Film, Reviews
Jan 18, 2013

SCHWARZENEGGER RETURNS IN ‘THE LAST STAND’, MOVIE REVIEW

Arnold is BACK(!)…in Jee-Woon Kim’s fast paced, action packed popcorn film. I grew up watching Arnold; I own every film of his. I am what you would call a serious Schwarzenegger fan. I have waited a decade for his return to the cinema, and I wasn’t disappointed. The Last Stand isn’t perfect, but Arnold fans can rejoice, for he truly is back.

The premise (for those that haven’t watched the trailer a dozen times like me) is a mexican cartel boss (Eduardo Noriega) has escaped custody during transport and is heading to the mexican border, and he is going to get there by going through the sleepy town of Sommerton, Arizona. Arnold is the Sheriff in this sleepy little town, and he is the FBI’s last hope at stopping the ruthless gangster.

This movie is full of intense, bloody action, exciting car chases (thanks to a supped up Corvette ZR1 with over one thousand horsepower!) and funny one liner’s. The film never takes itself too serious (which is good thing) and is surprisingly funny throughout. Arnold’s acting is a little rusty, but he more than made up for it in the action scenes. And the (many) action sequences were exciting and bloody- the theater kept cheering out loud. The pacing was perfect; the film flew by.

The cast was great: Luis Guzman is hilarious as Arnold’s Deputy, Forest Whitaker as the lead FBI agent, Peter Stormare as the maniacal “right hand man” villain, Johnny Knoxville as the town clown, Harry Dean Stanton as the crotchety old farmer, the list goes on. The film was everything I wanted from an Arnold movie- it’s fun(!), full of fast paced action and lots of (funny) one liner’s. The non-Arnold fan probably won’t get much from this, but this movie was made for Arnold fans, and it delivers.

In theaters January 17th, watch the trailer here.