Tuesday, January 29, 2013

The Last Stand (2013)

If you've followed this blog for any serious length of time, then you'll know how much I love horror movies and superheroes. Don't believe me? Have a look through my archives and find out for yourself. But what isn't as obvious is my affection for action movies. And when I was a kid, there was no greater action hero than Arnold Schwarzenegger. He was the absolute king of the badasses, his movies during the '80s and early-'90s still standing out as some of the action genre's true classics.

But Hollywood has a thing about changing over the years. The heyday of guys like Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone eventually came to an end during the '90s after a string of mediocre and just plain bad movies, and Schwarzenegger began his well-known stint as the Governor of California in 2003. But I guess the successful release of The Expendables and Stallone's revivals of both Rambo and Rocky started people on a nostalgia kick, because Schwarzenegger's jumped back into the action movie game with The Last Stand, his first starring role in a decade. The movie sadly tanked at the box office, which is a real shame because it's a really entertaining flick despite a couple of flaws.

Feared drug lord Gabriel Cortez (Eduardo Noriega) is sprung from police custody during a prison transfer, and makes a quick rush for the Mexican border in a modified Chevrolet Corvette ZR1. As FBI agent John Bannister (Forest Whitaker) scrambles to find a way to stop him, Cortez consistently manages to avoid every roadblock and SWAT team in his way. But his path to Mexico will take him through the tiny border town of Sommerton Junction, Arizona, which you wouldn't think would stand a chance. However, Sommerton Junction's dedicated lawman, Sheriff Ray Owens (Arnold Schwarzenegger), and his deputies will not let Cortez escape without putting up a fight.

You won't believe how excited I was to see The Last Stand. I grew up loving Arnold Schwarzenegger's action movies, so seeing him starring in his first lead role in a decade got me so jazzed I couldn't stand it. But perhaps I got a little too excited, because The Last Stand is merely okay at best. There are far worse Schwarzenegger movies out there, but I can't really say that I thought it was on the same level as the ones that made him a star either. It's perfectly acceptable entertainment that is fun yet superficial.

The movie is the American directorial debut of South Korean filmmaker Kim Ji-woon, and he does a decent enough job here. A lot of the action is exciting, and Kim films everything in a way that makes the viewer feel like they're along for the ride. It's not a flawless effort, though, as there are a few moments where Kim resorts to that damnable fast-edited shaky-cam style that permeates so many modern action movies nowadays. I'm just so tired of seeing filmmakers craft scenes where they fall back on that as if it would make their movies more intense. It just doesn't work for me, because I actually like being able to see what's happening.

Kim isn't exactly working from a great script, either. The movie was written by Andrew Knauer, whose script is thoroughly disappointing. The characters are one-dimensional shells, which causes attempts at drama to fall flat because we have a hard time caring about the characters. They're only there because it would just look weird staging action scenes with no people. The dialogue is forgettable, and the villain... holy crap. I can say without a doubt that the worst part of The Last Stand is its villain. He never once feels like a threat or a criminal mastermind or anything like that. All the best action movie villains have an air of menace or perceived superiority to them, but the villain in this movie completely lacks that. He's just a guy in a muscle car, that's all. Nothing more, nothing less.

But at least the cast isn't so bad. Johnny Knoxville and Luis Guzmán, are amusing, and I thought Jaimie Alexander did an admirable job as well. Forest Whitaker also contributes a passable performance, but his character occasionally feels useless despite dominating a lot of the first half of the movie. Also useless is Eduardo Noriega as our villain. He has nothing to do outside of the movie's climactic fight scene, and thus Noriega is left unable to make any impression.

Last but not least is Arnold Schwarzenegger, who I really liked a lot. Schwarzenegger is a lot of fun in his role, and his self-awareness, which demonstrates itself in a willingness to crack jokes about his age, actually made it more humorous than it could have been otherwise. He's not the young man he was at his peak, but he still has some of that action hero fire that made him famous to begin with. Schwarzenegger is the strongest part of this movie, and I think The Last Stand would have been worse off without him.

I'm still bummed that the movie was a box office failure, because I thought it was worth seeing even though it had its share of missteps. You'd think that it would have at least gotten the nostalgia crowd that was part of the reason why both Expendables movies were so successful. I mean, I'm not saying I thought The Last Stand should have been a billion-dollar blockbuster, but it could have done a lot better. I hope it will find an audience on DVD, because it would make for a fun Saturday afternoon time-killer. If it's still playing near you, go check it out. It might be flawed, but The Last Stand is well worth your time.

Final Rating: ***

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