The Last Supper (1995)
Directed by Stacy Title
A group of idealistic but frustrated liberals succumb to the temptation of murdering right-wing pundits for their political beliefs.
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What critics compared The Last Supper to
Naturally, the project recalls Jordan Peele’s recent “Get Out,” which implicated well-mannered white people in a nefarious plot to steal the brains and skills of unsuspecting African Americans, as well as 1995’s early Cameron Diaz starrer “The Last Supper,” wherein a group of liberals lured contemptible conservatives to dinner, only to poison them when they refused to see reason.
It can’t touch the Clinton-era satires The Last Supper (1995) or Citizen Ruth (1996), which succeeded for reasons other than being on “the correct side.”
It’s akin to THE LAST SUPPER, GOD BLESS AMERICA, or THE RUNNING MAN, where it’s meant to build on current situations and blow them up to ridiculous proportions.
Instead, Poirot holds court in a freezing train tunnel with the suspects comically arranged to reference da Vinci's "The Last Supper."
When it does come time for Poirot to present his theory of what really happened, he lines everyone up like the disciples in Leonardo’s “The Last Supper” but fails to articulate how he untangled the far-fetched plot.
When Poirot gathers all his suspects together to explain how the murder was done, our twelve characters are arranged at the table like disciples at The Last Supper.
As a director, he overcompensates for the staid, inert material with flashy, distracting visuals, from a dizzying tracking shot as Poirot walks the length of the train to a lineup of suspects that mimics Leonardo da Vinci’s The Last Supper.
As the film reaches its denouement, Poirot has the remaining 12 passengers seated at a long table --- audible audience snickers as it has the look of "The Last Supper" --- in what is a gripping conclusion, and a shocking surprise.
Shot beautifully, scripted perfectly and acted wonderfully, “The Menu” is a dark comedy/horror in the tradition of 1995’s “The Last Supper” that uses a clever setup to explore real characters in an unreal situation.
At the very least, what The Da Vinci Code says about Jesus and the Church makes for fun speculation, and when Ian McKellen comes on and shows the supposed hidden messages in "The Last Supper" the movie comes close to being the cracking good yarn it should've been.
Tom Hanks, Audrey Tautou and Jean Reno do a good job of not overplaying their roles, and Sir Ian McKellen overplays his in just the right way, making Sir Leigh into a fanatic whose study just happens to contain all the materials for an audio-visual presentation that briefs his visitors on the secrets of Da Vinci's " The Last Supper " and other matters.
Nuns get whacked, the Crusades are uncloaked as the medieval equivalent of the current Middle East sham, and Da Vinci's The Last Supper hints at the human roots of Jesus, yet Howard and scriptwriter Akiva Goldsman, his usual partner-in-idiocy, are so afraid of offending ticket-buyers that any potential provocation ends in a lukewarm puddle.
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Bringing the orcs to life, Toby Kebbell (War Horse, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes ) as Frostwolf clan leader Durotan, Robert Kazinsky (EastEnders, Pacific Rim ) as his second-in-command Orgrim Doomhammer, and Daniel Wu (Tai Chi 0, The Last Supper) as the imperious, fel magic-corrupted orc warlock Gul’dan build the gravity and depth of these brutish creatures through use of motion-capture technology.