Martin Onassis I'm a fan of Tom Berenger, and I'm not alone since he was a great leading man of the late 80s and 90s. He's younger here, cast as a priest, which stretches credulity a bit, but it's convincingly played and written by someone who clearly had a background in catholicism, which really permeates the entire film. Berenger being Italian doesn't exactly jibe with reality either, but again, its made plausible.The film has some decent action and surprises, with all the hallmarks of an 80s movie that relies on its plot, characters, some back lot sets, and period grit and debased attitude as well as slightly substandard film stock that still looks great. There's something about films that used to have to rely on characters and plots because they couldn't afford to blow tens of millions on effects.Regardless, Berenger as a priest, his friends, his awful sister, and his mob family are all played well. There are some issues with a third party female who plays a convincing damsel in distress that then does a 360. This is a bit much to take, as is Berenger's brutally manipulative and devious reaction, which seems so terribly out of character. However, when you give it some thought, a convincing rationale can come to mind, one of innocence lost, one in regards to family coming first and the mania of that within the mob taking over even a good son. There's a real subtext about the good or bad side to women that is taken a bit far, and makes the director/producer seem like a possible misogynist, but maybe that's how life went for him. Or maybe it's the destiny for Berenger's life as a priest. Regardless, it's better a film to me than a 5 or even 6. Popcorn fare that provides some angles to thoughtfully exploreIt's not ironclad as a film, and it's no landmark, but it's an 80s film that has aged well, and is entertaining, and the only parts that go wrong are mostly towards the end and don't go completely astray, though the twists are a bit heavy-handed.

Bjorn (ODDBear) A Catholic priest shields a woman from the mob. Trouble is; the mobsters in question are his family. And then the priest has more than a passing interest in the damsel in distress.A quick ramble on Berenger: The guy is one of my favorite actors. Having gotten a good break in the late 70's and early 80's his career was going downhill already by 1986. Enter a fantastic performance in Oliver Stone's "Platoon" (and an Oscar nomination), Berenger was suddenly on the A-list again. To play it safe; Berenger decided to work with established directors to further his career even more. He worked with Ridley Scott in "Someone to Watch Over Me" in 1987, did a solid film in Roger Spottiswoode's "Shoot To Kill" starring alongside Sidney Poitier and made quite a splash in Costa-Gavra's extreme political thriller "Betrayed" in 1988.To close off 1988 Berenger played the lead in "Last Rites". Directed by Donald P. Bellisario, a veteran in television (creator of "Magnum P.I.", "Airwolf" and "Quantum Leap" to name a few) but hardly an established film director. I have no idea of Berenger's personal faith and whether he wanted to really stick it to Catholic priests; but I simply don't get what was interesting to begin with in "Last Rites".The film opens well enough. A super sexy mobster gal, Zena (Anne Twomey), kills her husband (in quite a nasty way) when she catches him bedding another woman, Angela (Daphne Zuniga). Angela narrowly escapes and shortly thereafter goes to confession in Father Michael Pace's (Berenger) booth. As fate would have it; Pace is Zena's brother and therefore has direct ties to the mob. Pace decides to help Angela and keep his family from getting to her. He also starts to develop a sexual interest in Angela and eventually gives into his carnal desires. All the while the mobsters are closing in on them."Last Rites" offers up at least one miserable twist, a hopelessly boring middle section, some pathetic attempts at taking a stab at religion and an ending that takes far too long to reach it's predictable conclusion. Which is a shame 'cause it starts fairly well.Berenger isn't all that believable as the tortured (and fairly weak minded) priest and Zuniga's legendary bad performance here probably ruined any further chances at a solid acting career. Plus her accent is horrible. Anne Twomey easily walks off with the film."Last Rites" probably hurt Berenger's film career. I don't think it's quite as bad as Roger Ebert labeled it (the worst film of 1988) but it certainly isn't good. Apart from "Major League" in 1989 and "Sniper" in 1993 (and a personal favorite is "The Substitute" from 1996), Berenger made more bad choices commercially speaking and his film career has never recovered.

manager-125 My problem with the film from the beginning was how hard it was to suspend disbelief for a priest like Michael. From the beginning he is smoking, in a bar, and talking about his d**k. He uses 'hell' and 'shit' so very often, besides drinking tequila and wine when alone with the woman. I realize the author is trying to make a statement about his allure to the worldly side, but it just goes to far, in my opinion. There are so many problems with the plot that you can't stop thinking - 'but what about this?' If the beautiful Angela is so incredibly smart where she has set up her scheme with he painter husband to actually end up with the $5 million, then why is she so dumb as to be in the line of fire to be possibly killed by Zena's bullets in the beginning (only escaped by luck) and finally takes one at the end. A smart girl who knows how to work the mob, and knew Michael was in Geno's family, would have foreseen that. You watch it because you just know the priest is going to give into temptation and ravage Angela, and so you voyeuristically continue to watch. Then you stick around to see how the writer will deal with the fate of a fallen priest. The answer is, he joins the family mafia business, and Madonna in the church sheds a tear. Somehow, the director manages to make it come off less interesting than it sounds when you say it.

sol +MAJOR SPOILERS+ At the start of the movie "Last Rites" Geno, Roberto Corbo, is gunned down in his hotel room by his wife Zena, Anne Twomey, as his lover Angela, Daphne Zuniga, runs for her life and locks herself in the bathroom. Zena blasting the locked door with a shower of bullets feels that Angela is also dead and leaves. Later Father Michael, Tom Berenger, who's a priest at New Yorks Saint Patrick's Cathedral takes a confession from non-other then Angela about feeling guilty for the death of her lover Geno. Geno is Michael's good friend as well as his brother-in-law. Arranging to meet Angela that night Michael is picked up by a cabbie Luis, Al Rodriquez, who was sent by Angela to take him to her loft. There Angela tells Michael that she had no idea that Geno was still married to Zena Michael's sister. Now she feels that she'll be killed by Zena's and Micheal's father's Don Carlo, Dean Clark, mobsters for fooling around with Geno. Michael at first feels that there's more to the story then what Angela is telling him. Why did she go to him, Zena's brother, of all people to confess about having an affair with his brother-in-law Geno without knowing who he is? At first when watching the movie "last Rites" it looks like the story of a woman who was cheated on by her husband who then took things into her own hands. But as the movie moves along you begin to realize that the story is more, far more, then what you at first thought it was. Michael is smitten by Angel's beauty as well as her vulnerability hides her in his residents at the cathedral with the help of fellow priest Father Freddy, Paul Dooley. As Michael's father Don Carlo, New York's Boss of Bosses in the Mafia, has his hoods out on the street looking for her.It's obvious that Angela did a lot more damage to Zena and her father that what it seems on the surface in her having an affair with Zena's husband Geno. Some of the truth comes out later when Michael has a talk with his friend and undercover policemen Nuzo, Chick Vennera. But before Nuzo can do anything to make Michael see what he's involved in he and his partner are gunned down in an undercover drug bust that tragically backfired.It turns out that Geno was talking to the Feds and gave them enough rope to hang Michael's father Don Carlo. Geno was also making a deal with the Mannonie family who were trying to unseat or whack Don Carlo and take over his crime empire. The Mannonie's gave Geno five million dollars with which he and Angela would take off with and never be heard from again. Also it was Angela who put Geno up to selling out Don Carlo who she later planned to have murdered when they were out of the country and then keep all the money for herself. Crossing the border into Mexico Michael and Angela spend the night at a hacienda but when Michael wakes up the next morning Angela is gone. Going into town looking for Angela Michael sees Luis the cab driver who took him to Angela's loft in New York. Going to the house where he saw Luis coming out of Michael finds that Luis and Angela are married and that they played him for a sucker! The plan was to get Angela out of the country and away from the vengeful Don Carlo and his mob. Both Louis & Angela are now going to have Michael murdered. Then with Michael out of the way they'll together live off the money that the Mannonie family paid Geno to sell out Michael's father. Very confusing movie due to the bad editing and atrocious acting on the part of the beautiful but irritating Daphne Zuniga. But if you overlook the bad editing and acting and follow the story it's not as bad as most people say it is. This doesn't mean that "Last Rites" is by any stretch of the imagination a good movie. Tom Berenger really rises above the material that he's given in the movie with a very sensitive and troubling portrayal of Father Michael. A man born into the mob who wants to make penance for his father's sins. Also Tom Berenger shows a very commanding use of the Italian language in the scenes where he speaks it. But It's the movies bad editing and directing that does it in by muddling the story instead of crystallizing it. Among the many plot-holes, and there are legions of them, in the movie is the scene in Mexico after Michael finds out about Angela cheating on him as well as setting him up for an assassins bullet. You see Michael, after praying in the local church, taking off what looks like, I may be wrong, a wedding ring from his finger and sadly dropping it on the ground. Even though you never saw Michael and Angela get married in the movie for him to have that wedding ring in the first place.