THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, July 31, 1996 TAG: 9607310028
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E5 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Movie review
SOURCE: BY MAL VINCENT, MOVIE CRITIC
LENGTH: 47 lines
IT'S ARSENIC and old cliches when a group of five liberal grad students decide to systematically murder conservatives they invite to dinner.
That's about all there is to the simple-minded and overly naive ``The Last Supper'' - one of those pretentious little independent films that tries to hide its naivete by declaring itself a ``dark comedy.'' Dark it may be, but not in any threatening or challenging manner.
Director Stacy Title has assembled every stereotype from both sides of the political aisles in his parade of hosts and dinner guests. Things start promisingly when Bill Paxton (``Twister'') shows up as a fascist type and initiates a somewhat shocking debate about how he liked the way Hitler did things. The grad students promptly do him in, and bury him in the back yard.
The ensuing guests are dispatched in increasingly rapid, and repetitive, fashion. Among them is Charles Durning, as a homophobic priest, and Jason Alexander (``Seinfeld'') as someone who dares to bad mouth the greenhouse theory. Ron Perlman (TV's Beast of ``Beauty and the Beast'') is a TV conservative whose hypocrisy is one of the movie's few respites from the predictable.
The most recognizable of the hosts is new star Cameron Diaz (from ``The Mask'' and upcoming in both ``Walking and Talking'' and ``Feeling Minnesota'').
If you expect the kind of intelligent dialogue of a ``My Dinner with Andre,'' be advised that this one doesn't even get through the first course. A number of important ideas are mentioned - then buried. ILLUSTRATION: SONY PICTURES ENTERTAINMENT
From left, Ron Eldard, Cameron Diaz, Courtney B. Vance, Annabeth
Gish and Jonathan Penner star in ``The Last Supper.''
Graphic
MOVIE REVIEW
``The Last Supper''
Cast: Cameron Diaz, Annabeth Gish, Courtney B. Vance, Jason
Alexander, Bill Paxton, Ron Perlman
Director: Stacy Title
MPAA rating: R (multiple murders, some language)
Mal's rating: two stars
Location: Naro in Norfolk by CNB