THE LAST STAND was supposed to be Arnie's comeback, but it feels more tired than he looks. The plot sees a Cartel boss - played by a Spaniard, inevitably - escape the ham-fisted FBI and head for the border in a souped up car that nobody (yeah, nobody) can catch; so it's up to the almost retired sheriff of the sleepy Arizona town that's the last place before the border to marshal his deputies in order to stop him escaping (apparently it's impossible to drive around the town). It's a perfectly fine B-movie plot but it's let down by the childish script: a villain who spouts trite philosophy but isn't actually scary, a hot female villain who doesn't even get the opportunity to show off her hotness (let alone have a character), rural clichés that were old in the 1950s, a comic relief gun-nut who is staggeringly unfunny, deputies who each have one bland characteristic and no more, FBI agents who mistake shouting and demanding action for effective work, and a hero running away from a generic traumatic event in his past. Of course, you don't go to these films for character but even with a noted Korean director roped in the action is weak; the good guys survive the most ridiculous situations (even one who is lying next to a car which blows up), the villains come out of the woodwork whenever required and the guns'n'car action has all the look and realism of an FPS. Add in lots of unnecessary swearing, plot holes galore and CGI blood and it's just a bad film all round, which even Arnie and his accent can't save.
Review of The Last Stand
