User Reviews

Final Cut is a 1993 Thriller directed and written by Chris Lechler. It stars Chip Flanagan as Lance, a young man who has recently lost his father. Upset and confused, he leaves home to start work on a documentary of his travels as a hitch hiker. After sleeping next to a dead skunk on the side of the road, he meets a guy named Buck, who's about to start work on a film based on Lance's favorite book, "On The Road" by Jack Kerouac. But things are not always as they seem.....

I really don't know how to put this film into words but it's pretty dull and half of the time it really can't decide where it's going. It's half a "coming of age film", half "city slicker noir", half "horror/slasher movie", and half "snuff film". When you start mildly enjoying one section, it drunkenly swerves into another, which hurts an otherwise moderately entertaining film.

Expect plenty of "tomato juice" blood.

It is uncertain as to which sort of theme was in mind for this weakly constructed film, since its thin plot, upon which is strung a series of shabbily composed scenes, meanders erratically to a risible conclusion. Action begins, intermingled with the credits, as the first of the movie's many absurdities blurringly depicts, with nationally televised coverage, a shootout between a barricaded suspect, a man with a rifle seen through a second story apartment building window and, directly below him and in a largely unprotected and direct line of fire, uniformed police officers, one of the latter being killed, not surprisingly considering his virtually wide-open position below the gunman. After the slain police officer's funeral, his plainly downcast son, Lance Gaffney, explains through voice-over of his plan to go "on the road", as in Jack Kerouac's 1957 novel, by hitchhiking to Los Angeles for the purpose of finding fame and fortune as an actor. With a video camera and duffle bag, Lance begins his journey only to sadly discover that hitchhikers are no longer as acceptable as they were in Beat Generation days, and therefore he spends a good part of his roadside time by filming the pavement, his shoes, and other subjects that will lack impact for a viewer. Lance's odyssey falls far short of Kerouac's work as he ambles along interstate highways where hitchhiking restrictions are ostensibly not being enforced, Gaffney even taken to sleeping in convenience lanes, once rather stupidly mere inches from a dead, disemboweled, and naturally odoriferous skunk. Nonetheless, Lance's situation seemingly improves when, while in a roadway café, a grossly overweight man named Buck introduces himself to the young man and, immediately after they become acquainted, Lance accepts with but mild reservations an offer from Buck to ride with him and share his lodgings. Protracted sequences follow with Buck revealing to Lance that he is an independent filmmaker based in New Orleans, and when Lance describes his fondness for the Kerouac book, Buck surprises young Gaffney with the information that "On the Road" is intended to be his next production (although he mispronounces the author's name), a remarkable coincidence that Lance, evidently emptied of reason, totally accepts upon faith. Although a viewer will soon discern that Buck is a trifle shady, starry-eyed Lance does not, while each scene pares away those elements of intelligence with which he may have been allocated at birth. As Buck drives onward to New Orleans, the two men chat about "On the Road", and after Lance pleads for an audition in the part of Dean Moriarty (Neal Cassady), the fat filmmaker abruptly decides that the part is his, despite his youth and inexperience. During one of their motel room colloquies, Buck had recalled an incident from his own youth - - the death of his mother and his grief at her passing, but when the pair arrives at Buck's home, it is clear that he shares it with his very much alive mother, to whom he introduces Lance. This seems to mildly perplex a naive Lance, yet not enough to dissuade him from taking part in this film's climactic scene. As shall be expected from a work with a small budget, the cast and crew (all involved are from the New Orleans region, where the picture was shot) at times doubling, production values are something less than impressive. Poverty of pace and sharpness is found throughout the affair, with the direction, writing, acting, and editing all of a piece, being awkward and frequently sophomoric, a combination that lowers the piece to the level of a student film. Its most marked technical shortcoming stems from substandard looping with sound synchronization so poor that it drags an already shoddy effort down farther. No extras are included for the Legacy DVD release, and despite the film not being suitable as entertainment within any genre, both the visuals and sound quality of the disc are fine.

I have seen this film about five times now and all I can say is WOW!!! This movie makes me want to take out my eye balls and stomp them. The audio is horrible, the acting is horrible and the story is horrible. With this being said I think that it was the most entertaining movie of all time. My friends and I watch and laugh our asses off. The main actor has scenes where he has to smoke a cig and you can tell the actor is repulsed because he is trying his hardest to pucker up his mouth and keep the smoke out. I wish there was more info around for this movie but being that the DVD was sold to me in pathmark for ninty five cents I am assuming that there's not much interest in it.

through your viewing of this film, you might ask yourself why it is credited as a horror film. The fact is, it is'nt really much of a horror film, more along the lines of a realistic murderer drama. The film is about a young hitchhiker with aspirations of being an actor, who is picked up by an overweight man who tells him he's an independent filmmaker. When they get to his home in new Orleans, the young actor discovers that his obese friend makes snuff films, & he's his next actor. Now, you might wonder why I can tolerate this film at all, I do so because I see potential in the idea, if not the film itself. It could have been better, but was'nt. However, the ending was sort of disturbing, but I won't ruin it for you. Al in all, I'd say it's a worthwhile film to see at least once.

Chip Flanagan thankfully gave up the acting gig and became a very successful, respected, and incredible Chef in New Orleans. He actually traveled to many different countries to hone his culinary skills. I worked for him when I was in culinary school and he was a cool guy (until you got weeded, or messed up an order lol) with a quirky sense of humor but every one of his employees respected the hell out of him. He works at a famous New Orleans restaurant called Ralph's on the Park. There are plenty of videos of him online appearing on local television and giving cooking demonstrations. His theater background I guess did help out because he is completely comfortable in front of the camera and jokes often with the broadcasters. Funnily enough he used used to joke with us that he was in this early nineties B movie but wouldn't tell us the name of it until we graduated culinary school lol. Oddly enough though he went to school and is friends with all the Reno 911 crew.

For some reason this movie kind of works for me. Over the years I've developed something of a short fuse with cheap, independent films and when I start to see crap where they are wasting time (and my patience) on stuff like the meandering (and nonsensical) hitch-hiking scene, I about had my finger on the fast-forward button and was ready to write this one off. The dialogue on this movie is ridiculous (how many times can the fat dude say "kid"?), the main character (who looks like a hybrid of Tracy Lords era Tom Byron and a contemporary Rachel Maddow) has the gullibility and street smarts of a toddler, all attempts at humor fall flat, no one can act their way out of a paper bag, and all the while you pretty much know how things are going to wind up in the end. So why do I like it? Well, it's pure crap but it's stupid and weird enough to provide an almost surreal viewing experience. I actually like the bit where fat guy shoots his mom in the stomach (love the special effects!) and then she just goes back to washing the dishes--you don't see that sort of scene too often! Audio appears to be dubbed in many of the scenes, which adds another layer of crapulence to the affair, making every word of stilted dialogue seem that much more unnatural and ridiculous. Of course, I can see why most people would hate a movie like this but, if you like bad movies as much as I do, this one is a cut above or is at least worth looking into.