Mesmerising, witty, weird, disturbing, hallucinatory, nightmarish, compelling, visually and sonically dazzling ... this very original retelling of the Orpheus myth is a dark, funny, scathing, scary satire on the perils of fame in the 21st century. Although certainly not for the faint-hearted - there is some very confronting content - I have no hesitation in rating this as one of the best movies I've seen in a long time, and a must-see for any serious cinema fan.I watched this for the first time last night and as you can tell, I was hugely impressed. I have long admired Norrington's fine work on 'Blade', and he undoubtedly transformed what might otherwise have been a real corn-fest into the keystone of a very successful franchise. I also recall being pleasantly surprised to enjoy his equally stylish League of Extraordinary Gentlemen as much as I did it (and, boy, would that have made a dream Saturday-arvo double feature with the wonderful 'Van Helsing' at my childhood local cinema!). I was sad to read that Norrington famously had such a bad time making LXG that he swore he'd never make another film, and to date he still hasn't - which is a terrible waste of a great talent. It's a real pity that such an obviously gifted writer-director has only been able to make four movies in 20 years - but I'm very glad he got to make this one!I'm also sorry that other viewers didn't enjoy it as much as I did ... perhaps some were put off by its more extreme moments, and/or by its odd and distinctive style and approach. As mentioned, it is quite confronting in some parts and creates a powerful sense of unease, so I can understand why some won't appreciate its many virtues - but mega-kudos to Chris Blackwell and his colleagues for getting behind Norrington and letting him do this, because I have no doubt will come to be seen as his masterpiece, and I hope it will eventually be recognised a very fine and original film that deserved to reach a far wider audience. I was hooked from the outset and love the dazzling, edgy, off-kilter way he handled the story, the characters, the images, the sound. I loved how he lets the audience go through so much of the film without showing what Billy actually makes/does - and the scene in which this is revealed is an absolute tour de force - Frank Harper as the ultimate cabbie from hell should get an Oscar - an astounding performance. I love its cool and freaky visual style, the great music tracks, the wonderful locations, but I especially have to take my hat off to Norrington and his audio team for the soundtrack. I watched this late at night, and in order not to disturb my family, I wore headphones. I'm SO glad I did. It's not just the music that's great - the entire sound design on this film is just *superb* - there is so much happening on the audio track in every scene, so many subtle touches, that you really MUST watch it with headphones on and get fully immersed, or you'll miss a big part of what makes it so cool and so weird.The performances were uniformly great but the underground kids are really amazing, Tom Bell is TERRIFYING, and Jason Isaacs is wonderful too - a big, juicy, scenery-chewing role if ever there was one, and he plays it to the hilt! His singing scenes are terrific and superbly weird. I really think is is a very potent film - profound, funny, edgy and one that leaves a very powerful impression on the viewer. Well done to all concerned. This is an outstanding work, and one that should be far better known. 10/10.

I love watching Jason Isaacs. He is an INCREDIBLY talented actor. I don't know if it's a British thing but it seems that British actors just have an incredible knack for playing villains and making them extremely sexy and appealing. That said, The Last Minute is one of the most bizarre movies I have EVER seen. I tried watching it SOLELY because of Jason Isaacs.Now, I'm not sure if this counts as a spoiler or not, but in case it is I've marked it....When Jason Isaacs went into a burst of song I went into a fit of hysterical laughter. It was so unexpected, but I must admit (if it's really his voice) he does have a nice singing voice, and he can definitely dance! Outside of him, there really is no saving grace to this movie. Perhaps it's because I'm American, I really don't know, but I found this movie hard to follow (much like Clockwork Orange, another movie I never understood) and I really could have done without the drug scenes and violent fight scenes.As stated previously, Jason Isaacs was this movie's ONLY saving grace, and unfortunately even with him in it, I cannot really recommend this movie.However, if you are a Jason Isaacs fan and you just HAVE to watch every movie he's ever made (like me), then go ahead and watch it. But make sure it's either a rental or you have it on TIVO so that you can just fast forward to his scenes......

The Last Minute is one of those truly rare motion pictures that deserves far wider recognition than it will ever get. How unfortunate. I'd never heard of the thing until recently stumbling across quite by accident. A virtual eye popping, roller coaster of a flick, it starts with a bang and never lets its hooks out of you. Visually, The Last Minute is as impressive a looking picture as I've ever seen. The DVD extras are (mostly) exceptional adding to the whole experience as few extras features ever do. As darkly hilarious as it is, this "Minute" also packs quite an emotional punch. Kudo's to Mr. Norrington. One caveat: Director Norrington wisely employs a terrific device by which we never know what our protagonist does to earn then lose his fame (director and star are on record as being at odds as to what Billy actually does). Were only that same thing had been employed on one scene. When Billy is told he doesn't want to know what's behind a certain, we shouldn't find that out either. Personally, I laughed (in horror, but laughed) at this scene but I know others who were put off of the movie altogether because of these few seconds.Every other aspect of the truly most bizarre club "Prosthetic" is genius (as, actually is the moment in question, just too off-putting for most people). It is in this long scene at "Prosthetic" where perhaps the films most brilliant moment occurs – which is, of course, Percy "Sledge" breaking into the Sinatra classic "I've got you under my skin" while wreaking a gleeful malevolent stream of violence that is about as close to movie magic as we've ever seen. Norrington has a cast that, quite simply, could not have been improved upon with Max Beesley giving a stand out performance as Billy – to watch the youthful energy of his clubby dance moves and the enthusiasm with which he embraces his burgeoning fame slip into confused despair, hopelessness and attempt at self redemption. Beesley has us routing for him even at his worst, for I think most of us can identify with Max's plight. As the aforementioned Percy "Sledge" – Jason Isaacs is nothing short of terrifying, executing his violence with a Fred Astaire like grace and precision which is utterly disarming. The Oliver Twist twist of the underground urchins with their modern day, more violent, Fagin (who doles out drug treats to the kiddies) is chillingly beautiful. I also found the extended mad scene similar resonating strongly with Shakespeare's Lear – Max's meltdown/unhinging being so closely tied with what is happening in nature. Brilliant. If "Minute" had been released theatrically stateside, I can't imagine it wouldn't do huge box office. There are audiences literally screaming for this type of originality. Hopefully, it's not too late to try. The seconds are ticking . . .

The Last Minute had the potential become something great. The synopsis of the film cited other titles such as "Fight Club" and "Trainspotting" yet I failed to make a connection. Yes, the main character is an overnight success. Yes, he wakes up and it's all gone. And yes, he falls into a life of crime and drugs all the while wanting to return to his cozy life as a star. So where does the Fight Club come in? The only thing I found to even be remotely like Fight Club was the main menu on the DVD. I could see a slight Trainspotting influence with the heroin but just because a movie has heroin doesn't make it a Trainspotting-esque movie. If they had let the movie stand on it's own instead of trying to cite all those past hit movies like "Bruises you like Fight Club", "Injects you like Trainspotting" etc. What is that? It's almost as if the director wanted you to compare his movie to those. And sorry mate, those are the future cinematic classics of our time. Anybody would be a fool to plaster all over their own movie that it's like Snatch and Lock,Stock and Resovoir Dogs etc. Those movies have huge cult followings so even if The Last Minute was a decent movie, the fact that the director was so hell-bent on drawing the Tarantino/Ritchie/Lynch crowd he in reality just drew a crowd of critics. I'm ranting now. As you can see, I didn't like this movie. No, I really didn't go into why, but that's only because it had so much potential. My review would better resemble a "woulda, coulda, shoulda". Bad movie.