By Geno McGahee
It has been 10 years since Arnold Schwarzenegger carried a movie. In 2003, he starred in the terrible TERMINATOR 3: RISE OF THE MACHINES, and then made his way into politics and left movies behind. He would resurface in small roles in the two EXPENDABLES movies, but in 2013, he has taken the lead again in the action film “THE LAST STAND.”
I am a huge Schwarzenegger fan and I was very excited to see this return, but after watching it, it was definitely not worth the wait. Arnold plays Ray Owens, the sheriff of the town of Sommerton. The town is quiet and nothing happens, but that is about to change. A kingpin in a Mexican drug cartel has escaped and is driving a super car. He has a large amount of goons that are there to help him make his way back to Mexico and all of the action will be passing through the small town of Sommerton. When the group kills Owens’s deputy, the decision is made that the townspeople will hold their ground and stop this evil guy.
Arnold teams up with Lewis Dinkum (Johnny Knoxville), a gun expert with several powerful and illegal weapons, and deputies Figuerola (Luis Guzman) and Sarah (Jaimie Alexander). They will have the element of surprise on their side as they await the arrival.
We also have Agent John Bannister (Forest Whitaker) on the hunt for the drug lord, but this part of the story really slows it down. This movie sort of feels like there are several different films combined together into one big mess. Schwarzenegger still has it and delivers whenever he is on the screen and Johnny Knoxville is funny, but neither is on the screen nearly enough. Half of this movie is the chase and investigation by Bannister and as good as Whitaker is, the screenplay and story are too generic and poor to keep the interest of the viewer. Thankfully, the last thirty minutes becomes what we had hoped the movie would be.
The action-packed showdown ending with Arnold taking down the bad guy was old school Schwarzenegger. There was a mixture of humor and action and there were plenty of dead bodies being thrown around, but this is a 2 hour movie and you have to sit through 90 minutes to get to something exciting.
THE LAST STAND is a big disappointment. Arnold Schwarzenegger still has it but it was just a bad script and too generic a storyline. Arnold has made a career of picking good scripts…he is obviously rusty. I hope Arnold will continue making movies because it was good seeing him back, but the movie just wasn’t very good.
Rating: 4/10
I just watched this on DVD, too, and was disappointed. Only a couple of directors have been able to demonstrate Arnold’s acting ability, and Arnold does have talent as an actor if the right director brings it out. The director of The Last Stand isn’t one of them. Throughout the whole movie, I felt Arnold was just saying his lines and not believing them. I also didn’t buy Forest Whittaker as the FBI agent. He’s a very good actor, but wasn’t believable as the agent. The FBI would have had their act together with this situation. I felt Luis Guzman and Johnny Knoxville were also miscast. The villian was good, as were some of his henchmen. About the only thing I liked was seeing the Smith & Wesson .50 caliber magnum revolver in action. That handgun is heavy as hell, especially when loaded. In truth, nothing in the movie rang true to me. It’s a fun film to watch, but you probably won’t want to see it a second time. Last, Arnold looked old…really old, and he wasn’t in the best of shape. He’s about 65 now, maybe even older. He doesn’t have too many more movies left in him. I don’t think he can honestly say, “I’ll be back,” with utter confidence anymore.
Yeah, I think that Arnold can still do it, but he needs to be more selective. This was just the wrong film…I am glad that I didn’t pay to see it at the movies or bought it. I usually buy Arnold movies without seeing them because they are always good…this was an exception for sure.
You are a hater of Arnold and he is LEGENDARY. What he may not pack in this movie, he packs in his pants. Take it from “The Real Queen of England”. Ha Ha Ha