Last Flag Flying Review

I never really thought I’d want a sequel to the Hal Ashby directed film The Last Detail, a film where Jack Nicholson, Otis Young and Randy Quaid live life up for a couple of days while delivering a young offender to the brig. We join this trio of familiar characters but new faces for one last trip when Doc (Steve Carell) heads off to find Sal (Bryan Cranston) and Mueller (Laurence Fishburne) so he can bury his son who has been killed in Baghdad.

Joining this trio of characters once more presents us with a different dynamic to the original film. Yes, you’ll still be in for a ride with the cynical Sal and the calming measures of Mueller, but it feels much more condensed and compact. I feel rather harsh comparing this to the original, which is by all means an absolute classic, but Last Flag Flying feels like a slight step down. It has the emotional angle and prosperity, moreso than The Last Detail does. But what Last Flag Flying has in emotional impact and narrative prowess, it doesn’t quite have that in-depth relationship between the trio, not as much as the Nicholson, Young and Quaid group had. Whereas the original had a plucky charm between the three and a desire to show a young rebel a few days of freedom, the sequel offers up mediations that never quite feel that fleshed out.

For most of the movie, Sal and Mueller act as an angel and a devil, resting on the shoulders of Doc.. It boils down into far too simple a narrative, with Sal often progressing the story, and Mueller providing us in the audience something to contemplate. But there’s no real point in contemplating it if the narrative doesn’t require it, and for the most part we just stick around with the group as they catch up with one another and express their differing ideals once more.

Cranston, Fishburne and Carell have some great chemistry on the whole though, their performances are strong and really carry the majority of the film. Clocking in at over half an hour longer than The Last Detail, it’s impressive to see that Last Flag Flying doesn’t run out of steam. The likeability of the casting and camerawork from director Richard Linklater makes for a supremely enjoyable film. Cranston’s free flowing nature and angsty jokes, Fishburne’s grounded and biblical approach to grief and Carell’s emotive performance craft a trio that work well on the whole. It’s nothing incredible, but a far stretch better than a majority of streaming platform originals go. A nice catch up with some enjoyable characters, performed ably by actors who can provide so much more.