MOVIE REVIEW: THE LAST STAND

A border-town sheriff pulls out the heavy artillery to prevent an escaped drug kingpin from blasting his way into Mexico in this sun-scorched action opus starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and directed by Kim Jee-Woon (I Saw the Devil, The Good, the Bad, and the Weird). Johnny Knoxville, Luis Guzman, and Rodrigo Santoro co-star. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Director: Kim Jee-Woon

Cast: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Peter Stormare, Forest Whitaker, Jaimie Alexander, Luis Guzman

Release Date: Jan 18, 2013

Rated R for strong Bloody Violence and Language

Runtime: 1 hr. 46 min.

Genres: Action/Adventure, Suspense/Thriller

Review:

The Last Stand is Arnold’s triumphant return to the big screen as a leading man. Its ludicrous plot sounds like the perfect fodder for a good old fashion Arnie blowout. My only question is why Kim Jee-Woon decided to waste so much time with pointless set up whiling trying to shoehorn in some seriousness into the plot. The first act of the film is incredibly choppy seemingly reluctant to embrace its own silliness. Once the ball actually starts rolling and the property damage increases it finally stops taking itself so serious and starts having fun. Arnold is rather flat which doesn’t come as a surprise as he works his way back into the acting game. The rest of cast give forgettable performances with Johnny Knoxville and Rodrigo Santoro battling for silliest and most of the top performance of the movie. As an action film its enjoyable fluff but the script doesn’t do it any favors serving up some incredibly hammy lines creating some groan inducing moments. Kim Jee-Woon would have been well served to reference Con Air, a movie with a similarly outlandish illogical plot, to get an idea about setting up a tone for his film. There’s plenty of fat which could have been cut to streamline the old school action which is what everybody was paying to see.

C+