Stars Arnold Schwarzenegger, Johnny Knoxville, Jaimie Alexander, Genesis Rodriguez, Rodrigo Santoro withLuis Guzmán, Forest Whitaker, Eduardo Noriega, Peter Stormare and Harry Dean Stanton Directed by Jee Woon Kim So Arnold returns (like he said he would) as a leading man in the kind of movie he was known for - sort of. Big tough guy standing up for what right, just and fair. Except that it's been years (nine or so) since his last leading role in Terminator 3: Rise of The Machines, and even then, there were signs of age catching up to the big man. So here, in The Last Stand, he makes the acknowledgement that the years have piled up. He's the grizzled wizened one, dispensing advice and preferring to take things easy instead of looking for trouble. Instead, trouble heads his way in the form of an escaping drug lord heading for his little way out of the way town that just happens to be near the Mexican border. Add to that the mercies who are hanging about nearby, preparing for the drug lords arrival and we have your typical showdown set-up. Schwarzenegger's Sheriff Ray Owens of course has some help on his side with his deputies, made up of Zach Gilford's idealistic youngster who longs for action, Jaimie Alexander's slightly more level-headed eye-candy, Luis Guzmán being as irresistibly cool as he's always been with these sidekick characters and throw in a couple of wild cards in Johnny Knoxville and Rodrigo Santoro, and you have a fairly wild bunch of characters making up the posse. Korean director, Kim Jee-Woon, manages to keep things bristling along, handling the varied and mostly colourful characters (the excellent Peter Stormare batting away for the bad guys). The story, however, isn't anything special to shout about, feeling almost typical of an action flick from the 80s. Therein lies some of the charm tho, keeping most of the stunts and effects mostly CGI free. Schwarzenegger delivers as he's expected to, marking the start of a new phase for his cinematic career, at the very least, showing off what his fans might expect in the movies to come. Will his typical fan base be disappointed with this? It's hard to say for sure. It would have to depend on what the expectations are, but I think they would mostly be satisfied. It's a tentative step forward (why else release it in the cinematic dead zone of January?) and it's sure-footed enough to entertain.
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