BACK COVER SYNOPSIS: In the cutthroat world of New York City business sales, Ted Riker (Michael Keaton) is the undisputed king. He's bitter, cynical and ruthless - the exact opposite of Jamie (Brendan Fraser), his naive new colleague. As Jaime fails time after time, he tries to befriend Ted and introduces him to his beautiful fiancee, Belisa (Amber Valletta from HITCH). But Belisa awakens something in Ted - something he thought had died a long time ago - and now, if he's going to follow his newly rediscovered heart, he's going to have to break Jaime's. And with his junior salesman increasingly on edge, that could be an extremely idea. Raw, fast-paced and dark humoured, THE LAST TIME assembles a pitch perfect cast in a story that asks "would you sell out to trade up?"

FILM REVIEW: "The Last Time" would be a complete waste of time if it weren't for some rock-solid performances from the leads (that appear to have directed themselves for the most part) and a great ending. There's a lot of elements to this film that could have come together to create an excellent, quirky little thriller with some dark humor but none of it gels together at all leaving a film that is by and large without direction and jarringly jumps from one style/tone to the next. The film does have one saving grace and that's an absolute cracker of an ending; but then you get disappointed because when it comes, you can see all the flaws in the film that came before and how if they had done it better would have made for a good film.

Michael Keaton plays foul-mouthed and hard-nosed salesman, Ted Riker. He takes no prisoners, and as such, is the best salesman at his company, and perhaps the industry. For much of the first act, Keaton's character is rather 2-dimensional; he has some very funny lines but either the script wasn't any good or Keaton didn't quite get what to do here but he never really looks comfortable or believable in these scenes. It's only when he starts his fling with Belisa (Amber Valetta), that all of a sudden, literally in the space of a few seconds, a new, 3-dimensional character with depth emerges and actually makes the film worth watching. This is where Keaton's great acting ability comes in to play because he really sells the character and fills him with a lot of torment and tragedy. But director Michael Caleo just doesn't get the two characters to merge, aside from having him remove his sunglasses after he becomes tortured (perhaps so we can see into his eyes? Wow...).

Brendan Fraser is really annoying as Jamie. He doesn't seem to fit in to the space and probably suffers the most from the lack of direction. He plays a loser, but it's more 'George of the Jungle' style loser rather than a credible, real-life loser. This of course is all an act to bring down Ted, but even when Jamie is revealed to be the ultimate puppet-master, he still doesn't sell it. He still looks awkward and geeky, even though he's actually meant to be a slick operator.

Amber Valletta does more than just look beautiful as Belisa. She too is playing a double game, but her chemistry with Michael Keaton is very strong. A lot of the film follows their relationship and is really what makes it worth watching. Valetta also has to portray a character with depth and she does it quite amicably, especially in certain sequences where she is clearly torn between Ted and Jamie.

The blame for this film has to lie with director Michael Caleo. Between his inability to direct the actors consistently, his tv-like approach to the visuals, and being totally unable to create a story that has any sense of flow, build, or structure takes all the sting out of what could have been a good story. The first act is a dark comedy with bite, the second act is a tortured love story with a love-triangle aspect involving three people that are seemingly trying to help each other, and the third act is like The Twilight Zone where we find out everything we've been watching is actually not what we thought it was. The film is a complete mess and as such, there's no way to really get in to the film aside from watching Keaton and Valletta.

This is a wasted film that could have been good.

TECHNICAL REVIEW: The video transfer is on the whole excellent, although the images are not really that inspiring but the picture is clear and crisp throughout the transfer. The audio is also excellent - the addition of so many language tracks is notable, given a lot of DVDs don't offer them. This is a mostly dialogue driven movie so you won't hear much pumping through the home theatre system, however there was one scene where Ted is flipping through Jamie's art book and sees a number of psychotic art pictures Jaime has done and when Jamie shows up, that moment will actually make you jump, and is well represented in the soundtrack. Overall, this is an excellent transfer.

EXTRAS REVIEW: There are a number of subtitles: English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Arabic, Hindi and Turkish. Interestingly, there are four additional language 5.1 surround sound tracks - French, German, Italian and Spanish. The only genuine extra is a selection of deleted scenes that don't really add much to the overall experience. Nothing special here really.

BOTTOM LINE: Rent it.