There aren’t many big-name big-budget movies coming out this summer that people are looking forward to. Unless you care about superhero movies, you’re pretty much out of luck until Avatar 2 comes out somewhere around Christmas. If big-name studios aren’t going to keep you entertained, look at some smaller-budget movies.

It wasn’t that long ago when I reviewed a small-budget film starring Mel Gibson. There seems to be a lot of them these days but this time we have one starring Sons of Anarchy star Charlie Hunnam. One thing you have to give small-budget films credit for, because they don’t have 250 million dollars to have actors sit in front of a blue screen for 3 hours, low-budget movies tend to be a bit more creative with their filmmaking aspects.

The latest small-budget movie from Mel Gibson entitled “Last Looks” was actually filmed three years ago. It took two years for the film to find a distributor and RLJE Films acquired the North American rights and set it for a February 2022 release.

The film stars Charlie Hunnam playing the role of a disgraced former LAPD detective Charlie Waldo. Charlie has adopted a minimalist lifestyle and sleeps in an RV in the woods with only 100 items to his name. Charlie’s quiet life comes to a startling halt when his ex-girlfriend Lorena Nascimentohe (Morena Baccarin) ropes him back into working as a private eye to investigate the murder of the wife of Alastair Pinch (Mel Gibson), a famed TV personality.

Charlie wants nothing to do with the assignment but after a series of goons attack him and tell him to stay out of the investigation, Charlie has no choice but to figure out why nobody wants him on this case.

Last Looks, has a lot of aspiration to tell an old-school Hollywood story that you don’t really see much in modern times. The fundamental problem is that the story starts very slow. At its core, the film is an old-school-style detective Noir. Hunnam plays a disgraced cop who is brought in because he can answer questions that the police can’t. It takes a while for him to find his footing as a character.  During the slow burn of the story, audiences are treated to an over-the-top Mel Gibson full of fancy robes, a British accent, and a severely over-inflated ego.

While Mel is having the time of his life playing this character, the film doesn’t get enough of him considering the fact he plays a major role in the story. You can’t shake the feeling that there’s just something missing from the story, something that would have made this film a little more engaging to the audience.

Based on the book from Howard Michael Gould, Hunnam does his best job to carry the story that is mostly focused on him while sprinkling in a number of character actors that lead to some funny moments along with putting together a decent murder mystery along the way.

Last Looks is a perfectly competent film; it just feels like it’s missing something that really puts it over top to be a great film.

2/5

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