens with undertaker Vic (Tom Courtney) bringing the ashes of his good friend Jack (Michael Caine) to the local watering hole for a last pint with Jack's other lifelong friends, Ray (Bob Hoskins) and Lenny (David Hemmings), along with Vince (Ray Winstone), the son of Jack and Amy (Helen Mirren). Since Jack had expressed the wish to have his ashes scattered into the English Channel at the seaside city of Margate, the four men pile into a luxury Mercedes selected by Vince from his auto dealership as appropriate to the occasion, and set off for the coast. Amy has declined to come along. Rather, she spends the day visiting June (Laura Morelli), Jack and Amy's [handicapped] daughter, who's spent fifty years in an institution. June is so severely handicapped that she's never once recognized Amy as her mother, though the latter has visited once each week over the decades - alone.pThe film's Cockney English dialog is difficult to fully understand until one's ear becomes attuned. For me, this was about a third into the movie. Since much of the speaking during this time occurs over a pint, or in the Benz headed to Margate, there's not much action to give clues as to what's being discussed. (My wife gave up and left me to hang tough.) Indeed, if it wasn't for the flashbacks generated by the memories and conversations among Jack's survivors - some extending back to World War II and before - the film would be a tad dreary.pThe stellar cast of LAST ORDERS does a commendable job, along with the actors portraying the characters' younger selves, illustrating several truths surrounding death of advanced age: the old were young (or at least younger) once and full of life and passions; relationships of long standing are often not what they appear on the surface and can conceal deep currents; the lives of the survivors must necessarily go on. For these reasons, I liked this film in the balance, although the ordinariness of the plot is determined from the start by the middle class ordinariness of all the characters. I mean, the lives of Jack, Ray, Lenny, Vic and Amy are perhaps not far removed from the lives of most of that generation - perhaps yours, or that of the elderly folks next door. LAST ORDERS is nowhere near being a great film, but perhaps is a representation of real life that's worth viewing on a contemplative, rainy day afternoon. A Faithful, Beautifully Rendered Adaptation July 3, 2002 8 out of 11 found this review helpful Graham Swift's Booker-winning novel gets the treatment it deserves in this beautifully rendered adaptation. It's a warm, poignant look at the larger themes behind small lives, and what a line-up: Caine, Hoskins, Winstone and Mirren are perfectly cast, and act out of their skins. This more than makes up for the occasionally episodic nature of the material (limitation of the form). A very human, very English joy. Understated, but delivers a punch November 28, 2002 P. A. Hogan 4 out of 7 found this review helpful Viewing this film a mere days after reading Graham Swift#8217;s splendid novel on which it is based, influenced my perception and no doubt limited my appreciation of it. Nevertheless, I found it to be rewarding on its own merits, a mercifully unfussy film with powerful performances by a first-rate cast. Showing reviews 1-5 of 6 1 2 Next »

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