Review of The Last Seduction (1994) by Kim H — 28 May 2006

STANDARDIZED MOVIE EVALUATION.

(comments may contain spoilers).

I. CONTENT (out of 3 stars plus bonus, composite of sub-criteria bellow): --->2.75<---.

I. PHILOSOPHICAL/PSYCHOLOGICAL DEPTH (out of 2 stars, where very shallow = 0; shallow = 0.25 or 0.5; somewhat deep = 0.75 or 1.0; deep = 1.25 or 1.5; very deep = 1.75 or 2.0).

---> 1.5 <---.

So why men commit foolish acts like drug trafficking, robbing and even killing? Well, mainly for two things: money and women. And since money are mainly used to buy and/or impress women, that leaves as with one basic motivator - WOMEN! And what is in the women? Well sex. And what is in the sex? Well, if we disregard modern contraceptives which never played a role among our evolutionary ancestors, sex is a mean by which men can pass their genes contained in the sperm into women's eggs. And women's eggs are very, very expensive. (Only think: nine months bearing a child and the threat to health that pregnancy cares, then exhausting caring for the child until the child's sexual maturity and you get the picture).

So as genes "manipulates" men to have sex with women at almost any cost, so do most (if not all) women manipulate (often unconsciously) men for their advantage. Of course most women do small manipulations with men like "get a second job and earn more money", "buy me those overpriced perfumes for birthday", etc... A few women will manipulate men in big ways like "still money from your store's safe since you can't earn enough (what happened with one of my recently married coworker who got fired)", "marry me [so I can get your property/money/US citizenship and then dump you]" or even, like the in the movie, "involve yourself in drug trafficking [so I can later run with your money]" or perhaps "why not killing someone who bothers me".

The sad thing is that women are like men "manipulated" by their genes. And even sadder thing is that genes cannot be held accountable for their manipulations since genes are merely senseless chains of molecules that happened to survive in the harsh physical environment by inadvertently invoking certain predisposition/impulses/instincts in their biological containers (aka "homo sapiens").

The encouraging thing is that by being aware of the role the genes plays on ourselves and other people, we can keep a healthy doze of cynicism about our internal (ex: erection) and external (ex: sexy woman) motivators. Thus a cynic, sarcastic and/or skeptic outlook on life can often prevent us from doing very foolish things indeed. .

Ii. SCREENPLAY ORIGINALITY (out of 1 star, where very banal = 0; banal = 0.25; somewhat original = 0.5; original = 0.75; very original = 1.0):

--->1.0<---.

The movie is highly original !

+ BONUS FOR CONTAINING CONTROVERSIAL & UNPOPULAR TOPICS (up to 0.5 star, where controversial topics = 0.25; unpopular and taboo topics = 0.5).

.--->0.25<---.

I bet the movie raised eye brows of quite a few priests and feminists.

II. PRODUCTION (out of 2 stars plus bonus, composite of sub-criteria bellow):

---> 1.5<---.

Iii. ACTING (out of 1 star, where very ineffective = 0; ineffective = 0.25; somewhat effective = 0.5; effective = 0.75; very effective = 1.0):

---> 1.0 <---.

Acting is superb. Just superb !

Iv. PRESENTATION (out of 1 star, where very ineffective = 0; ineffective = 0.25; somewhat effective = 0.5; effective = 0.75; very effective = 1.0):

--->1.0 <---.

The presentation is very smart, very smart !

+ BONUS FOR PRODUCING ON LOW BUDGET (up to 0.5 stars, where up to one million dollars budget = 0.25; up to half a million dollars budget = 0.5).

TOTAL STAR RATING:

--->4.75<---.

GRADE & RECOMMENDATION (above 5.0 = A+," Very Good Movie, Highly Recommend"; 5.0 & 4.75 = A," Very Good Movie, Highly Recommend"; 4.5 = A-, " Very Good Movie, Highly Recommend"; 4.25 = B+, "Good Movie, Recommend"; 4.0 & 3.75 = B, "Good Movie, Recommend"; 3.5 = B - "Good Movie, Recommend"; 3.25 = = C+, "Fair Movie" ; 3.0 & 2.75 = C, "Fair Movie"; 2.5 = C-, "Fair Movie"; 2.25 = D+, "Poor Movie"; 2.0 & 1.75 = D, "Poor Movie"; 1.5 = D-, "Poor Movie"; bellow 1.5 = F, "Very Poor Movie") :

--->A," Very Good Movie, Highly Recommend" <----.

BALANCED MPAA RATING (not biased in favor of violence and against sexuality, where G = no violence, no sexuality; PG = OK slight violence, OK slight sexuality; PG-13 = OK moderate violence, OK moderate sexuality; R = OK explicit violence, OK explicit sexuality; NC-17 = OK extreme violence, OK extreme sexuality).

--->PG-13 for moderate violence and sexuality<---.