The Last Stand

I’m going to write, with no structure, like a teenager now (that’s how Arnold movies make me feel – I just get so giddy). This is just going to be one long paragraph of everything I feel about the movie:

Great movie, and great comeback for Arnold. It's not over-the-top Arnold of the 90s, it's actually quite subdued for him. His lined face now has a caring subtlety to it and his acting has improved. When the rookie cop (played by Zach Gilford) dies, Arnie really turns it on in the acting dept. The film has pacing issues though, and doesn't build suspense because it keeps having intermissions (or lulls), but that's a small issue. I enjoyed it a lot, and it's just so fun to see Arnie back. He does kick some ass in this too, especially the end fight, and when he comes to the rescue of his deputies' ambush I felt like bursting out with “ARNIE, FUCK YEAH!”. The comedy in this is subtle and it works because of that. Jee-woon is telling us that it's an action movie, not a comedy. I also liked the shot selection, he kept rolling on a few shots and it was nice, no quick-fast editing in the fights either (like in most Hollywood movies), it was nice to see. The action was awesome, quite bloody when it needed to be and not at all for kids. I loved it when Arnie went onto the roof to get the shooter and he pushed him off but his weight took him over too, and just as they both go over Arnie shoots the guy in the head, awesome scene. Arnie shoots Stormare's ear off too from under the bus, awesome scene. Then he takes a drive in the cornfields, which is good but not awesome, but the final showdown fight between the sheriff and the drug lord is pretty awesome. The violence shows actual blood, which was great, I was so happy that it didn't go the Expendables 2 route with the CGI blood. There's a scene when the drug lord's fast car makes two FBI trucks flip over and crash, and that's pretty silly and unbelieveable. Luis Guzman is pretty great here, but the other deputies are not memorable. Forrest Whittaker is ok. Knoxville is not annoying. The few early scenes of Arnold are just lovely. He's settled into a nice life in Summerton where there's no action and it’s just nice to see him get a few non-action scenes in. The movie could have benefitted from a good soundtrack, but I don't remember one time when the music wasn't stock action-movie music. There were no songs chosen, and that was a trick missed in my opinion. I couldn't stop laughing at one of Arnie's lines, I guess it just caught me at the right time and he delivered it well; "have you got silly names for all of your shit?". It was so unexpected, lol. The scene with the World War II gun in the back of the school bus was so much fun too. At the end, when the bad guy is just about to get away onto the bridge, we see Arnold standing there, blue sky, sunny, like a Mexican stand-off, and that is just a beautiful shot.

Arnold's best movie since Jingle All the Way, 16 years ago. MUCH better than Collateral Damage and The 6th Day. Good start, Arn, but can you follow it up with Ten. We'll see..

B+ – Best movie of 2013 so far.

B+

This will definitely go down as one of the better films lost in the shuffle this year. Now don't let me confuse you. The plot is non existent and you end up wishing there was more to it, but what is there is a lot of fun. Arnold Schwarzenegger has said it many times, but he is now truly back. Spending his last few years loosing his the last remnants of his youth while getting smarter and wiser, he eases back in with one of his better and more realistic performances. He's still got the presence and one liners that made him famous, but now he has a certain vulnerability that I hope he explores more in the coming years. The rest of group has some moments and some subplots that are just given the ABCs of screenwriting, it's really all about the action (Which mostly takes place in a 4 hour span of a night) The action is very cool throughout and Ji-Woon's can really stretch a budget. All in All, this is more Rocky Balboa than Edge of Darkness in big screen returns to former stars. I think if they tried to build a little more around the fun action scenes, this could have been an instant classic, but I agree, probably Arnold's best action vehicle since Eraser (T3 not withstanding)

THE LAST STAND

I ended up watching this in a near empty theatre for a 7pm show. Gosh darn it. Please watch this film with an audience if you want the full effect. There are quite a few comedic moments that are nice and the action is pretty good/entertaining. I was very much entertained by this film. All the gun usage and loading and re-loading was nice to see after all this gun control hullabaloo. Anyway, Arnold was Arnold in this film and I mean good Arnold. Too bad he was governor because he probably could have churned out 5 action films during that time period. I'd like to watch this again with an audience of at least 100 peeps so I can not be one of two people enjoying the comedy or the action out loud. One other thing, I wish they had put some money into the opening credit sequence when you see the car beginning to drive through town and then it ends abruptly. I thought that could have been better for the opening credits.

Grade - A

Agreed, I'd rather they used the end credits for the opening, they were fun.

It's happening a lot recently; opening credits are not there and instead are shown at the end. I also would have preferred if the end credit sequence were at the start. It sets it up well. But this didn't affect my grade at all.

In his first star vehicle in a decade, Austrian muscleman turned film star turned California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger proves he is still a top action-movie idol. The Arnold we know and love is intact (he is an imposing physical presence almost without rival, and he can still create music with camp one-liners), but with a few new and interesting shades of fatigue and reflection. It is a welcome, welcome return. As for the film itself, it is fine, but a tad flawed. To place it within the context of its star's iconic career, it is closer in quality to Commando or End of Days than, say, The Terminator or True Lies. The plot is too crowded with generic side characters and their arcs, which reduces the enterprise's intended High Noon intensity. Kim Jee-woon stages a few spectacular action sequences (the cornfield car chase is an unusual delight), but he also lets the pace become lax and the film unfocused, two problems he avoided in the far longer I Saw the Devil. Still, though, The Last Stand is by and large ass-kicking genre entertainment and a satisfying showcase for a returning icon I suspect has a few major films left in him.

B

Other than the neat escape scene at the start, every return to Forest Whitaker is such a downer. This is a fun film, but they seriously could have generated more suspense by focusing more intently on the town. Create more of a sense of doom and isolation.

I also thought that more of a build up could have been created, and that sense of impending doom that you were talking about. But I suppose, in a way, they couldn't do that because the main gunfight happened with people that were already in the town. The only thing arriving to the town was one man in a fast car. But I would have still liked it to have been more of a build up to the showdown.

I want to see it again. If I go to HK again and it's on, I'm seeing it a second time.

Agreed, considering the only conceivable reason they were on their own being that ridiculous SWAT Swerve, I think fleshing out the town would have been more cool.

Thought the roadblock destruction and the general escape was pretty good. It needed to be longer, I wanted more of the town the fight myself.

This movie makes me think, maybe Arnold should be in a Clint Eastwood movie, where an ex-soldier reflects on the horrors he committed during combat whilst trying to teach his grandchild, a boy coming into adolescence, how to fight and stand-up for himself as a man.

He already made that in Gran Torrino

I think that was the joke Darth was making.

More or less.

The Last Stand is a rather uncomfortable mix of:

1. momentary bursts of comical hyper violence

2. a stylized twist of Twin Peak-ish melodrama

3. an all-out comedy movie with a unusually deliberate rhythm

4. some cool characters, but way too many of 'em to do 'em all justice

5. an Arnold who is distant and underwritten


This movie needed to be cut to a tight 95 minutes, focused on less characters, and letting Arnie loose to do his patented schtick with sharper dialogue. There might be a good movie buried in there somewhere, but as it is... it's kinda a mess.


2 out of 5.

It's decent genre entertainment, though I admit to being let down after reading a review proclaiming this the best Schwarzenegger film since Terminator 2. Blame the hype.

I did like that, for once, an Arnie vehicle acknowledged the foreignness of its lead. What was the last one to do that, Red Heat?

Hmm, when does he do that in The Last Stand? Can't remember....

Well he's certainly foreign in the Terminator movies. I think it's usually understood if not mentioned, though I know it's mentioned in Junior, Kindergarden Cop, Twins, Last Action Hero. It's not like he really ever played blue blooded Americans.

Lecter, he says the antagonist gives "us immigrants a bad name."

Which is funny considering his name is Ray Owens.

Canadians are immigrants too.

Arnold Schwarzenegger is from Austria. We know this. He knows we know this. We know that he knows that we know this. Everybody knows.

Ray Owens is not an Austrian, or even German, sounding name.

And Gordy Brewer, Adam Gibson, Jericho Cane, Howard Langston, Harry Tasker, Jack Slater, John Kimble, Julius Benedict, Ivan Danko, Ben Richards or John Matrix are?

No, but he doesn't SPECIFICALLY mention that he's an immigrant in those movies, and Red Heat hardly qualifies as he's playing a Russian, which while not 100% accurate to his real self, is close enough.

As I haven't seen the movie, I cannot go into specific details, but from what I've been reading, he mentions he is an immigrant but doesn't say from where. If you accept him in the other movies as an American, even if everyone knows he is from Austria, why does he have to be from Austria in this movie, if like you say the name isn't Austrian at all?