The Last Stand
starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Forest Whitaker, Johnny Knoxville, Rodrigo Santoro,
Jaimie Alexander, Luis Guzmán, Eduardo Noriega, Peter Stormare, Zach Gifford, Genesis Rodriguez and Harry Dean Stanton
written by Andrew Knauer
directed by Kim Jee-woon
Rating: ♦♦◊◊◊
After serving as Governor of California Arnold Schwarzenegger made two uncredited guest appearances in the Sylvester Stallone movies The Expendables and The Expendables 2. Schwarzenegger wasn’t trying to play a young tough guy but more a man of his age and the audience reaction was favorable enough for him to venture back into a starring role. So, The Last Stand is his first starring role in a feature length movie since leaving public office. There’s a lot of senseless shooting and blowing things up and the story is kind of lame. It reminded me of other senseless shooting-and-blowing-things-up movies like Shoot Em Up (2007 action movie starring Clive Owen and Paul Giamatti, directed by Michael Davis), or a Robert Rodriguez movie like Machete (2010) or From Dusk to Dawn (1996). But it was a nice diversion for a Sunday afternoon at home.
Schwarzenegger plays Ray Owens, sheriff of a small border town in Arizona. After a career as a police officer in the big world of Los Angeles crime Ray sought a new career in a quitter place. But on this day a fugitive Mexican drug lord is passing through town bringing death and destruction. Ray and his band of deputies bring him down, succeeding where the FBI failed. (Forest Whitaker is the incompetent FBI leader who can’t succeed at anything with his FBI budget and technical toys. I try to avoid Forest Whitaker films because he is so bad that he spoils most of what he touches. His character in this film is quite fitting for his talents.) It also reminded me of the Charlie Sheen movie The Chase (1994) because so much time is spent following the bad guy fleeing in a high-tech sports car.
Harry Dean Stanton makes an uncredited appearance as a local dairy farmer murdered by drug cartel mercenaries. I thought, “Hey!! That’s Harry Dean Stanton! Man is he old.” He is old, too, about 87 at present.
My favorite lines from the movie:
Do you have stupid names for all your shit?
Only the shirt I love.