Review of The Last Drop (2006) by Van R — 11 Dec 2009

This marginal World War II thriller takes place late in 1944 against the historic setting of the disastrous Allied mission code-named Operation Market Garden in the Nazi-occupied Netherlands as various elements find themselves contending with each other for horde of Danish treasure that the Gestapo have stored in a booby-trapped barn. A group of British troops have been diverted from Operation Market Garden for another mission code-named Operation Matchbox, but things take a predictable turn for the worst when their C-47 is struck by enemy flak and they crash far from their landing zone. The British commander dies when German troops cut them to pieces on the ground, but the stout-hearted Brits reassemble and wipe out the Germans. Sean Pertwee of EVENT HORIZON plays a rugged British sergeant who is wounded in the leg, and Billy Zane of TITANIC fame is a Canadian glider pilot. Meanwhile, the Nazis are preparing to move the loot when a couple of renegade Germans show up and the Americans, led by Colonel J.T. Colt (Michael Madsen of RESERVOIR DOGS) have just captured a bridge without firing a shot. Director Colin Teague, who helmed episodes from the new 2007 DR. WHO and THE SARAH JANE ADVENTURES, has put together a shoddy, low-budget KELLYS HEROES knockoff that lacks either a shred of authenticity or charisma. Virtually everything from the uniforms to the equipment is wrong. For example, when the gliders are towed off the runways of England they are hitched to four-engined Wellington bombers, but when we see them over enemy country they are being towed by U.S. C-47 Dakota transports. Men on both sides masquerade as their respective enemy as the action boils down to a fiery climax.

THE LAST DROP gets off on the right foot with a exciting little battle between the Brits and the Jerries, but afterward the screenplay by Gary Young and Teague degenerates into a series of incidents as everybody tries to steal the loot. There is an amusing scene near the beginning when two Dutch woman prepare a tasty pot of hot soup for their Nazi oppressors and season it with their own urine. One S.S. officer raves about how delicious the soup is. It is difficult to tell whether the filmmakers are trying to treat World War II as an adventure or just a mediocre melodrama. The final quarter-hour is spent with everybody blasting away at everybody else as the Canadian pilot and other steal the seaplane. They save the loot, well, part of it anyway. Colonel Colt snatches the Mona Lisa and the renegade Germans break into the museum where the treasure is stashed after the war and rob it. Sloppy, half-hearted direction mars what could have been an interesting thriller in the vein of a Jack Higgens style World War II actioneer. The CGI of hundreds of planes towing gliders to Holland is visually arresting, but the remainder of this lackluster war picture fails to measure up. This is an amoral W.W. II movie where comrades on each side try to kill their own. Only World War II buffs will enjoy this and that is stretching the truth. Let us say that only World War II buffs will want to see it and then be depressed by what they have seen. One interesting scene shows a British soldier dripping morphine onto a cigarette and smoking it. There is no nudity.