Starring Arnold Swarzenegger, Forrest Whittaker, and Johnny Knoxville

The Last Stand is basically the Old West mixed with modern day firepower and a classic action hero. Arnold Swarzenegger plays Sheriff Ray Owens, the sheriff of a small, sleepy town on the U.S./Mexico border. This town also happens to be the last stop of a Mexican drug lord on the run from the FBI. Of course the sheriff, being an honorable Old West type, says, “Not in my town!”
To preface this review, I would like that to say that I grew up watching action movies; that was father-daughter bonding time. We would sit front of the television watching Terminator, Operation Condor, or something of the like, so I have to make my dad proud when writing this.

Swarzeneggar is known for his action roles because of his large and impressive physique. However, I was surprised with a couple of sincere and well-played moments by the former “governator”. Most notably would be a moment when a minor character dies, and he offers sweet and sincere emoting. This was surprising because this film did not market any of the acting talents it possesses, just the punching and shooting. Swarzeneggar perfectly fits the title of the “The Last Action Hero” in this movie: aged, slower moving, but still strong as ever. They also did a good job of matching the fight scenes to Swarzeneggar’s place in life right now. He’s portrayed as an old, strong brawler against modern mixed martial arts experts. A good example of this is the ending fight scene, where he faces off against someone who has studied jiu jitsu, which would have never appeared in his movies until now.

Although, this film has an Old West style plot, which is clear when you see seven men walking shoulder to shoulder down Main Street with their weapons of choice. The very quickly deputized locals and common criminals also added to the Old West feel. What brought the film into the modern day were the “locomotives” and the firepower, both seemingly all-american. This theme is also continued through the film’s side characters. There’s a farmer by the name of Parsons (Harry Dean Stanton) who’s not going to let anyone use his farm for unsavory purposes, Sam (Mathew Greer) who is a former marine who’s still adapting to civilian life, Sarah Torrance (Jaimie Alexander) who is a prom queen turned deputy who’s still in love with the prom king, and Lewis Dinkum (Johnny Knoxville) who is a crazy, gun-obsessed local who is always in his pajamas.

Now here are some things that stood out in my mind, whether good or bad. There was plenty of camp in this film, full of cliche one-liners and a couple of unbelievable stunts. Johnny Knoxville as Lewis Dinkum is very entertaining; he always seems to be playing himself in movies. Jaimie Alexander as “Lady Siff” makes a very pretty deputy, but I don’t think her bulletproof vest is standard issue. Forrest Whittaker as the FBI agent is a class actor, as always. He also had a very good-looking second lieutenant, who I believe has the capacity for leading man material. Remember the name Daniel Henney.

There are some other minor details that really didn’t fit the overall picture such as: gratuitously explosive gunshot wounds, an oddly placed cornfield, and some slightly unrealistic car chases. Bottom line, if you are a Swarzeneggar fan, aka you’ve seen the Running man, Last Action Hero, Jingle All The Way, Conan, and the like, YOU will like to see an “Old Man Arnold” doing what he does. If you’re not a Swarzeneggar fan, educate yourself first with his movies, and if you have a free weekend with nothing to do, go see it.

GRADE: C+

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