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 First, he beat the living shit out of people in the boxing ring, holding the middleweight title for seven straight years (1970-1977). Then, he beat the shit out of people in movies. Later, he beat the shit out of his wife, killing her. Finally, a ditch beat the shit out his car, two passengers, and himself, killing all of them. Calling Carlos Monzon's life “violent” is a bit like calling a sphere “round.” It’s pretty damned obvious. The Last Round is one of those movies where he beat the shit out of a lot of people. I was going to entertain you all with a statistical figure, but I lost count about 40 minutes in.
Random acts of violence are always nice, but is the film any good? Yes and no. The Last Round is about Marco (Carlos Monzon), a stranger who rolls into town. His background is a complete mystery, and “looking for work” gets him noticed by the local mob.
This story might sound familiar because you have seen it before – several times. Probably the most obvious would be Clint Eastwood’s role in the Leone’s Man With No Name trilogy, specifically A Fistful of Dollars inspired by Akira Kurosawa’s Yojimbo. It also isn’t the last we will see of the character type. After all, the theme is too good a starting point for revenge stories for it to be retired completely. Hell, someone is probably coming up with another one as I write this.
There is an awesome set-up in the film. Marco plays both sides against the middle, working for rival gangs in effort to get them to attack each other. But other films have used this device as well, and to better effect. In fact, the films mentioned in the  previous paragraph fit the bill here, too. Ultimately, this is where the film fails. It isn’t bad, just wholly unoriginal. It undermines the talent involved.
The film’s villain is played by the awesome Luc Merenda (A Man Called Magnum) who is a delightful asshole here as Rico Manzetti, a crime boss that Marco eventually has to kill in order to avenge the unjust murders of his family. An effective villain he makes, too. He plays the character with the same swagger he put forth in every role, but this one affords him a chance to display some true evilness. Take for example one scene where we see an old man making a chalk drawing in the street. Rico walks up to him, takes the chalk from his hand and actually adds some nice touches to the illustration. But there is still this unsettling feeling that he could viciously kill the man without a moment’s hesitation.
 So with our two leads – Carlos, an Argentinean and Luc, who is French – and taking into account that the film is at least in part inspired by a Japanese film, it could be argued that this is the least Italian film to come out of Italy. If it wasn’t for director Stelvio Massi, who did some killer slow motion fight/death scenes (see also, Thriller for similar use of technique), the marquee would have no real Italian names on it. It is set in Italy, of course, but the cinematography doesn’t take much use of scenery. Like the story, it could easily be anywhere else, which is a bit of a let down.
Bottom line: The Last Round simply isn’t something you will be coming back to very often.
The Presentation
NoShame admits right at the start that some of the material couldn’t be restored to its full potential, so it should be no surprise that you will notice imperfections throughout the film. Thankfully that isn’t too often, but I was plagued with other problems as well.  At around the 48-minute mark, I had difficulties playing the disc on one player, but not on any of my others. Again, while watching the Enter the Merenda feature, there were several points where the subtitles simply stop for about a minute and a half. The audio isn’t stellar but it is distinguishable. The English dub is completely laughable (which most are, so no fault there) but as a standard for NoShame, at least we get the film presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.85:1, which 98 percent of the time looks very good.
The Extras
Enter the Merenda – On Site Visit of Luc Merenda’s Antique Shop in Paris – (35:25) NoShame discs usually have one meaty feature and this is easily the most fascinating of all of them. Actor Luc Merenda has been retired from acting for some years now and has made quite a name for himself in antique dealing, operating a shop in France. This interview is quite revealing. It is apparent that Luc is not only very knowledgeable in his new field of work, but he shares fond memories of his time in film, though has no regrets of leaving it. He speaks with great enthusiasm about the furniture in his store, and responds less favorably to the interviewer’s constant questions about what it would take to get back into acting. In fact, Luc seems to get upset with this towards the end of the interview. Regardless, you get a great insight into Luc – the man, in this revealing interview.
Poster and Still Gallery – (0:49) A series of 10 stills and posters pass by with the soundtrack playing in the background.
Original Italian Theatrical Trailer – (3:32) - Original English Theatrical Trailer – (3:32) These are essentially the same trailer, and to be honest they aren’t very engaging. If you watch both together, though, you get a great lesson in how dubbing absolutely destroys mood and wit.
As always, NoShame’s booklet is a wealth of information. This time it provides us with liner notes by Jeff Stafford, the writer at the Turner Classic Movies website. Additionally, we get bios for Luc Merenda, Carlos Monzon and Stelvio Massi. The Carlos bio is an especially good read.
 Compact Disc – The Ultimate Eclectic Cinedelic Experience: Funky Cops & Hard-Boiled Girls. - This soundtrack of Italian film scores, redone by a group called Entropia, really rocks. To be exact, this has been my driving CD of choice now for two months. It is by far iPod worthy. I found it odd that this would be included with The Last Round though, since none of the tracks are actually from the feature. A few of them are from previous NoShame releases; Secrets Of A Call Girl and Almost Human. Nevertheless, despite not having seen most of the films these eight tracks are inspired by, the CD is still awesome and worth getting the DVD for alone.
Fine
I hate sounding particularly harsh on this film, but it gives me no reason to be particularly nice either. It was worth watching, but only because of the awesome Luc Merenda. The story was similar to 1,000 others and nothing seems to really attempt to break that all-too-common mold. Carlos' acting wasn't particularly engaging either, so it fell somewhat flat. On the other hand, I really enjoyed the set of extras that NoShame has provided, although I would have liked to see a documentary on Carlos since his story is quite interesting. All things considered, watching The Last Round wouldn't be a waste of time, but there are better ways you can spend it.
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