Last Lives
Last Lives
| 18 October 1997 (USA)
Last Lives Trailers

A telepathic terrorist from a parallel universe kidnaps a woman on her wedding day. The groom tracks them down after receiving assistance from the inventor of a life restoring bracelet. The bride was considered the terrorists telepathic life partner.

Reviews
Linbeymusol Wonderful character development!
Melanie Bouvet The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.
Stephanie There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes
Roxie The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;
DigitalRevenantX7 Story Synopsis: In a dimension parallel to ours, the convicted terrorist Malakai is being used as a guinea pig in a temporal experiment designed to send people across parallel worlds. Convinced that his dead wife exists in our world, he hijacks the experiment, sending himself & two cohorts over to our world. The scientist who created the experiment also crosses over, armed with a number of bracelets that can revive the wearer in the event of death. He uses one of these 'lifebands' to resurrect Aaron, the fiancé of the woman Malakai abducted, having being shot by him as he tried to save her. The pair then gives chase but the scientist is killed in the process. Before he dies, he passes the 'lifebands' to Aaron, who then uses them to attempt a highly risky & dangerous rescue of his love.Film Analysis: Last Lives is a low-budget knockoff of the Terry Gilliam time travel flick 12 MONKEYS (itself a knockoff of a French new wave film known as La Jetee). Both films cover the same story - a criminal is used as a subject in a temporal experiment due to his obsession of a woman from another world or time, the experiment going awry because of this. The only difference is that while 12 Monkeys is an intelligent & darkly humorous time travel flick, Last Lives is a film with a severely limited scope.As an action film, Last Lives is competent enough, with some decent car chases, shootouts & explosions. But it fares less well as a sci-fi film - namely due to the rather stupid gimmick of having the hero armed with special armbands that can help him cheat death. Sure, the gimmick is interesting but the way it is used here is quite silly - as the hero, Thomas C. Howell is killed so many times that it is not even funny. Okay, I take that back - the various ways that Howell kicks the proverbial bucket are so contrived that you will be laughing out loud over it. Case in point being the shack explosion, with Howell's scattered body parts reforming despite the explosion's effects (surely it would've affected the armbands as well?). The temporal experiment is just a MacGuffin used to launch the story, promptly being written out by the end of the first act.The acting is a bit of a mixed bag. Howell is pretty good despite having some sort of Southern accent that affects his performance slightly. Judge Reinhold looks like he is embarrassed to be there while Jennifer Rubin seems to be under the influence of some serious sedatives. As the villain, Billy Wirth (who has proved himself to be a capable actor in the past) is given little to do, making the most of his role as a telepathic terrorist with a pair of silent henchmen & painful telepathy as his only weapon.
g f I fairly give it a 7 because of the novelty of this film.What was the novelty?...well let me get philosophical here and tell you there were some deep and existential ideas to the films plot.Have you ever played video games? Of course you have. Did you notice when you died, you got another life?...or a limited bunch of extra lives?...Well THATS EXACTLY WHAT WE SAW FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER IN A MOVIE HERE. Maybe it has been done in some other ways in other films or shows...but this film literally made use of "bio-bands" or whatever they were called that restored a persons "life" if the person was blown up or injured. The heal devices were bracelets and with them, the main character had literally "nine lives" like the saying goes for cats who escape death...And the kicker is in mythology we all know about "releasing the bonds of Orion" and perhaps you people may find interesting doing some investigation into the ancient mythological devices called "kesatot".So, yes the movie needed "something" but I really couldn't figure out what...perhaps the direction was too "cheesy" or 80's movie-like (specifically the non-speaking goon helpers of Malakai)and needed a more mysterious flow/atmosphere...maybe more blinking lights...but, overall, all the acting was great (atleast good). I found the whole concept and plot of this movie satisfying and even romantic (lost loves through time).
pat_blank Not much else to say of this science fiction/action wannabe. The story is poor, the acting is poor, and pretty much everything else about this movie is poor. The only intriguing aspect of the movie, the bracelets that can bring you back to life, is wasted in the pathetic plot of the film. Long story short, skip this film. [1/10]
JaketheWonderDog Although the film has a good base of an idea, it has so many unrealized ideas that it is a pointless waste of time. There seem to be no redeeming features, and the relationships have no real emotion to them. The bad guy doesn't seem that bad, the good guy seems wishy-washy, and the only character that I liked was the cop. Disappointing.