Review LI - The Last Stand

Review LI
The Last Stand (2013)

I just realised I haven't watched a Korean film since the end of September. Still, I haven't forgotten the familiar faces that Korean cinema has brought to me. When I saw that The Last Stand was being directed by Kim Ji-woon, I was ecstatic and made it a must-see for 2013. Well, it came out yesterday, so today was as good a day as any to see Arnold Schwarzenegger in his first leading role since 2003. The film also stars Forest Whitaker, Luis Guzmán, Jaimie Alexander, Rodrigo Santoro, Johnny Knoxville, and Eduardo Noriega.

Ray Owens (Arnold Schwarzenegger) worked in Los Angeles, California (as GOVERNATOR) at one time as a big-time police officer, but has since displayed to Sommerton, Arizona to escape the brutality that he once saw. The police department here consists of only three other people - Sarah Torrance (Jaimie Alexander), Mike Figuerola (Luis Guzmán), and Jerry Bailey (Zach Gilford) - and they're not really the most compotent bunch. Sarah stays back at the police station to watch over her ex-boyfriend, Frank Martinez (Rodrigo Santoro), who is supposed to be kept beyond bars for the weekend for driving under the influence of alcohol. The rest of the game travels to Lewis Dinkum's (Johnny Knoxville) museum in order to take shots at slabs of beef. Everything seems to be under control until Gabriel Cortez (Eduardo Noriega), an infamous drug lord, escapes from custody at the hands of Agent John Bannister (Forest Whitaker) and his federal agents while being convoyed. Now he's heading to the Mexican border via Sommerton, but he's in for a bigger fight than he thought.

The film appeals to the action-lover, that's for sure. It has an epically fast car (I don't know cars, so there's probably a better one, but I'm limited here. The car is a Chevrolet Corvette C6 ZR1) with intense car chases, it has gun fights with tons of blood and explosions (okay, at least one), and Arnold Schwarzenegger! The plot itself isn't anything spectacular, you know, typical action plot that leads to the most action and craziness as possible. It was crazy, but it was entertaining, and since that is what the film was aiming for, it succeeded. Slight spoiler... I did, though, wonder throughout the whole film how Gabriel Cortez's group made a bridge themselves leading into Mexico. Sure, it's a narrow canyon, but it's not a metre long either. I don't understand how not one single person saw them working on this bridge because it must have taken a while. The materials they had to order to, and making sure they had a great engineer so the bridge wouldn't collapse. Also, now that the bridge is there, will they have to set up another border crossing area? Or will they just demolish the bridge? I'm mostly doing this is a joke now, but this demonstrates that it is a typical action film because it has these pretty far-fetched schemes. I'm willing to suspend my disbelief for the film, though. It did what I expected - entertainment. However, I thought that, initially, there was a lot of swearing for no reason coming from Agent John Bannister. I don't know, it wasn't in particularly consist throughout the film, and it seemed useless at the beginning. There were also some pretty bad lines. Well, alright, maybe only one, and it was the "that ass" line coming from one of Gabriel Cortez's goons, Burrell, played by Peter Stormare (he's in the Big Lebowski! Whaaat!). It just seemed so out of place and ugly. Ugh, I still shudder at it.

I don't really have anything else to say about the film, so I might as well give my rating. I'd give it a seven point five on ten. It was entertaining, nothing more, nothing less, and if you're looking for an easy movie to watch, I recommend this one. Thank you, Kim Ji-woon, for making an English-speaking film - I can finally support you by seeing your film in theatres.