The Last Stand
THE LAST STAND (15)
D: Kim Jee-woon
Lions Gate (Lorenzo di Bonaventura)
US 2013
107 mins
Action
W: Andrew Knauer
DP: Kim Ji-Yong
Ed: Steven Kemper
Mus: Mowg
Arnold Schwarzenegger (Sheriff Ray Owens), Forest Whitaker
(Agent John Bannister), Johnny Knoxville (Lewis Dinkum), Jaimie Alexander (Deputy Sarah Torrance), Luis Guzman (Deputy Mike Figuerola), Eduardo Noriega (Gabriel Cortez)
This movie should either have been made 20 years ago or had a
different star in the lead.
That being said, it wasn't an awful film, it was only
Schwarzenegger who was woefully miscast- he's simply too old for these shenanigans.
He plays the sheriff of a small town on the Arizona-Texas
border who just so happened to be a former LAPD narcotics detective (with an Austrian accent). When a drug lord escapes FBI custody, Arnie and his rookie deputies have to prevent the criminal
from crossing the border into Mexican territory.
It's all pretty cliched and formulaic, but there's some decent
action set pieces and Forest Whitaker gives it a bit of class as the FBI director of operations.
It's just sad to see Arnie panting and wheezing through fight
scenes when this part was pretty much tailor made for Clint Eastwood. Johnny Knoxville from Jackass also provides some comic relief as a gun nut.
Overall, it has some style and is a very well directed action
film, but the whole is less than the sum of all its parts.
Go back to politics Arnie! Don't let your career end on a
whimper.
5/10
