User reviews

US Army Captain Nick Preston (Dolph Lundgren) is a relic left over from previous wars. He is left in Fort Edenberg, a military junkyard. Then an earthquake measuring 9.5 hits and California is separated from the U.S. Preston, Marine Sergeant Lucky Simcoe and Air Force Captain Sarah McBride are the only survivors on the base. They are joined by a disparate collection of civilians. There is an epidemic called Q Fever. There is a shortage of water. The prisoners at Nanwong have taken over led by Jesus Carrera.

This is a bad B-movie even considering its intent. The apocalyptic world is just cobbled together with random problems. I don't know what a plague has to do with an earthquake. Even a 9.5 wouldn't turn the world into a dystopia. Dolph Lundgren is not the best actor but he tries. There is some action but it's not shot well. This is a low grade B-movie no matter how you add it up.

Question. How do you tell when a movie is really bad?

1: The hero is an ex-Green Beret rebelling against the system.

2: It has the hackneyed plotline that the world has ended and only a few exceptional people can save the day. This genre was old when 'Mad Max' rumbled on to the screens, but its still being churned out with ever-decreasing budgets. After all, any wannabe director just needs a camera; a few friends decked out in army surplus, some beat up vehicles and a free weekend in the desert. Add suitably ruined industrial plants and bad acting to taste and you are on the way to video immortality.

The big budget productions feature kickboxing cyborgs.

The Last Patrol has no kickboxing cyborgs.

3: Voiceovers to explain the plot. Studios tack these on after the movie is edited when they realise what a complete hash they have on their hands.. A good movie doesn't need someone bored out of their mind reading lines into a microphone.

Unless they're Humphry Bogart - and he's dead.

4: It has a urine-drinking scene. There is an episode of BlackAdder where they attempt to sail round the world. Things become so desperate they have to drink their own urine. The same thing happens about halfway through The Last Patrol - I was tempted to join in the onscreen misery.

5: When the 'making of' feature and publicity materials don't feature the lead actor. Something happened during the production and they no longer want to be associated with it as it may hurt future work. In retrospect that was a very wise move Mr. Lundgren, possibly a little late, but a good idea none the less.

At this point I should make it clear I like bad movies. there is nothing like a good cheap movie to round off a Friday night. The Last Patrol even starts of promisingly. A massive earthquake (illustrated by spectacular special effects lifted straight out of 'Dante's Peak' hits California. An isolated military base in the high desert is cut off from civilisation. Somehow Dolph Lundgren (playing the part of an ex Green Beret who rebelled against the yadda. yadda.) must keep things together and rebuild civilisation.

At this point the movie takes its inspiration from the plot and everything falls apart.

The scriptwriter had a bad attack of writers' block, reached into the cliché cupboard and grabbed *everything*.

So, the commander is suitably heroic and square jawed. He's suitably macho to handle the action, but in touch with his feminine side when he needs to talk to children. The troops are rebellious, (but never mutinous); there is a bubble-headed useless blonde stripper to get in the way and a power-mad maniac out to take over the world. Would you even believe that there is a gratuitous excuse for a shower scene? Oh you would. you are way ahead of me.

All these characters (and I use the term loosely) are thrown into what passes for a plot featuring shifts in the Earth's axis, genetic mutations, plagues, private prisons and someone in communion with God. (No really!)

If it was a couple of minutes long, The Last Patrol might make an interesting trailer - after all they aren't meant to explain anything. A good trailer makes lots of noise, raises questions about the plot and draws in the audience. At 100 minutes, The Last Patrol is one hell of a long trailer - unless (and this is a scary thought) this is the teaser for an entire series of post apocalyptic fun.

Usually reviews are meant to concentrate on scripting and acting - I can't be that cruel to the cast. They had bad lines and they did a lousy job.

Special effects? Well if you've seen Dante's Peak you've already seen the best of them. The rest is the usual cheap prosthetics left over from the Halloween clearance sale and things exploding for no very good reason.

The producers didn't even choose a very nice piece of desert. In most of these movies you can amuse yourself by looking out for that strange rock where Captain Kirk once fought the lizard man. Not here.

Somehow this mess cost $8.2 million. I'm not sure where the money could have gone. Perhaps they each had a couple of drinks from the hotel minibar?

So is there anything positive to say about The Last Patrol? Ummm. there is a very sweet child who actually doesn't get on your nerves and a golden retriever with a natural talent that shines through and puts everyone else to shame.

Anything else? No not really, I just hope everyone got a good tan in the desert.

Any recommendations? To Mr Lundgren; get a new agent. To the kid; it's not too late to change your name, your secret is safe with me - no one else will ever know that you were in this film. To the rest of the cast; overacting is not the same as acting really hard. To the dog; pick your roles more carefully in future, no one likes failure in Hollywood and you do want to work again.

Final thoughts?

Needs kickboxing cyborgs.

The idea for this movie is quite interesting. It could be an interesting science fiction movie set in post apocalyptic world . Unfortunately it's not. From what I've heard the movie makers had very small budget . So small that they struggled to finish this movie . A movie with low budget doesn't necessary has to suck . This one is bad. REALLY BAD.

When you don't have money you can always impress the audience with other things : acting , dialogue , plot … "The Last patrol" is poor not only with production values. It's an action movie with no action ! The first fight happens here after 1 hour and 10 minutes ! That's right . Before Lundgren will hit and kick someone you will have to wait 1 hour and 10 minutes . The last 20 minutes of movie are "intense" – we have one shootout , 5 kicks , 7 punches and 1 explosion (not too impressive) . That's all you get after suffering 1 hour and 10 minutes of boredom. And some pseudo-intellectual dialogue about faith. Admit it – that's not the reason you watch action movie , especially with Dolph Lundgren.

So what's happening before the " big climax" ? Nothing . We are introduced to characters we couldn't care less about . To be honest if it wasn't for Lundgren I would swear I was watching some idiotic comedy . I guess they wanted to make a drama about people trying to survive in a destroyed world . I don't understand why they filled the movie with characters that could easily appear in "Police academy" – the milkman , the dragged couple , the pseudo-Indian , the dumb blonde girl , the macho soldier . There is a big twist involving Lundgren's past – I don't understand what was so traumatic in it . Seriously . I laughed so hard when the movie revealed his big secret . I expected something dark and heartbreaking , while it was all about a … simple talk. One meeting with black woman and children changed his life so much he had nightmares . It feels odd at best.

I have to point three dues ex machine plot solutions – one with the earthquake , second with the explosion and third with the rain. And the magical "saved from the death".

I also have to point that the movie drags all the time . It's boring like HELL . There is no interesting dialogue or good acting. "The Last Patrol" is the definition of words : dull and lifeless. And stupid.

I give it 1/10.

Dolph Lundgren stars as Nick Preston, a soldier who survives an earth quake that separates California from the US and it is hinted that it was a global earth quake, so we are left pondering if it is only California or the whole world that has entered the apocalypse stage. Anyway there is a prison that survived and the leader looks to take over the world but before he can do so he must fight Dolph Lundgren. Dolph Lundgren is actually not too shabby in his role, he actually delivers a performance that has charisma and likability that is convincing to his character. Also Sherri Alexander isn't too shabby either and their chemistry has a few moments but generally this movie is too dull to be considered all that watchable. The Last Warrior is consistently frustrating because Lundgren will get into a good speech about the world being devastated and Lundgren manages to sell it, however the movie never shifts focus on this plot angle and instead figures to settle on the battle between Lundgren vs the prisoners. This part of the story can work if it has, oh I don't know, Action. The Last Warrior is the worst type of movie that nobody wants to see. It is a plot driven actioner without plot or action. We are left with so many confusing moments (Such as the mutant goats and their mutant owner, a woman who can make it rain and Lundgren rescuing a horse.) Truly this would have been watchable had the action angle or science fiction angle had been explored but because it isn't we are left to watch a sitcom like actioner that will surely disappoint Lundgren fans.

* out of 4-(Bad)

The Last Patrol was one of those movies I forced myself to sit through. On pretty much every level I was left disappointed. The plot, the characters, continuity and the ending.

For some reason I had respect for Dolph but after a flick through his filmography I could only obviously recommend Universal Soldier. He was the only element of this production that offered any attraction but, while he went through the motions pretty well, he was surrounded on all sides by the mediocre and the ridiculous.

I'm sure that some of the scenes could maybe have been reworked and the overall plot could maybe have been dragged into more respectable territory but the characters were, overall, poor. Those who were meant to be funny were just annoying and with the possible exception of McBride, there was a general lack of depth.

I just don't understand how these movies make it to DVD - we're obviously not talking big budget here but where's the quality control guys?

Doulf Lundgren was the strongest feature of this film, his narrations where good and reflective. And in the beginning he had an excerlent American accent but then it started to go Swedish!

The other actors in the film gave typical B movie performances that where comical and humour like. So it was a B-movie action comedy for a while.

The best parts of the film where Dolph going off the rails a little and getting a little too controlling (like in Universal soldier), and his small bits of action with his Karate moves, when the action finally kicked in.

At the end there's a nice positive message narrated well by Lundgren though but the film was a little too unbelievable, shallow, and lacked detail.

35% of 100%

This is garbage. The plot is terrible. We are supposed to believe that there is an Earthquake in California and all of the sudden a secret prision and a group of soldiers met by some stragglers are the last people on Earth? That the Earth's axis would shift? In the beginning we are told that the Earthquake occurred along the San Andreas fault in California. Than why does the ocean that separates Cali and the mainland start where Las Vegas used to be. No explanation is given for the mutated milk man and goats. The psychic religion teacher who can make rain and predict "big changes." Now for the ending. Anyone who saw it will understand how terrible it was. Our hero drives a car w/ a bomb strapped on the top onto a prison and jumps out 5 feet away from the explosion only to return at the end. Rent this movie only to help the economy.

Out of all the lame action stars the 80's an 90's brought to us, there's one that will always remain my favorite: Dolph Lundgren. This movie is a classic Dolph film. When was the last time Arnie threw a brick at a guys face? 1985? Last I heard, he was working on Jingle All the Way 2. Dolph stayed in great shape for his age, and delivers the melodrama and unreal action that has made me like action heroes ever since I was a kid. It's this type of movie that reminds me of when Action heroes were tough. Guys like Micheal Dudikoff, Chris Christopherson, and Dolph Lundgren made good films that didn't need a bunch of cookie cutter acting. Guys like Stallone and Arnie needed to prove they could act for some reason. Leave acting to the actors and leave action to the men.

'The Last Patrol' feels eerily like a prequel to Van Damme's 'Cyborg', which began as a sequel to Dolph Lundgren's live-action 'Masters of the Universe'. In fact, replace the German pirates of 'Cyborg' with the Mexican geologists of 'The Last Patrol', and they could very well be the same movie. Not really, but you get my point hopefully.

Welcome to the island of California, in the early 21st century. An earthquake measuring 9.5 on the Richter scale has separated California from the rest of America. Naturally, this is an alternate universe in which Arnie never became Governator, and thus was not around to use his awesomeness to stop this devastating earthquake. Camping out at a military junkyard, Nick Preston (Dolph Lundgren) is an Army Captain who leads a group of survivors including Air Force Captain Sarah McBride, an Army sergeant 'Lucky' Simcoe and some civilians. Meanwhile, a bad-guy named Jesus and his evil-geologist partner have taken over a prison and are intent on taking out the remnants of the military. Unfortunately for the bad guys, the 'remnants of the military' include Dolph Lundgren...

So the story is something we've been told before, many many times, except this time it has Dolph Lundgren, who brings in a great sense of awesomeness. I was entertained, even if the movie was a bit slow at points. As to be expected from a Dolph Lundgren movie, there were some plot points brought up early on in the movie and then were hastily resolved, or remained unresolved entirely. The police officer promised dangerous killer mutants. Dagnabbit, what happened to the killer monster-mutants?

Despite the movie being a little slow at times, there were some nice action sequence, and the battle at the end was exciting. Dolph even throws a brick at a bad-dude's head. I can honestly say I haven't seen that outside of 'Home Alone 2', and I found it incredibly funny in both films. Other than that, I don't think Dolph's character ever fired a gun at any point in the movie, leaving a lot of Dolph fighting hand-to-hand, and a lot of Dolph acting.

'The Last Patrol' is an entertaining action B-movie. Avoid it if you don't like Dolph Lundgren, otherwise, enjoy - 6/10

Dolph is a man whom i believe has/had the potential to have the same success as Arnie or Sly as he has the charisma than other action stars such as Seagal (which isn't saying much).

This movie however made me eat these words as Dolph plods through this bored out of his skull, as were i and i believe i saw the first punch in the movie over an hour into it.

Filling the gap is tedious boring acting in which everyone is very annoying that will push viewers over the edge.

Guys do yourself a favour and avoid this drivel or you will regret it. Heres fingers crossed the expendables will change Dolphs future from making crap like this again

Right, well given the synopsis for this movie and given the fact that it is a Dolph Lundgren movie, makes you kind of take a step back and have second thoughts about watching it. You should listen to that little voice in the back of your head.

I, however, opted to sit down and watch it, because Dolph Lundgren does have the occasional movie that is good and entertaining. However, this 2000 release wasn't one of them!

The story here is about a massive earthquake hitting Los Angeles and rips it apart, and from the ashes rise a new island where law and order is gone. And a small group of armed soldiers must steer the survivors and the rest of mankind to a better future.

No. Just no! Seriously, who comes up with these ideas, and more importantly how do they manage to fund these projects. Sometimes a critique's eye should scrutinize the scripts first.

I didn't even get halfway through the movie before I had to give up out of sheer boredom and because there was nothing in the movie that could be classified as entertainment on any level. The characters were two-dimensional cardboard cut-outs and the entire storyline was just laughable. And the special effects weren't really helping the movie ahead in any way either.

This was most definitely not the brightest of moments in Dolph Lundgrens movie career, and from what I saw, then it seemed like he wasn't even fully committed to the movie, as his performance was just half-hearted in comparison to some of his other movies.

With no intention of returning to "The Last Patrol" in order to finish watching it, I can only hope that you take heed of the low rating of the movie, and actually listen to that voice in the back of your head that say "don't do it!".

(2000) The Last Warrior/ The Last Patrol SCIENCE-FICTION ACTION

Dystopian movie which it is not gasoline that brings the world upside down like it does on "Mad Max 2" or diseases that can turn people into ghouls or zombies like "I Am Legend" or "24 Days Later", to "Zombieland" but in this movie, it is earthquakes leading to people living in hot deserts.

As it centers on two different compounds, one managed by.captain sergeant, Nick Preston (Dolph Lundgren) along with his two trusted keepers of captain Sarah McBride (Sherri Alexander) and Lucky Simcoe (Joe Michael Burke) who has a young wife, Candy (Rebecca Cross) who loves to perform. Other eccentric characters also include Pope, Cooky, Will and Miriam. The other compound is like a prison-like fortress with a gate, led by a fascist wannabe, Jesus/ Jehovah Carrera (Juliano Mer) and his sidekick, Simon Peace. On his compound are men wearing orange prison-like jumpsuits, as they continue to stare at a TV screen or listening to a monitor of or from Jehovah speaking on a microphone stuck behind a production control room facility.

On the first hour is a whole lot of nothing, other than character development, some narrated by the Dolph Lundgren character as he and his two trusted friends go on about searching for things s/he could use, whatever it might be. Sarah McBride tries to contain a horse and it appears has an agenda where she is looking for her co-pilot who she eventually found at the enemy compound. And it is not until the final 25 minutes or so , they realize that some children have been held hostage there along with a lady, with Nick Preston being the first to go there. Very uneven throughout with a few amusing moments that is not enough to hold the movie together.

If you like DL ( like I do ) you should watch it as he actually carries the entire movie with his decent performance. The other actors are unbelievable bad. Holy smokes they are bad.

The plot is really cool, however, the producers managed to create a bore fest despite such a promising setting.

I enjoyed it, I giggled and I used the fast forward button a lot. Watch it but do not be sad if miss it.

The late 90s were a wasteland of action stars starring in crash-and-burn duds beset by production problems, low budgets, and multiple name changes. I can name ten such movies off the top of my head and The Last Patrol is but another.

Set in California after an earthquake has isolated it from the rest of America (via footage stolen from Dante's Peak) there is a mild allusion to pre-millennium doom before settling in with a ragtag group of survivors in a desert outpost led by Dolph Lundgren. There is a muddled plot about a plague killing off the population while occasionally cutting to a secondary plot involving a heroin farm operated by a death row inmate freed from the electric chair at the moment of the quake. None of it stitches together very well, though the material is more ponderous than I anticipated but it has ideas well beyond its meagre budget. It seems to be going for a Mad Max vibe but with a slightly goofy, oddball tone.

The Last Patrol could have benefited from a re-write by a more experienced writer but the executive producers wouldn't allow their own script to be altered. Director Sheldon Lettich, who was a low-level mover and shaker in many Stallone, Van Damme, and Lundgren movies of the era, capably directs what little action there is with no particular flair. There are a couple of striking shots in there but its mostly all very flat with no thought given to camera blocking or composition. It was actually shot in Israel, and you might recognize a couple of locations from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. David Michael Frank (a once talented composer who seems to have just disappeared) provides an okay score that sounds a helluva lot like Uru: Ages Beyond Myst but precedes it by four years. There's a couple of oddities in the casting too. Sherri Alexander ended up giving birth to her first child at the age of 45 a decade later, and a few months after the death of her husband, who never got to see his child come into the world. That man was Michael Crichton! Also, the actor who plays the villain was assassinated in Palestine for corrupting the local Islamic youth by bringing theatre and and performance art into their community. Pretty heavy stuff! Other than that there's nothing notable here.

I don't think this movie even got released in the UK. It certainly never showed up in Blockbuster during my 5-year tenure in the 2000s. The end credits imply that it was intended for cinema exhibition but it's clearly not marketable any territory. I can't imagine anyone giving this a second viewing and it has rightfully ended up in obscurity.

This exceeded my expectations, as i have seen all of Dolphs latest films before this one and they have all been flawed although still watchable. I thought the main plot was pretty good and Dolphs performance was possibly his best. Sheldon Lettich directs precedings quite well and shows the experience that some directors of Dolphs other more recent films usually fail in. All in all this film is very similar to Stephan Kings "The Stand" although with more action, and it even has the strong religously orientated end as well which for me being a non-believer ruined the film just a little,i think this is deserving of 8/10.

Being a big fan of Rebecca Cross meant I had to see her in this movie. She was terrific in the movie. The movie was average only. This is her best role yet. Seeing her in the movie was of course best part of the movie, and worth the cost of the rental.

Start watching this movie on TV, I expected just another low-budget action film that would doubtfully be watched till its end. Eventually, i was enjoying so much to rate it with '9'. A bit strange deviation from its 3.1 IMDb average but....this is my opinion, isn't it :)

Unlike other high-budget natural-disaster movies with heroic attempts of the main actor to save his child/wife, here there is a group of survivals with their daily attempts to survive. The grotesqueness of characters doesn't change the realness of situation. Grotesque as they are: an earthquake just happened - what will they do ? They behave like human beings under crisis - not like American heros with banally, expected and nonrealistic moves.

Just think of "metamorphosis" of kafka: there, a man became an insect and it's still a classic story. Why ? because the unreal starting-point is forgotten when the reader follows the very-real behaviour of the character (of course, this is not the only reason "metamorphosis" is a classic one :) ).

Back to The Last Patrol: a colorful set of people in a situation I'm really anxious about: you know, an earthquake can really be stronger than what we ever seen, then what will we do, isolated with some people in the less-expected location ?

Various violent conflicts (e.g. the prisoners) and the weird plague add the "action" spice which makes this film more entertaining than just a drama.

The bottom line: I've enjoyed this movie very much.