‘The Last Stand’ Review: Schwarzenegger Comes Back To The Big Screen Guns-A-Blazing

No matter what the final rating of this film is, we have to give one hell of a welcome home to the action icon known as Arnold Schwarzenegger. Sure most the films he will star in – which will probably be all actioners – will have scripts that have him poke fun at his age, broken English, and spit out a few one liners, but the former governor is back in front of the right kind of camera. So like it or not, we will see a lot more of him and his hobbling and one liners for years to come. This is The Last Stand review.

Lets face it, a film like this was like a safety net for the actor’s return in a lead role. Script wasn’t entirely that bad and the role is something the actor is very familiar with. There are definitely times the audience will have fun, then there are other times where the audience will just be wondering what they just saw.

But for the most part they will have fun. A lot of that has to do with how silly the entire film is. With so many loopholes, logical strategies, and really bad decision making, it’s strange how some of these characters obtain their CIA jobs. But hey, whatever moves the story forward.

The film centers on a small town, which also happens to be the last American town Eduardo Noriega (Gabriel Cortez), a killer drug kingpin, can cross before he reached Mexico. After multiple failed attempts, it’s up to the town sheriff (Schwarzenegger), his deputies (Luis Guzman & Jamie Alexander), a drunk soldier (Rodrigo Santoro), and the town nut (Johnny Knoxville), to stop the kingpin and his heavily armed and highly experienced cronies from reaching the boarder.

So it’s a not so subtle underdog story. No problem. We’ve seen these outmatched and outgunned kind if stories before. So there is really nothing new about it. Thrown in some over the top silliness, a few one-liners about age and returning, and maybe a heavy drama scene, and have it lead by Schwarzenegger and you got The Last Stand.

Sure the story may be lacking, films like these you’ll never find a good or memorable story, but the action is where everyone should be really focusing on. There is no need to have a grasp on what exactly is going on while everyone is firing their guns, because the action sequences in the film are fast-paced, exhilarating, funny, and just great to watch. So much so, logic and the laws of physics are thrown right out the window.

Knoxville provides much of the hysterical comedy load in the film, often channeling his inner Jackass for some of the slapstick and hilarious stunts to great effect. Alexander and Santoro provide the romantic backbone of the film, not that it really matters because it wasn’t really vital to the story, but it’s a nice gesture to those who like a little romance in their action films. Guzman makes an occasional appearance every once in a while, and he too is great to watch.

Much of those intense and fun action sequences take place in the town, but when it enters the final climatic sequences towards the end, it kind of falls apart. It’s a clash of generations and it’s a rather strange lengthy one that didn’t seem like it could find a way to end. The sequence just kept going and found more ridiculous ways to extend it. Keep in mind that this all takes place on a man-made bridge that was assembled in mere days of the antagonist’s escape.

Regardless of all the sheer crazyness and CIA stupidity that is going on in the film, The Last Stand can be a lot of fun. The film isn’t asking a whole lot from the audience, it’s a Schwarzenegger film after all. But The Last Stand seems to do most of the stumbling when people speak, and they (meaning every single life form in this film) don’t sound to bright.

Sure enough, the action sequences make up for the bad script, which makes The Last Stand a fun action flick that is sure to please the masses and even make Schwarzenegger fans jump up and cheer.