Too much of everything

This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

Decorated and respected General Eugene Irwin (Robert Redford) finds himself court-marshalled after disobeying orders and ends up being sent to a military prison. When he arrives there, he is stripped of his rank and now finds himself having to answer to Colonel Winter (James Gandolfini) who uses somewhat questionable methods in order to run his prison. Irwin is not happy with the way Winter runs things at the prison and with the help of his inmates he makes a play to overthrow Winter and his brutal regime...On the whole, I enjoyed The Last Castle although it's fair to say that this is not the most briskly paced of films; the first half of the picture is painfully slow and repetitive and it does seem to take an awful long time to make its point. This inevitably takes away some of the enjoyment from the picture and makes the film feel a little uneven.However, once Irwin starts to rally the inmates then things do pick up and the film does become a lot more energetic. The section where the inmates overthrow Winter is entertaining and quite imaginative - although there are some section of this that seem a bit unrealistic (such as how the inmates manage to create/devise/build their various weaponry and devices without any of the guards noticing at any point?The acting from the big name actors is fairly good; Redford is a good presence and gives a cool and rather low-key understated performance. Gandolfini also does a decent enough job even if he feels like more of a caricature than a real person. Ruffalo is good in support and his character is of some interest, but little is really done with him - this extends to several other characters who are mostly thinly drawn. The only other person of interest to me was Steve Burton who could be a professional Sean Kanan lookalike (I actually thought he was Sean Kanan until I saw the credits rolling at the end). The plot thickens though as it turns out that Steve Burton is related to Sean Kanan by marriage - scary!!!If you can make it past a fairly slow paced first hour then this film more than compensates your patience by a much more enjoyable second hour. I do feel that this film would have benefitted from more editing and the way I see it is that The Last Castle would have made for an excellent 90 minute film, but at 130 minutes it's too long and as a result of this it is merely a good film.

Having served in the military I found some vague references of this movie real and so much more not real. Everything from the attitude of the prisoners and the commandant I thought the movie was too phony. Too many plot vehicles. Too much Hollywood BS.I really hated it and there aren't any scenes which I even remotely thought were worth my time. The characters are unrealistic. The plot even less real. The script poorly written.This might be one of Robert Redford's worst movies.

Lt. Gen. Irwin (Robert Redford) is a war hero who got court-martial and sent to a maximum security military prison run be the cruel warden Col. Winter (James Gandolfini). Winter admires the popular Irwin. However Irwin doesn't see much in the paper pushing sycophant Winter. The two personalities clash.This is a rather slow moving drama. Robert Redford is going for the strong silent type. His nobility clanks at times. His perfection grades. His speeches are too flowery. Gandolfini needs to revel in playing the villain. He doesn't do it with enough glee nor is he menacing enough. The story feels very unrealistic. It has a feel of fable. It doesn't make it better. It takes away the tension. At times, it feels like a fantasy. Then they have fantasy medieval siege warfare. It's somewhat fun, but completely unbelievable. The movie has great actors, but it doesn't add up to a great movie.

Directed by Rod Lurie, "The Last Castle" starring an elder Robert Redford and now late James Gandolfini is a well shot and edited drama and action movie concerning 2 men's brinkmanship and in-fighting the whole length of the movie. While there are quite a few interesting and well-acted scenes and characters, I kept having thoughts of "spy-vs-spy" while watching this. It seems to be intended to be another feel-good prison movie, but it's no-where near the layered level of say "Shawshank Redemption". Here you have Gandolfini's character slighted and hell-bent on getting back at the Redford who actually seems to underact his role. There are mentions of honor, code of conduct and the general list of military protocol, but they don't really fit - as the characters are prisoners. (spoiler) The ending is supposed to be poignant but it is too choreographed and predictable. Whatever the message is supposed to be it seems lost, and the movie on the whole seems mindless.