Movie Review: The Last Showgirl

The new movie "The Last Showgirl" is a very small and depressing film about an aging Las Vegas showgirl, Shelly, played by Pamela Anderson, who is 57 and a member of a long-running Las Vegas show that is going out of business. As the expression goes, "Father time is undefeated", even more for a woman whose entire professional identity depends on her looks.

The obvious problem with this movie is that the story is not big enough to hold your attention for the entire 88 minutes There are way too many slow and boring parts in this flawed overly depressing screenplay. The side stories contain some brief appearances of new characters, including Shelly's daughter Hanna played by Billie Lourd, who suddenly comes into Shelly's life after many years. We later find out that Hanna's father is the manager of the Las Vegas venue, Eddie played by Dave Bautista, who has a small part in this movie.

The other main character is Annette, played by Jamie Lee Curtis, who is a waitress at a local Casino. Along with her extremely dark facial tan, and many wrinkles, Curtis looks way older than 66, her age in real life. Annette is a character that seems to be a method to provide more filler to a relatively short movie and is mostly irrelevant to the progress of this story.

There is a scene at the end where Shelly as an aging showgirl standing on a stage lying about her age, desperate to get a new dancing job in Las Vegas, begging a cruel show director for a chance but is repeatedly rejected. After the producer tells Shelly that "her time as an attractive woman has passed", Shelly's response to the director is at first lewd and later a sad rant in a dressing room some minutes later, collapsing in grief, knowing that the only life she has ever known is over. If Pamela Anderson receives an Oscar nomination for this small movie, this scene will be the reason.

Pamela Anderson winning an Oscar for this role would be an amazing moment in Oscar history, however, this is very unlikely because this movie is not significant enough to include a win for Best Actress.

For some of the acting, despite the depressing small story, my rating for this movie is a passable 70% and a moderate recommendation.

Movie Review: Den of Thieves: Pantera

The new movie "Den of Thieves: Pantera" is a sequel to "Den of Thieves," released in January 2018, during the 'January effect" period when bad or low-rated movies are released. I find it interesting that a low-grossing (80 million) movie released seven years ago would get enough production support to convince anyone that there should be a sequel. The first movie was average at best and was considered a run-of-the-mill action movie at the time.

The new film once again stars Gerard Butler and O'Shea Jackson Jr. as the only returning characters for the new movie, which does go in new directions. The problem with caper movies like this one is that almost all of them require so much setup to fill in the audience on what will happen and how it will happen, that the story slows down with too much filler, which is the case with this movie - that has too many areas that are slow.

What does work is the friendship between Nick O'Brian and Donnie Wilson, played by Butler and Jackson. There is some story trickery at the end, that I thought worked well, and a car chase and gun shooting scene through the winding roads of a mountain that was very well filmed. Unfortunately, the end of this chase scene involved a completely illogical appearance of other criminals at the top of this mountain, when there was no way they could have been there. Continuity, and logic errors like this, especially in an action movie can not only ruin a scene but in some cases, the entire film.

It is interesting to see Gerard Butler who starred in the great film "Olympus Has Fallen", released in 2013, trying to recreate that huge hit with another action movie as good or even better. So far, this has not happened, more evidence of how difficult it is to write and produce a highly rated box office hit in the movie industry.

The Rotten Tomatoes reviews for this film are a low 62% with my rating around 70% and a mild recommendation.

Golden Globe Winners: 2024

Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in any Motion Picture

Zoe Saldaña, "Emilia Pérez" — Winner Ariana Grande, "Wicked" Selena Gomez, "Emilia Pérez" Felicity Jones, "The Brutalist" Margaret Qualley, "The Substance" Isabella Rossellini, "Conclave"

Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series — Musical or Comedy

Jean Smart, "Hacks" — Winner Kristen Bell, "Nobody Wants This" Quinta Brunson, "Abbott Elementary" Ayo Edebiri, "The Bear" Selena Gomez, "Only Murders in the Building" Kathryn Hahn, "Agatha All Along"

Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in Any Motion Picture

Kieran Culkin, "A Real Pain" — Winner Yura Borisov, "Anora" Edward Norton, "A Complete Unknown" Guy Pearce, "The Brutalist" Jeremy Strong, "The Apprentice" Denzel Washington, "Gladiator II"

Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series — Drama

Hiroyuki Sanada, "Shōgun" — Winner Donald Glover, "Mr. & Mrs. Smith" Jake Gyllenhaal, "Presumed Innocent" Gary Oldman, "Slow Horses" Eddie Redmayne, "The Day of the Jackal" Billy Bob Thornton, "Landman"

Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Television Series

Jessica Gunning, "Baby Reindeer" — Winner Liza Colon-Zayas, "The Bear" Hannah Einbinder, "Hacks" Dakota Fanning, "Ripley" Allison Janney, "The Diplomat" Kali Reis, "True Detective: Night Country"

Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Television Series

Tadanobu Asano, "Shōgun" — Winner Javier Bardem, "Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story" Harrison Ford, "Shrinking" Jack Lowden, "Slow Horses" Diego Luna, "La Maquina" Ebon Moss-Bachrach, "The Bear"

Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series — Musical or Comedy

Jeremy Allen White, "The Bear" — Winner Adam Brody, "Nobody Wants This" Ted Danson, "A Man on the Inside" Steve Martin, "Only Murders in the Building" Martin Short, "Only Murders in the Building" Jason Segel, "Shrinking"

Best Screenplay — Motion Picture

Peter Straughan, "Conclave" — Winner Jacques Audiard, "Emilia Pérez" Sean Baker, "Anora" Brady Corbet, Mona Fastvold, "The Brutalist" Jesse Eisenberg, "A Real Pain" Coralie Fargeat, "The Substance"

Best Performance in Stand-Up Comedy on Television

Ali Wong, "Single Lady" — Winner Jamie Foxx, "What Had Happened Was" Nikki Glaser, "Someday You'll Die" Seth Meyers, "Dad Man Walking" Adam Sandler, "Love You" Ramy Youssef, "More Feelings"

Best Motion Picture — Non-English Language

"Emilia Pérez" — Winner "All We Imagine as Light" "The Girl with the Needle" "I'm Still Here" "The Seed of the Sacred Fig" "Vermiglio"

Best Performance by an Actor in a Limited Series, Anthology Series or Motion Picture Made for Television

Colin Farrell, "The Penguin" — Winner Richard Gadd, "Baby Reindeer" Kevin Kline, "Disclaimer" Cooper Koch, "Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story" Ewan McGregor, "A Gentleman in Moscow" Andrew Scott, "Ripley"

Best Performance by an Actress in a Limited Series, Anthology Series or Motion Picture Made for Television

Jodie Foster, "True Detective: Night Country" — Winner Cate Blanchett, "Disclaimer" Cristin Milioti, "The Penguin" Sofia Vergara, "Griselda" Naomi Watts, "Feud: Capote vs. The swans" Kate Winslet, "The Regime"

Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture — Musical or Comedy

Demi Moore, "The Substance" — Winner Amy Adams, "Nightbitch" Cynthia Erivo, "Wicked" Karla Sofía Gascón, "Emilia Pérez" Zendaya, "Challengers" Mikey Madison, "Anora"

Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture — Musical or Comedy

Sebastian Stan, "A Different Man" — Winner Jesse Eisenberg, "A Real Pain" Hugh Grant, "Heretic" Gabriel LaBelle, "Saturday Night" Jesse Plemons, "Kinds of Kindness" Glen Powell, "Hit Man"

Best Motion Picture — Animated

"Flow" — Winner "Inside Out 2" "Memoir of a Snail" "Moana 2" "Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl" "The Wild Robot"

Best Director — Motion Picture

Brady Corbet, "The Brutalist" — Winner Jacques Audiard, "Emilia Pérez" Sean Baker, "Anora" Edward Berger, "Conclave" Coralie Fargeat, "The Substance" Payal Kapadia, "All We Imagine as Light"

Best Original Score — Motion Picture

Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross, "Challengers" — Winner Volker Bertelmann, "Conclave" Daniel Blumberg, "The Brutalist" Kris Bowers, "The Wild Robot" Clément Ducol, Camille, "Emilia Pérez" Hans Zimmer, "Dune: Part Two"

Best Original Song — Motion Picture

"El Mal," by Clément Ducol, Camille and Jacques Audiard (from "Emilia Pérez") — Winner "Beautiful That Way," by Miley Cyrus, Lykke Li and Andrew Wyatt (from "The Last Showgirl") "Compress/Repress," by Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross & Luca Guadagnino (from "Challengers") "Forbidden Road," by Robbie Williams, Freddy Wexler & Sacha Skarbek ("Better Man") "Kiss The Sky," by Delacey, Jordan Johnson, Stefan Johnson, Maren Morris, Michael Pollack & Ali Tamposi (from "The Wild Robot") "Mi Camino," by Clément Ducol and Camille (from "Emilia Pérez")

Cinematic and Box Office Achievement

"Wicked" — Winner "Alien: Romulus" "Beetlejuice Beetlejuice" "Deadpool & Wolverine" "Gladiator II" "Inside Out 2" "Twisters" "The Wild Robot"

Best Television Limited Series, Anthology Series or Motion Picture Made for Television

"Baby Reindeer" — Winner "Disclaimer" "Monsters: The Lyle and Eric Menendez Story" "The Penguin" "Ripley" "True Detective: Night Country"

Best Television Series — Comedy Or Musical

"Hacks" — Winner "Abbott Elementary" "The Bear" "The Gentlemen" "Nobody Wants This" "Only Murders in the Building"

Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series — Drama

Anna Sawai, "Shōgun" — Winner Kathy Bates, "Matlock" Emma D'Arcy, "House of the Dragon" Maya Erskine, "Mr. and Mrs. Smith" Keira Knightley, "Black Doves" Keri Russell, "The Diplomat"

Best Television Series — Drama

"Shōgun" — Winner "Mr. and Mrs. Smith" "The Diplomat" "Squid Game" "Slow Horses" "The Day of the Jackal"

Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture — Drama

Fernanda Torres, "I'm Still Here" — Winner Pamela Anderson, "The Last Showgirl" Angelina Jolie, "Maria" Nicole Kidman, "Babygirl" Tilda Swinton, "The Room Next Door" Kate Winslet, "Lee"

Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture — Drama

Adrien Brody, "The Brutalist" — Winner Timothée Chalamet, "A Complete Unknown" Daniel Craig, "Queer" Colman Domingo, "Sing Sing" Ralph Fiennes, "Conclave" Sebastian Stan, "The Apprentice"

Best Motion Picture — Drama

"The Brutalist" — Winner "A Complete Unknown" "Conclave" "Dune: Part Two" "Nickel Boys" "September 5"

Best Motion Picture — Musical or Comedy

"Emilia Pérez" — Winner "Anora" "Challengers" "A Real Pain" "The Substance" "Wicked"