DigitalRevenantX7 Story Synopsis: In a dimension parallel to ours, the convicted terrorist Malakai is being used as a guinea pig in a temporal experiment designed to send people across parallel worlds. Convinced that his dead wife exists in our world, he hijacks the experiment, sending himself & two cohorts over to our world. The scientist who created the experiment also crosses over, armed with a number of bracelets that can revive the wearer in the event of death. He uses one of these 'lifebands' to resurrect Aaron, the fiancé of the woman Malakai abducted, having being shot by him as he tried to save her. The pair then gives chase but the scientist is killed in the process. Before he dies, he passes the 'lifebands' to Aaron, who then uses them to attempt a highly risky & dangerous rescue of his love.Film Analysis: Last Lives is a low-budget knockoff of the Terry Gilliam time travel flick 12 MONKEYS (itself a knockoff of a French new wave film known as La Jetee). Both films cover the same story - a criminal is used as a subject in a temporal experiment due to his obsession of a woman from another world or time, the experiment going awry because of this. The only difference is that while 12 Monkeys is an intelligent & darkly humorous time travel flick, Last Lives is a film with a severely limited scope.As an action film, Last Lives is competent enough, with some decent car chases, shootouts & explosions. But it fares less well as a sci-fi film - namely due to the rather stupid gimmick of having the hero armed with special armbands that can help him cheat death. Sure, the gimmick is interesting but the way it is used here is quite silly - as the hero, Thomas C. Howell is killed so many times that it is not even funny. Okay, I take that back - the various ways that Howell kicks the proverbial bucket are so contrived that you will be laughing out loud over it. Case in point being the shack explosion, with Howell's scattered body parts reforming despite the explosion's effects (surely it would've affected the armbands as well?). The temporal experiment is just a MacGuffin used to launch the story, promptly being written out by the end of the first act.The acting is a bit of a mixed bag. Howell is pretty good despite having some sort of Southern accent that affects his performance slightly. Judge Reinhold looks like he is embarrassed to be there while Jennifer Rubin seems to be under the influence of some serious sedatives. As the villain, Billy Wirth (who has proved himself to be a capable actor in the past) is given little to do, making the most of his role as a telepathic terrorist with a pair of silent henchmen & painful telepathy as his only weapon.

Kokomo Jenkins I give this film a 4 but I think its rather generous since all 4 points are earned for humor value. This film can be summed up as such : Judge Reinhold gives a masterful performance as Merkin, a trans-dimensional inventor / scientist of sorts who chases a homicidal lust-driven maniac through a space portal that goes to Earth. Maniac and his two cronies come to Earth to steal the girl. All three baddies are armed to the gills with devastating weaponry whose clips never run dry. Scientist gives girl's fiancée some bracelets that, if worn during death, will recreate organic tissue and bring the wearer back to life. Fortunately there are a bunch of these bracelets so the fiancée can die a bunch of times. Judge Reinhold dies in a fiery car explosion, bringing a tear to anyone's eye in his Oscar-worthy performance about "being a man who has no fear of death". In the end, the cronies die, the main baddie gets his just desserts, and the fiancée gets his girl back.This movie is a bona fide turkey. If this film had hit the box office when I was 8 years old, all the boys in my 3rd Grade class probably would have loved it. Unfortunately I would not show this to any 8 year old, in fear that this priceless piece of Americana would leave my young impressionable friend with a jaded opinion of American cinema. I have three bits of advice regarding this film: TO THE WRITER: Next script, write yourself and don't let your kid do all the work.TO JUDGE REINHOLD: Stick to Beethoven flicks.TO THE PROSPECTIVE AUDIENCE: Unless you're like me and find humor in all the movies your friends can't stand, leave this one on the shelf and rent something much better, like Weekend at Bernie's.

maxie-14 Being a time travel fan I was disappointed in this film for a few reasons. I think the director could have thought out his ideas a little more, and the script, I had a feeling some of it was lost along the way. The actors needed more direction and input than they got.I liked the ideas of the bracelet bringing people back from the dead, the trouble was the wrong characters kept getting brought back.Jennifer Rubin is a gifted actress and the director and the writer did not help her at all in this film. She seemed confused and lost in a hopeless plot.Billy Wirth did what he could with what was given to him in the writing and direction. It would be hard for any actor to pull off more than he did with this script. I know many Billy Wirth fans and women in general are still wondering why any normal woman would have a problem deciding between Wirth and Howell???For the most part I liked the special effects it was the writing and length that killed me, I wanted to stop the film cut the car chase by 30 minutes and move on. Someone had a good idea but it went very wrong somewhere along the way.Not a bad popcorn movie, will probably end up on peoples "films we hate but want to watch".

rabishopp They should remake this film, perhaps with a different cast, perhaps with the same one but at least another few million in the budget. The story is interesting enough to deserve a makeover. It's been done before - LA Takedown and Heat for example. I'd grade this a "C+" and a "could try harder".