The Last Stand (2013)

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nTitle: The Last Stand (2012)

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nDirector: Jee-Woon Kim

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nCast: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Forest Whitaker, JohnnynKnoxville, Peter Stormare, Luis Guzman, Jamie Alexander

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nReview:

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nRead an article the other day on Deadline that said that Arnold Schwarzenegger’s come back vehicle The Last Stand was deadnupon arrival, that it’s officially a huge flop and that “nobody wants to seenArnold anymore”. Speak for yourself is all I say, I want to see Arnold again alright,nand I want to see him kicking ass like he used to, so of course I went to seenThe Last Stand in its opening weekend. But of course, this is the day and agenwhen the success of a film is determined by it’s opening weekend grosses andnsadly, according to box office numbers, The Last Stand only made an abysmal 6.3nmillion on its opening weekend…which of course immediately marks this one as anturkey in the eyes of its producers and the film industry in general; especiallynwhen its budget was 30 million. But is the slow turn out for this movienrepresentative of its quality? Is The Last Stand a shitty come back film fornArnold? Read on my friends, read on.

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nIn The Last Stand, Arnold plays an aging sheriff who wasnpart of the L.A.P.D. during his younger days,  but has moved to the quiet little town ofnSummerton to live a simpler life; to live his last days in peace. But ofncourse, there’s no rest for the wicked and so a big time Mexican drug dealernhas just escaped the grasp of the F.B.I. and is looking to make his way to thenfrontier, so he can make the quintessential getaway to Mexican territory. Innorder to do so, he’s acquired a modified Corvette ZR-1, ensuring in this waynthat his getaway is a speedy one. Too bad for him that in order to crossover tonMexico, he has to go through the town of Sommerton and Sommerton is Arnold’sntown, you do the math.

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nSo that’s your basic premise for this very basic movie. Inthink that the reason why this film isn’t making huge bank is not because “nobodynwants to see Arnold anymore” because I think in the public’s eye, and in movie fansneyes Arnold is as cool as he’s always been; people do want to see more ofnArnold. They just want to see him in a better movie thats all. A problem the film suffers from is that it’s  premise is far too simple,none look at the trailer and you know exactly how everything is going to gondown. There’s nothing remotely novel about the film, and that’s always andangerous deal. Well, the big draw is of course seeing Arnold being an actionnstar again and making fun of himself, but that’s not enough, you have to pullnpeople in with some sort of entertaining or cool concept, otherwise audiencesnwill wait for the dvd, which is what will probably happen to this here film. Itnseems to me that for Arnold’s big cinematic comeback, we needed something anlittle more bombastic then Arnold fighting off a small group of goons, in ansmall town. If you know anything about Arnold Schwarzenegger then you know thatn‘small’ just doesn’t fit into his vocabulary. Arnold has always been about biggernand badder things. This story just seemed too small, to laid back for what you’dnexpect from Arnold Schwarzenegger.

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nBut the question remains: was this a bad movie? Hell no.nTruth be told The Last Stand is actually a fun romp, an entertaining flick that’sndecidedly smaller in scope, but not any less entertaining because of it. Hey,nat least this isn’t another Collateral Damage (2002), Arnold’s lowest point innmy opinion. The Last Stand actually has a couple of good things going for it, firstnoff, there’s the joy of seeing Arnold back on the silver screen in his firstnsolo role since Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003). The only difference herenbeing that Arnold is no longer the indestructible action hero he once was. On thisnone he shows signs of vulnerability and old age, which he wisely makes fun off.nOn this one he’s the Sheriff who just wants to enjoy his day off. Of course it’sncool to see Arnold raising his gun, pointing it straight at the camera,nshooting some bad guys and saying things like “Welcome to Sommerton!”. Movienbuffs who have seen Arnold on screen since his Predator (1987) or Commando (1985)ndays are gonna get a special kick out of that, I know I did! Then we got the supportingncast which was fun to watch, Luis Guzman in my opinion was one of the funniestnand most entertaining things about the film, he really livens up the movie with his comedy. Johnny Knoxville plays the resident coo-coo, but he does itnwell. Not so sure he deserved top billing on this film though, his role isnminimal. 

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nThen we have the other star of the film, the cool as hellnCorvette ZR1 which instantly goes down on my Memorable Movie Cars list, this isnone of those cars that becomes an essential part of the film. It has itsnmoments, for example, there’s a car chase that takes place right smack in the middle of ancorn field, pretty cool sequence. We also get a cool shoot out at the end ofnthe film, if you wanna see Arnold shoot some big guns, you shouldn’t be disappointed;nand yet another cool extra is seeing Arnold go on a ‘mano a mano’ with the mainnvillain of the film. It’s interesting seeing an aging action star doing hisnbest to show us that he’s still got it even though he is well into his 60’s, like Conan the King wanting to have a good fight before going to the heavens with the gods in Valhalla. My finalnword on The Last Stand is that it should’ve been a bigger film, Arnold shouldnhave chosen something more explosive for his big come back, it’s too small innscale to call any attention upon itself. At least Arnold’s still got two morenfilms to prove his still got some box office draw. There’s The Tomb (2013) whichnhe’ll co-star with Sylvester Stallone and finally Ten (2014) which I’m lookingnforward to because it’s directed by David Ayer, the writer/director behind suchnawesome films as Training Day (2001) and Harsh Times (2005). Let’s just hope thatnthese two films make more money than The Last Stand did or there’s little chancenwe’ll see that proposed Legend of Conan film we keep hearing so much about, nownthere’s an idea for a comeback!

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nRating: 3 ½ out of 5

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