ThedevilChoose
When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.
Catangro
After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.
Robert Joyner
The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one
st-shot
Watching The Last Mogul is like leaving an expensive restaurant by the rear entrance next to the dumpster. It exposes the odious greedy reality behind the glamour of Hollywood under the control of the most powerful figure in perhaps Hollywood history. Great producer, director, writer, actor? Nope a ten per center, talent agent Lew Wasserman. Never heard of him. For ,good reason, he was from Henry Ford school of never complain never explain, wrote nothing down and gave no interviews. But he could have easily written the most telling memoir in Hollywood history since he had nearly every major star in his stable. From Doris Day to Marlon Brando, Gregory Peck to Jimmy Stewart to Alfred Hitchcock he made them all very rich as well as pave Ronald Reagan's way to the White House.It is a fascinating but unsettling look at an unctuous business filled with bottom line types grasping for every dime they can get by hook and by the doc's innuendo crook. Wasserman began his career in Cleveland booking bands at club's including Al Capone's joints in Chicago. Going to work for talent agent and promoter Julie Stein he moved on to where the action was NYC but Swifty Lazar ran things there so he and Julie moved on to Hollywood and the rest is history. MCA was soon monopolizing the film industry, would take over Universal and go on to greater heights with an almost complete monopoly of television. Meanwhile he wasn't doing too bad in the movie business backing films like The Sting, Jaws and Airport. When close scrutiny threatened he would employ all his power from mob lawyers, union thugs and sitting Presidents (Reagan) to smooth things over.Wassermann was a man of remarkable insight and energy who truly understood power and how to use it. The film is interspersed with interviews and archival footage of many people he had love hate relationships with, still cautious in their criticism and coy about Lew so in awe of his power that you get the feeling they believe he could come back from the grave to deal with them. Many shed tears for Wasserman leaving it up to David Carr to handle his surly side and provide a counter view to the slavish worship of his lackeys. Eventually Wassermann is undone by the Japanese and the new kid on the block CCA CEO Danny Ovitz who undermines Lew with his own play book. How Shakespearean and why not, Wasserman in his own way cast a shadow every bit as large as Lear and Richard the Third.
gavin6942
A biography of powerful Hollywood agent and executive Lew Wasserman.Of all the powerful people in the history of Hollywood, Lew Wasserman is not as well known as he probably should be. He was not an actor, not a director... he was not even one of the well-known studio heads. But he had a huge influential on movies, television and just about anyone who was a star at one point or another.Some of the early history is a bit sketchy -- the parts about Jim Colosimo and Al Capone are highly suspect, and even Moe Dalitz may be less than accurate (though I am not a Dalitz scholar by any means). But once the Hollywood part starts, it stays on target the whole time.
SONNYK_USA
CINEPHILE ALERT!!! This film shows without a doubt how Hollywood was born out of mafia management strategies, and it was 'clean' guys like Lew Wasserman who were able to use their brains, guts, and influence to make the entertainment industry legit (so to speak) despite its financial underpinnings.Lew Wasserman did keep one troubling trait (for researchers) that he picked up from his mob associates, NEVER write anything down. That's right, somehow he ran an entire motion picture empire without writing so much as one memo, it was all kept in his head until the day he died in 2002. However, he also had a legendary temper that won't be soon forgotten by his associates, though it only erupted when things didn't go his way. As legit as appeared, he was still one of those guys who could end a labor problem on a movie set with one phone call (if you know what I mean).Luckily for the filmmakers, there were still quite a few people that were willing to speak about THE MAN though much of the information in the film comes second-hand because people still fear Wasserman's wrath from the grave.MUST-SEE viewing if it comes your way, and remember that Robert Evans was just a blip on the Hollywood radar compared to Lew Wasserman so if you thought "The Kid Stays in the Picture" was informative just remember that that documentary was only the tip of the Hollywood iceberg.Check this one out, you won't regret it. Educational and entertaining or as Lettermen likes to say, "it's INFO-tainment"!
charlieisalive
Had I been a personal friend of Lew, I am sure this biography would have meant a lot more. I viewed this documentary as part of a film festival, and I suppose that meant I was expecting a little bit more. But I did not get more in any sense of the word.My knowledge of the man before I saw this film was limited to his name and existence as an influential person in Hollywood, and now I still know little else. What information I did gather felt similar to an hour long Biography special on A&E. If he truly was an amazing man with enough history and intrigue to warrant a 2 hour documentary, then the director did not do justice to this character.The film consisted largely of the friends/ co-workers speaking out about Wasserman, but after one introductory title informing me who the friends were, the director assumed I would recognize the face and relationship through to the end... I think a lot of tension and importance was lost on me because I did not understand the value of the praise etc given.I believe this would have been best viewed on TV on a rainy Sunday afternoon.
