Product Description
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Action icon Arnold Schwarzenegger makes his
much-anticipated return to the big screen in Korean director Kim
Jee-woon’s hard-hitting U.S. directorial debut, The Last Stand.
After leaving his LAPD narcotics post following a bungled
operation that left him wracked with remorse and regret, Sheriff
Ray Owens (Schwarzenegger) moved out of Los Angeles and settled
into a life fighting what little crime takes place in y
border town Sommerton Junction. But that peaceful existence is
shattered when Gabriel Cortez (Eduardo Noriega), the most
notorious, wanted drug kingpin in the western hemisphere, makes a
deadly yet spectacular escape from an FBI prisoner convoy.
With the help of a fierce band of lawless mercenaries led by the
icy Burrell (Peter Stormare), Cortez begins racing towards the
US-Mexico border at 250 mph in a specially-outfitted Corvette ZR1
with a hostage in tow. Cortez’s path: straight through Summerton
Junction, where the whole of the U.S. law , including
Agent John Bannister (Forest Whitaker) will have their final
rtunity to intercept him before the violent fugitive 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 rallies his team and takes the matter into his
own hands, setting the stage for a classic showdown.
.co.uk Review
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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