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Opening in theaters nationwide on January 18, 2013 - this R-rated action film from Korean
director Kim Ji-woon is notable for starring California's former Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger
in his first leading role in a decade. For fans of Arnold, this 107-minute is everything
the fun ***-kicking trailer promised, one I happened to review a few months back on
the "Movie Night Archive" channel. Having seen 20 of his over-the-top action pictures,
hammy acting, distracting accent, and tongue-in-cheek one-liners, I've loved his movies since I
was a kid. Films like "The 6th Day", "True Lies", and "Terminator 2" are all-time favorites
for me. So of course, while this movie is nowhere near high-art, it is undeniably fun
and exciting to watch for all fans of classic 90's action. In his first American picture,
Ji-Woon does a good job of mixing the gory violence with quirky characters, and funny
jokes: all captured with a below-average score, and fairly traditional cinematography. Following
a tough life as an LAPD narcotics offers, Schwarzenegger semi-retires to a small border
town in Arizona to live out a quiet life as the local sheriff... but when a Mexican drug
lord's escape route takes his supped up Corvette ZR1 through this sleepy neighborhood, sheriff
Arnold's team of rag-tag locals are the only thing that can stop him. At 65, Schwarzenegger
looks decidedly older than we've ever seen him... but there's no denying he still has
that A-list charisma that makes him a quintessentially awesome action hero, especially when he's
dropping F-bombs, and blowing off people's heads with a shotgun. The supporting cats
includes Forest Whitaker is a rather wasted role as a grumpy FBI agent, Johnny Knoxville
as a bumbling gun-nut who just wants to help his town, Luis Guzman, Zach Gilford, and Jaimie
Alexlander as hapless and redundant deputies, while Peter Stormare and Eduardo Noriega play
cocky bad-guys who completely underestimate all of the aforementioned. This well-paced
adventure is certainly familiar, but it is well-produced escapism with some truly fun
moments... when Schwarzenegger and Knoxville pop out of the back of a sliding school bus,
opening fire on a half-a-dozen bad guys with a mammoth chain gun, it's hard not to enjoy
yourself. Another ridiculous moment has Arnold hip-checking a guy off a rooftop, while simultaneously
shooting him in the head, during a mid-fall grapple. And a late cat-and-mouse car chase
through a dense cornfield is intense and humorous. The simplistic plot demands little of its
audience, and when one of the underdeveloped characters dies early, no real compassion
is felt for his departure. Never lingering long enough for its obvious flaws to be exposed,
this fast-moving picture is heavy on light-hearted thrills, amusing quips, and some great shoot-out
action scenes. An enjoyable return for Schwarzenegger, but unoriginal, and unimpressive does just
enough to make it the experience worthwhile for fans. "The Last Stand", "Amusingly gratuitous
violence. Arnold's back." Let's take a look now at some of your reviews from the YouTube
comments.
Here's how we rated "The Last Stand"... a SEVEN and a SIX. Only a few of you got a chance
to see this movie since it just came out, but you really loved this film for what it
was: a great experience for all Schwarzenegger fans, you thought it was COOL. This is a short,
dumb, simple and flawed piece of cinema... but it's undeniably fun and entertaining as
well. It was awesome to see the Governator back on the big-screen again, for the third
time tonight, I giving rating this a GOOD.