The Last Girl

I started watching this for Antonio Banderas. With such a title as CULT KILLER I expected a riveting thriller with lots of suspenseful plot turns and thrilling attacks. NONE of that.

The bad; this movie just toddles along. Gently like a stream. Completely void of any real thrill or drama. Antonio Banderas has only got a supporting role, in which he is mumbling all sorts of jibberish to the leading actress ( a "determined" cop) who supposedly is THE person to solve a crime.

What we get to see is not terribly bad, it's not a B-movie for sure, but folks expecting a thriller or crime drama better pass this one by.

The movie just looks poorly made. Odd extras that perform below amateur level. Some simply look like they have never done any acting in their life.

Character actions feel rushed and quite unnatural. Like picking the lock like no one ever would, or doing covert operation like a bunch of students who are lost in the mall. As mentioned beforehand, many things are done on amateur level.

Movie also gave me a feeling that it tries to be Ozark, whether its a camera work, or a background theme. A tall tree to climb.

To be fair, Eve and Banderas do their best, but it is a mystery to me who convinced them to participate in this endeavor.

It's not horrible, but I wouldn't pay to see it.

I just does not work. You have solid actors which can definitely deliver and s script/story which seems ok adequate but the whole movie has the overall aesthetic of a lackluster filler episode from a bad television series.

The visuals, cinematography, and overall production design lack anything close to what I would expect in a film.

The character interactions are filmed so badly it feels like a documentary with people who really don't want to be there.

The most disheartening aspect is that I like all the main actors but felt that the film falls so short of its potential. The execution and overall presentation leave much to be desired.

I thought Antonio Banderas would be the silver lining in this cinematic trainwreck, but oh boy, was I wrong! Cult Killer is so atrocious, even Banderas's dashing presence can't rescue it from the depths of awfulness. I mean, it's like watching a car crash in slow motion while being forced to listen to elevator music. "I swear, Cult Killer is like a bad joke that just won't end. The plot is more convoluted than a Gordian knot, the acting is wooden enough to build a forest, and don't even get me started on the dialogue - it's cringier than a teenager's first Instagram selfie. Even Banderas, bless his heart, looks like he's trying to escape the movie's clutches like a cat trying to flee a bathtub.

Save yourself, folks, and avoid this disaster at all costs! 🚫🎥 #CultKiller #BanderasBomb.

Having seen the movie, these titles of "The Last Girl" or "Cult Killer" (having two is not a good sign) seem absurd and are no doubt part of the reason why some reviewers give such low ratings, as their expectations were not met by reading too much into them.

Something like "Revenge of the Abused" or "The Playhouse" would have been far more suitable.

Overall the movie held my attention as it had an unusual enough premise and I wanted to see how it concluded. It could have been more of a thriller, but lacked enough plot twists and reveals for that, which is not to say there were nonesuch.

There wasn't much by way of suspense, either, as you find out too much for that too soon, and the story becomes much more of a procedural. Indeed, it struck me that this could have been a feature-length pilot for a TV series about a female (English?) private investigator and recovering alcoholic, in Ireland, who sometimes works alongside the police (Garda). However I think the marketing may have screwed it up too much for anything like that. You certainly wouldn't expect Banderas or Eve in something like that. So it seems to have come across that way perhaps more by accident than design.

Alice Eve acquits herself fairly well, and you can certainly see how her character comes to identify with the killer she is pursuing (and vice-versa), but her 'badass' scenes and the character depth she provides are undone by the couple of scenes where she comes across as a genteel English Rose, especially at the end (Oh no!"), which stood out all the more in a movie with some brutal and bloody scenes, some of which her character was involved in. This left me wondering if she was not the first choice for the role, but they couldn't afford e.g. Kate Beckinsale. She just seems slightly miscast, or perhaps the best they could get for it and ultimately, despite some aspects of her performance, as not quite right for the role, at least in hindsight.

Hennig is very good in her role opposite Eve; her character was completely on-point, but the acting honours in this one go to Banderas, who is excellent as the mentor to Eve's character.

I was split between rating it 6/7 (13/20 perhaps?) and eventually decided to go down rather than up. Probably not a movie you would go out of your way for, but it's watchable if you do - so long as your expectations are not based on the appalingly given titles.