The Last Stand

The Last Stand

Rated R and Released 1/8/13

Reviewed 1/22/13 at Celebration Cinema North 

with Gary

2 out of 5 Js in QUIET Rating System

Thank goodness this was better than Arnold Schwarzenegger's last movie The Expendables, since out of his governorship. I was a big fan of The Terminator movies but it wasn't necessarily due to his acting. Those were just pretty good flicks. Relieve yourself of any notion of quality dialogue and this movie is a typical shoot 'em up good guys/bad guys flick. It's charming enough. There are some pretty clever moments, some not all meant to be so funny moments and some just ridiculous ones that made us laugh. Gary and I looked around the theater and there were only 15 other moviegoers - all guys.

Arnold plays Sheriff Ray Owen in charge of a small sleepy Southwest town bordering Mexico. He has three blundering deputies (Luis Guzman, Jamie Alexander, Zach Gilford) and he's the brains behind the operation. A drug lord (Eduardo Noriega) breaks the clutches of the FBI, led by Forrest Whitaker, and he is now racing down to Mexico in the new Corvette ZRI. Faster than a helicopter, Noriega is planning to rendezvous with his endless, and I mean endless, army of mercenaries that are blending into the landscape in the quiet border community. The Sheriff and his team encounter this army and they need to hatch a plan to stop them from passing through Mexico. It seems the FBI can't handle the job even though they confidently tell the Sheriff to step aside which, of course, falls on deaf ears. The Sherif's group now includes a few extras including the pretty funny Johnny Knoxville as a kind of nutty local arms dealer Randy Quaid-type (Independence Day). He supplies the arsenal to fortify the inevitable showdown. To give it credit The Last Stand is a lot of fun for what it's worth. Arnold is not going to give up the action flicks and maybe it's time. But take time to see this and you can plan on a race to the end...or the door.

QUIET Rating system:

Quality: Jj

Understood story:  JJ

Interest: JJJ

Entertainment:  JJj

Time:  JJJ