The Last Supper Movie
Storyline
TAGLINES
Eat... drink... and be buried...
Love... Sex... Life... Death. In this house it's all on the table.
When Pete (Eldard), one of five friends who share an Iowa house, invites Zack (Paxton), a man who gave him a lift home in for supper, the night turns suddenly sour when Zack irrationally attacks Pete, but is killed by the other friends. After this episode, the friends suggest that, having ridden the world of one bad person, they should continue to do the same thing every Sunday night at supper.
| Cameron Diaz | Jude |
| Ron Eldard | Pete |
| Annabeth Gish | Paulie |
| Jonathan Penner | Marc |
| Courtney B. Vance | Luke |
| Bill Paxton | Zachary Cody |
| Nora Dunn | Sheriff Alice Stanley |
| Ron Perlman | Norman Arbuthnot |
| Dan Rosen | Deputy Hartford |
| Amber Taylor | Girl in Coffee Shop |
| Matt Cooper | Jerk in Coffee Shop |
| Charles Durning | Reverend Gerald Hutchens |
| Mark Harmon | Dominant Male |
| Gil Segel | Iowa Resident at Door |
| Rachel Chagall | Abortion Activist |
| Stacy Title |
6.70 out of 10 (4730 votes)
Visitor Reviews
Good beginning but very bad after it
posted on 07 Jul 2009I saw the film on tv, and I must say I was into it for the first 20 minutes, but what then came was very very poor, I just turned my tv off after an hour because I couldn't watch any further too this kind of bad jokes, bad story, bad filming, bad characters, bad everything... So all you really filmfreaks who saw films as "Memento", "American history x", "traffic" etc...DONT WATCH IT because its a piece of **** and a waste of your time
A highly underrated gem!
posted on 04 Jun 2009"The Last Supper" is an engagingly dark 'what-if' comedy which has all the ingredients of a cult hit- passionate dialogue, murder, stormy weather, bodies in the backyard and more celebrity cameos than an Altman Film!!!!It's kind of disappointing that "the Last Supper" hasn't received the attention that it ought to. Not only does it provide a running commentary on the way individuals operate in society, it does it in a way that is accessible and 'user-friendly' to all people. The balance between the 'comical' and the 'serious' works perfectly.A highly impressive feature of this movie is the strong performances that it generates from its characters. Courtenay B. Vance plays the character of Luke with such control and charisma that one can only feel mesmerized by his performance. Annabeth Gish is a real delight as Paulie, a character who is trying to come to terms with the world around her, and Cameron Diaz is uber-cool as Jude.If you watch "The Last Supper" with an open-mind, then you'll appreciate the movie for all it's worth. Highly recommended viewing!
Liberal death squad with merlot and tomatoes: Watch this and imagine the reaction if this were about conservatives killing liberals.
posted on 20 Apr 2009The main premise here is that a nice attractive group of very liberal twenty-somethings decide to become a Latin American style death squad. They are all nicely politically correct, liberal of course, highly educated, artsy, with no real discernible income but yet live in a wonderfully beautiful house in a rural setting. It'd be interesting to see the reaction were a nice, young, attractive group of conservatives were shown killing those they disagreed with in exactly the same plot--I'd suspect the howling would be deafening even seven years later. But this is a left wing death squad, so I suppose for Hollywood, it's okay.Of course this death squad doesn't do things messy, they don't put people in gulags (like Stalin) or grab people off the street and put them in vans only to be thrown out of planes over the ocean (as in Argentina); no these folks are a yuppie death squad--they kill over al dente pasta and a nice rich merlot. But of course the point is the same--to kill one's political enemies when they simply refuse to agree with you.The plot is certainly interesting, in that it has complexities that are worth considering: The liberal group becomes increasingly agitated as it goes on with its grisly business, in strangely different ways. In one scene, they laugh delightedly over the death of a cleric, yet are horrified when one of their own seems to be dying accidentally.The group moves from the obviously guilty: racist, gay hater, priest, pro-lifer" to the more dubiously guilty: The poor woman who simply doesn't like "Catcher in the Rye" and the police officer.Ron Perleman, as the archconservative Rush Limbaugh style talk show host, puts in a wonderful performance, mostly because I'd guess he's got the most to work with. Most everyone else has only a one note part--in particular the liberal death group are incredibly vapid. It's hard to know whether they are written that way on purpose, or simply because the writers simply didn't think they were vapid--just really the way people ought to be. It'd be nice to think this was part of the irony, but the ending tends to contravene that notion.The culmination is bizarre, in fact, worthy of some weird extremist group: It implies that the real problem with this death squad was that they were insufficiently ruthless in their quest, in their decision to kill. The "disappeared" in this movie are, by and large, cartoons of their real life counterparts--which is of course the first thing one does before providing reasons to indulge in despicable acts: demonize them as less than human, as ultimately evil, subhuman.As before, this movie would be held up as a horrifying example of intolerance if it were exactly the same, yet the politics were entirely reversed. Worth seeing to see one of Hollywood's instances where their real extremism shows through.
A okay dark comedy with a message.
posted on 20 Apr 2009Three male and two female liberal grad students have right-wingers over for dinner, poison them, and bury them in the back yard. An ok film which becomes somewhat redundant with all the ultra-conservative stereotypical dinner guests espousing the opinions we just love to hate, "TLS" does wind up well and makes an important point which has to do with the on-going and age old tug-of-war between left and right and its role in keeping the majority centered. "TLS" is a no frills ensemble production worth a look for those who haven't yet seen it.
Jaded, occasionally funny, but dead-on
posted on 17 Apr 2009This movie is not really a comedy, dark, light or any other kind. The movie is very jaded and cynical in its presentation. The plot goes that the group of five kill off dinner guests weekly. With lots of colorful symbolism, a slew of cameos, and strong performances by 3 out of the 5 group members, this movie grew on me after viewing it and thinking back on what I witnessed. I'm not going to give away anything but the last 20 minutes of this movie more than make up for the flaws, which there still are a quite a few. The first knock I have on this movie is that Cameron Diaz's and Annebeth Gish's performances are not really that great. Diaz is cast as one of the most important characters, but her acting ability is tested greatly as she has to deliver most of her lines behind a table, without her best attribute (her body) showing. Her weak ability to speak her lines becomes obvious with the excellent performances of the rest of the cast. Gish's problem is the weakness of the character, because she plays the one of the five that could have easily been written out.Other problems in this movie are not as important. One is that half way through the movie becomes repetitive. The director shoots this part quickly, and with a tongue in cheek style, but it still comes across dull. The policewoman character is added to the story and is pointless and just used as a character builder and attitude change for one of the five.All criticism aside, watch this movie. If it gets to the middle and you aren't sure you want to finish it, FAST FORWARD and watch the end. The speech given is perhaps one of the best political speeches I have heard in a film. The final 20 minutes is the 1 inch layer of icing on a partly damaged cake.
To act or not to act...
posted on 08 Apr 2009The movie deals with a serious problem. Most people have a set of ideals and wish to live by it. The question is: are you just going to cherish your ideals, or are you going to act by them? In this movie, the problem is at first being discussed, by thinking of a virtual situation and how you´re going to act in it. For example: you meet Hitler when he´s still very young and is still far from the man he is in WW2. Yet you know he´s going to kill several millions of innocent people. Are you going to kill him or not? After a group of liberal students accidentally kill a racist, this question is more acute to them as ever, and eventually they decide to act: they invite people with extreme opinions for supper, try to persuade them, and if it fails, they kill them. However, after a short period of time, the supper gets shorter and shorter and there´s hardly any persuading left. Actually, as an outsider watching the film, you notice that some of the students themselves somehow start to resemble their victims. Some actually seem to enjoy the killing, while others start to get into more and more trouble with their conscience. Eventually this ends into a climax when the TV-top-extremist they invite turns out to be quite a nice and not at all extreme man. The moral is quite clear: yes, sometimes you must stand by your ideals by acting by them. However if you believe in democracy and liberality and things like that, everyone is entitled to have an opinion of their own and you don´t have the right to silence them: all you can try to do is convince them.
Looked like a straight to video stinkeroo
posted on 08 Apr 2009A group of self-righteous liberals decide to start killing people who have beliefs different from their own. Their victims emerge from leftist central casting and are typical caricatures as viewed by their murderers. Apparently anyone who disagrees with their world view and doesn't repent during dinner deserves to die.This just happened to be on HBO when I turned the channel and the description sounded interesting enough, and there were recognizable actors in it. Figured it might not be too bad.The production values themselves seem relatively OK, its just the story and acting that is weak beyond belief. How they got any recognizable names into this stink fest is the real mystery here.
Contrived to the limits of believability
posted on 24 Mar 2009What an amazingly contrived film this is! It makes a cheap attempt at intellectualism - proposing a controversial angle on liberal activists' non-action - but falls far short of developing this into something meaningful. The occassional image-manipulation of footage is a poor attempt at casting this as an "art" film - these flimsy cliches left me cold. The characters are clearly underdeveloped and out of touch with reality - as must the scriptwriter be! Choose this film only as a desperate last resort.
Red or White Wine?
posted on 17 Jan 2009Yuppy group of idle liberals kill over-simplified, repugnantly excessive conservatives in this film which tries to make a crusade out of being liberal. The premise actually is quite fresh, and the film definitely has some flair to it. The group of college graduate school leads are all personable and believable in their roles, yet none of them have any real depth. Cameron Diaz is playing one end and for no reason starts another end of personality. This Jekyll and Hyde type acting resonates throughout the performances of the five liberals that decide to do something and "act" like conservatives by killing those that disagree with them. The rules they choose and use for their killing ventures are interesting and much of the story has a philosophical/political twist. I do, however, wonder how the film would have been taken if it had been done, as one other reviewer noted, with the roles of conservatives and liberals changed. It does seem, to use another well-worn cliche, that what is good for the goose certainly would not be good for the gander. Anyhow, the film is fun and entertaining. The guests that end up dead and buried are the most fun as we see the likes of Bill Paxton, Jason Alexander, Mark Harmon, and Charles Durning hamming it up. Durning gives a great performance as a priest. Nora Dunn also gives a nice, smooth performance as a local law person. But acting kudos go to Ron Pearlman as a loud-mouthed tv conservative that seems to be extremely moderate in person. Pearlman has some great lines and does some of his finest acting here. the end of the film left me grossly unsatisfied. I wasn't a 100% sure what the director was trying to do. It could be taken a couple ways, though I think I know what was trying to be done. It would have ...and could have...been bettered handled without the political heavy-handedness at the end. A nice way to while away the time if nothing else.
How does your garden grow?
posted on 15 Dec 2008Hey now, Last Supper is a fairly decent black comedy, but unfortunately it couldn't hold my full attention throughout, and it sort of ran out of steam on towards the last half. One housemate breaks down in his car on a rainy night and some guy (who they invite in for dinner) turns out to be some right-wing neo-nazi creep who they end up killing when he attacks one of them. After that, they develop a taste for "dinner guests" that once they start expounding on their views, rarely make it past the first course.
Their tomato crop is thriving well, though, what with all the fertilizer in the back yard. Anyway, it gets a little repetitive after a bit, invite a dinner guest over, listen to them spew their views, kill 'em, and bury 'em in the back yard. The dinner guests are a fairly well-known lot, Jason Alexander, Bill Paxton, etc., and all pretty deserving of such a fate, but it does get a bit old after a while. One thing about the movie that caught my interest is some of the bizarre and macabre paintings that are shown from time to time, and the one at the end seems to indicate that something happened that wasn't supposed to, but since the event is not shown and merely implied, one is left wondering. Anyway, I've seen better but I've seen much, much worse too, and this is a decent watch if you have a funny bone that leans towards the dark side.
90's Political/Philosophical Dark Drama
posted on 10 Oct 2008This is one of the several dark dramas dealing with political/philosophical issues that seemed to invade the big screen in the 90's. Another prime example but with less heavy drama and more fantasy/comedy is Dogma starring Ben Affleck and Matt Damon. This 1995 film stars several actors that were big names in the 90's - Cameron Diaz, Bill Paxton and Jason Alexander. The story is very dark and bleak indeed. A group of young college-age liberal intellectuals meet daily to discuss the "enemy" that are conservative extremist and anyone they feel are full of "hate". Though well-meaning and clearly sensitive people, they begin to justify a series of murders. These murders are committed as they invite individuals they despise and disagree with politically and philosophically. They poison the wine using a blue decanter. Visually and dramatically, the movie is one of the few good dark movies that came out of the 90's. Art direction in the film seems to gravitate towards symbolic Diego Rivera style art, especially during the opening and closing credits.I feel that some of these then unknown actors (mainly Cameron Diaz and Bill Paxton) were overly dramatic in their roles but then again they were struggling to get recognized as actors. This was still before Bill Paxton would enjoy success in later films such as "Titanic" in 1997 and also "Twister" which he starred opposite Helen Hunt. Cameron Diaz came on the Hollywood map with "Something About Mary". Even like this, their dramatic acting is logical and believable. The leader of the group of friends is the most brainwashed of the bunch, nearly conducting himself as a cult leader. In a way, this movie looks at how a cult can function. Also this movie is a caution tale: there is possibility for evil in both the extreme conservatism and extreme liberalism. It seems quite appropriate a story for today's divided country. It's sad to say America is losing its democratic roots in favor of an elitist and partisan climate. I found to be a great and poignant movie.
Wickedly hilarious
posted on 22 Sep 2008In the classic dark humor tradition, _The Last Supper_ has a group of college students inviting bigots of various stripes - gay bashers, racists, etc. - over to their house for dinner and then poisoning them. Their big prize, though, is a right-wing TV talk show host who is a dead ringer for Rush Limbaugh. I won't give away the surprise ending.There is one logical flaw to the film and that is that the cops don't catch on to their trail until right near the end of the film. This despite the fact that all these well-known people disappearing after being invited over to the same house over a period of several weeks would surely be noticed.This film works on several levels. One is a comic revenge fantasy, a-la _Heathers_; on another level, however, it also makes you think about questions such as: Would it be justified to kill somebody who advocates genocide now in order to potentially save many lives later?
Delightfully wicked black comedy that takes no prisoners
posted on 13 Sep 2008Five friends living together - sweet Jude(Cameron Diaz), ironic Luke (Courtney B. Vance), naive Pete (Ron Eldard), painter Marc (Jonathan Penner) and his girlfriend Paulie (Annabeth Gish) - after killing violent thug Zachary (Bill Paxton), develop a "plan" based on the old "would you kill young Hitler?" moral dilemma. They will invite for dinner guests with dangerously retrograde ideas, and, after giving them a chance to change their minds in a discussion, if they persist they whey will eventually poison them...What I like about this movie is that it skewers fanaticism on both sides, and in a very wicked way; The Last Supper takes no prisoner, mocking both the violent intolerance of a certain right and the self-righteous arrogance of a certain left. Both the increasingly blood-thirsty friends and their hilariously retrograde guests are made implacably fun of. As someone who is sick to death by extremes on both sides, I can only applaud the way the movie gives everyone his due.Direction by Stacy Title is fine, and Dan Rosen's screenplay is wickedly humorous. I also enjoyed the original, wacky soundtrack.The best performance belongs to Courtney B. Vance (whose Marc, on the other hand, is devilishly sardonic)- plus Ron Perlman chewing scenery as the ultra-conservative Arbuthnot. Diaz, Gish and Eldard are OK. Penner, on the other hand, sticks out like a sore thumb. He is so amateurish he becomes distracting. The various guest stars as the "guests" of the five have fun with their roles.There is a not entirely necessary subplot about a missing girl searched by Sheriff Nora Dunn - not terrible, but the more serious tone doesn't always mix well with the creepily humorous atmosphere of the main plot.The last supper is funny, original and thought-provoking. Since effective black comedies are rare, this one is a pleasant surprise.7.5/10
Underrated piece of work
posted on 21 Jul 2008Why this movie did not make it to theatres is beyond me. Very underrated with excellant work by all the actors. 5 liberal friends invite a man over to dinner and in the course of a shuffle kill him. As it turned out their beliefs were different from him they wonder if the world would be a better place if people that were like him (i.e. racist, homophobic,etc) were not here anymore. So they invite people over for dinner and give them a chance before they off them. Very well written acted and directed and a very good ending with the five jerks getting what they deserved. Just rent it!!!!
Stupid movie!
posted on 21 Jul 2008Very stupid! All of the guests but the abortion activist had very logical point of views and this movie just proves how young people like the 5 hosts know nothing about life. They have opposite point of views of everything that is logic and, unfortunately, it's the same in the real life...
LEAVES A BAD TASTE.....
posted on 15 Jul 2008I can't decide if this is a propaganda piece (and which side it supports), or just a shallow, 'ain't we cool' vanity production. I guess the latter, as it flogs the Hitler Conundrum as previous reviewers have indicated. So if you're in the mood for a queasy feeling of befuddlement...go ahead.
Well-crafted, on many levels...
posted on 12 Jun 2008This is one of those movies that gets better with every showing. I was amazed at all the themes they packed in here. First, there is the color scheme of the movie: when they bury the murder victims, they plant tomatoes.As they start racking up victims, you can actually see the depth of their sin by the number of tomato products (sauce, catsup, etc) in their kitchen; it provides a nice red motif. Also, the biblical references don't stop with the title (the "Last Supper" theme turned around so that the disciples are Judas): there's a few "Adam and Eve" references thrown in (not just aural, either), and even a shocking context of the scene where you see the Jewish guy with a bloody knife. And I'm sure that I've just scratched the surface. . .
A place at the table...
posted on 04 Apr 2008The dark and slippery satire THE LAST SUPPER is an Orwellian farce, which, whether or not it intends to be, represents the distasteful course that American liberalism has taken over the past few decades. As a meal, THE LAST SUPPER hopes to serve up food for thought, but proves to be more fast food than grand cuisine. And, before we end the lame and obvious food metaphors, let's just say the film has a meaty premise, but is hard to swallow because it is half-baked -- okay, three-quarters baked.The plot is simple: five rather smug and pretentiously liberal graduate students in Iowa, the heartland of American conservatism, have a weekly ritual of inviting a guest to Sunday dinner so that they can have philosophical conversations about politics. Apparently meant to be self-indulgent and self-congratulating chatter more than real debate, the intellectual hour goes astray when an unexpected guest proves to be a far right lunatic who expresses his sympathy for Adolph Hitler. Before the dessert gets served, it is the guest who gets carved up and the new Sunday night ritual becomes supper and a homicide. After some superficial debate, the housemates decide that they would be doing the world a favor by disposing of potential Hitlers before they became real life Hitlers. It is liberal activism taken to its not-necessarily-logical extreme.Their guest list (of cameo guest stars) begins with the lunatic war vet (Bill Paxton), a homophobic priest (Charles Durning), a male chauvinist (Mark Harmon) and an anti-environmentalist (Jason Alexander), but quickly degenerates to lesser villains (played by lesser actors) that include an anti-abortion activist, a librarian who dares to object to "The Catcher in the Rye" and a virginal teenage girl who doesn't approve of sex education in school. The checklist of villains (in rapidly declining order) is obviously meant to show how easily the power to destroy can become indiscriminate and, indeed, addictive.The film has been deemed anti-conservative by some because the supposed heroes are lefties and their victims are from the right and, at least at first, espouse only the most extreme notions of conservatism. But the point is that the various dinner guests do not represent typical conservative thought, but are grotesque caricatures of right wingers. The war vet -- seen through far left eyes -- can't be just patriotic, he has to be a crazed fascist. The priest can't merely see homosexuality as a sin, he has to be virulent in his hatred. The anti-feminist has to be a proponent of rape. Etc., etc., etc. The quintet of killers are not heroes or even anti-heroes, or even psychopaths, but clean-cut, well-educated, well-intentioned typical liberals who become drunk with their own sense of self-righteousness. Their hunt to destroy future Hitlers blinds them to the reality that they are the future Hitlers. For what was Hitler, but a man who thought he could build a better society by eliminating the undesirables? The right-wing victims are such obvious caricatures that they do not inspire anger or hate, but uncomfortable humor, not unlike guest stars doing a skit on "Saturday Night Live." The weakness -- or perhaps the point -- of the left wing assassins is that they are so blandly uninteresting as individuals. This preppy death squad -- Ron Eldard, Cameron Diaz, Annabeth Gish, Jonathan Penner and Courtney B. Vance -- are so homogenized and banal as individuals that they only can be moved to action as a group. The message is that Hitler alone couldn't accomplish much, but a group willing to rationalize any atrocity as a means to a just end is the real danger to society.It is as a critique of modern liberalism in the era of political correctness that the film is boldly, almost brazenly, sly. The groundbreaking liberalism of the 1960s, a call of dissent in the name of openness and equality, has slowly faded into the background. Diversity has become the liberal buzz word, but it is, literally, skin deep diversity, not diversity of thought. It is said that we become that which we hate the most and as such liberal idealism has increasingly become a dogma of intolerance, double standards and self-indulgence. Liberalism is no longer the antithesis of conservatism, it is the mirror image.Of course the basic message of THE LAST SUPPER could have been told as well, but differently, with the political roles reversed. Indeed, had the film been made in the 1960s, I suspect that it would be conservatives serving the wine to liberals -- and I suspect that the film would have been satirically sharper and more outrageous. Certainly, in that case, the film's casual religious symbolism might have made sense, religion being a favored main dish to the right. But as is, THE LAST SUPPER's attempts to mock religion seem like a lame afterthought -- an ill-considered seasoning, as it were.The film is better as a concept rather than a story and lacks a punch. Instead of being spicy or zesty or deliciously decadent, THE LAST SUPPER seems to be served up as something that is good for you, nutritious rather than satisfying. Especially the finale when the last Last Supper is with a conservative talk show host played by Ron Perlman, who may or may not be the Hitler that the we are taunted with throughout the other meals. Just desserts are served up with an ambiguous twist that is as jiggly uncertain as Jell-O. THE LAST SUPPER makes the worst social faux pas of all by sending its viewers away only half filled and hungry for something more.
I, personally, love this movie.
posted on 11 Mar 2008I don't care what anyone says. This is in my top 5 favorites list. Sure, there was some poor acting at parts, but in my opinion, all that does is create more of a realism. It adds more to the film than it takes away. Plus, this movie has so many sides and personalities within, that everyone can relate to someone in here. Maybe not a main character, but atleast one of the dinner guests.One thing I did find funny though, is someone on here said something along the lines of Cameron Diaz giving the only good performance in this film. That's good stuff.
Actors versus Writers
posted on 15 Aug 2009Superficially this is a political movie, and to judge from the comments here, lots of viewers think it is proliberal. What a gas, even though there's a terrific speech at the end about the influence of media as constructed politics.Take it as politics if you wish, but there's another story here.Any film is another battle between actors and writers, They stand on opposite sides of a huge philosophical divide, no matter how moderate their utterances. Actors truly believe — they have to — that all life comes from the living and all a writer can do is slice or sculpt a bit small enough to consume and large enough to attract.Writers believe — at least in their hearts — that everything is created, that weaving a world takes work. Actors are puppets brought in at the very last moment to provide air to inflate the balloon. Yes, you humor, even encourage them, but relatively speaking they are mere tokens. In this case, we have the writing moved from outside the movie to on-screen. Our gang of five graduate students become the determiners of what happens, who lives and dies, Our guests are actors, literally dumb yobbos who (except for the last guest) grasp a role and play it because that's what they are given.Virtually no one has a political opinion determined rationally, we are all actors, victims of what is written. That's the point here. As the story goes, there are twelve deaths (counting the girl and the cop) to align roughly with twelve apostles present at the last supper. The thirteenth presence at that meal was the Great Actor. So actors win this round, as they always will in politics and religion.This movie isn't as dumb as you think. That's the point.Ted's Evaluation -- 2 of 3: Has some interesting elements.