Hey, Senor Cuban – You’ve made my day. Not in the Clint Eastwood style either, in the genuinely happy altruistic sense. First you brought first run movies to HDNet. Sadly the first effort made paint drying look like a Roman chariot race by comparison (try this link if you want to see a movie crushed). However, I knew you’d come through, heck I think I even went so far as to allude you’d come through, and I don’t go alluding for just anybody (click here for possible alluding). The reason I’m so happy? A little movie called One Last Thing…
The story of the flick is simple and straightforward. Michael Angarano plays a teen with terminal brain cancer. He’s been granted a wish by the kind folks at Wishmakers who are prepared to grant his dream of fishing with his quarterback idol. At the urging of his friends he pulls a fast one upon the announcement of the wish request and says he’d like to spend the weekend with the “it” supermodel of the moment. And away we go!
The model is played by Sunny Mabrey and she does really well in a challenging role. Plus she looks “model” hot which is nice for authenticity’s sake. Actually, the good in this one is all over the place. It balances comedy with terminal illness, clearly is not an easy feat. It doesn’t go the expected route in every situation which gives it a nice innovation score from the German judge. It also has above average character development which is another great achievment for a 96 minute comedy/drama. In fact it’s a lot more than most movies of this ilk accomplish. I was going to point out how well One Last Thing… did with such a small budget but I couldn’t locate the budget info. Perhaps our buddy Cuban actually poured a hundred million into this puppy and was willing to make it a loss leader. It did, after all, have poet laureate Ethan Hawke in it.
The negative for One Last Thing… is the occasional sappy and improbable moment that is forced to come because I’m guessing the writers were backed into a corner with certain plot points. There is also one strand of plot involving Angarano’s mother (Cynthia Nixon) that is a waste of time and completely trite to boot. Additionally, if you are one of these folks who hate feelings and tear inducing moments you won’t stand for this in the slightest. Otherwise it’s all systems go for viewing this one.
The real issue with this one is you most likely aren’t able to see it. I’m not sure exactly how one goes about getting the HDNet, it just came with my DirecTV package and I noticed it once someone told me they show bomb nature shows in high definition. I don’t know if HDNet does the one thing that’s always annoyed me, asking you to call your cable company to get it added. Yeah, like the giant monolith cable companies give a crap about you calling them up. Hell, I bet you can’t even reach an actual person with your feeble request. I just checked the HDNet website and they do in fact have contact info for you to solicit the cable companies. Ah well, ESPNU did it too so I guess I can’t come down too hard on our Maverick friend.
So here we are; the first real beachhead in the war for distribution. HDNet has delivered a film worth watching that most people can’t currently watch. If they’re able to build enough buzz (and consider me buzzin’ like a bee) with projects of this quality eventually they’ll win the battle against the big studio and big movie house system. In my eyes it’s a battle worth fighting, so Godspeed and all that. Or maybe I’m making too big a deal of this, maybe this is just one little film amongst the hundreds released every year. Either way it’s worth seeing. I’ll keep it on my Tivo for ya, stop by and I’ll even cook you up some popcorn. Plus I’ll only charge you a buck for the whole experience. Now that’s progress.
You should download my new book for 42 freaking cents if you know what’s good for you. Click here for details.
