Product Description
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After leaving his LAPD post following a bungled operation,
Sheriff Owens (Arnold Schwarzenegger) has resigned himself to a
life of fighting what little crime takes place in y border
town Sommerton Junction. After a spectacular escape from an FBI
prisoner convoy, the most notorious drug kingpin in the
hemisphere is hurtling toward the border at 200 mph in a
specially outfitted car along with a hostage and a fierce army of
gang members. He is headed, it turns out, straight for Sommerton
Junction, where the whole of U.S. law will have their
last rtunity to make a stand and intercept him before he
slips across the border forever. At first reluctant to become
involved, and then counted out because of the perceived
ineptitude of his small town force, Owens ultimately accepts
responsibility for one of the most daring face-offs in cinema
history.
.com
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Any movie that heralds the return of Arnold Schwarzenegger to
movie star action hero-dom after his foray into politics was
going to bear the dubious honor of being auspicious. For better
or worse, The Last Stand takes that honor right down the middle
of the road, being neither overly ambitious nor groaningly silly
in letting this 66-year-old man mug, grunt, punch, and shoot his
way back into our hearts and minds as the Ah-nold screen
character for which we had such affection. Schwarzenegger plays
Ray Owens, the sheriff of a tiny Arizona border burg who likes
the peace and calm of his job and his townsfolk friends. When the
FBI informs him that an escaped Mexican drug kingpin is barreling
straight toward all that calm in a supercharged custom car, he
sighs and saddles up, locking and loading with his wacky friends
and deputies by his side for the inevitable stand. In fact, one
might well call it a last stand. There are very few surprises in
how it's all going to play out, right down to the -crunching
mano a mano fistfight between Ray and the kingpin (Eduardo
Noriega) on a makeshift bridge over the border. Ray has a history
as a savvy big city cop, and he smells and foresees all the
trouble coming his way, even though no one expects him to do much
in the way of making any kind of last stand. That includes Forest
Whitaker as the flummoxed FBI agent whose screwup sets the stage
for the bloody showdown. Others who are surprised at Ray's
chutzpah and ingenuity are Peter Stormare (sporting cowboy boots
and a weirdly drawling accent) as the kingpin's sadistic
lieutenant, and Luis Guzmán as Ray's bumbling sidekick, who
unexpectedly pulls out all his stops at just the right moment.
Also on hand is Johnny Knoxville as another town weirdo who
happens to own an arsenal of antiquated weaponry that's drafted
into action for the fiery climax. Like most of the
cast--Schwarzenegger included--these guys are pretty much playing
it for laughs even though the body count is exceedingly high
among the gangs of henchmen and lawmen alike. The violence is
also exceptionally gruesome, whether caused by vehicles,
firearms, knives, explosions, or fisticuffs, with loving,
lingering s of spouting blood and severed body parts that
were clearly designed to prompt cheerfully vocal responses from
the audience. This is the first American film directed by Kim
Jee-woon, one of the top names from a booming contemporary South
Korean cinema machine, and he has brought an outsider's
sensibility and stylistic flourish along with the gory details.
People who care about such things might have hoped for a little
more auspiciousness from him than Ah-nold's comeback (if it turns
out to be that). Otherwise The Last Stand is pretty much exactly
what most people would expect from such a thing, and there's
certainly nothing wrong with that. --Ted Fry