The Last Stand

THE LAST STAND

Director : Kim Ji-Woon

Year : 2013

Genre : Action

Rating : ***

There has been a trend in recent cinema of legendary action stars from the 1970's and 1980's reliving their golden years by starring in overly silly, overblown and testosterone filled movies. Recently, we have had Bruce Willis in 'The Cold Light Of Day' and 'A Good Day To Die Hard',  Sylvester Stallone, Jean Claude Van Damme and Chuck Norris in 'The Expendables' series and now we have 'The Last Stand' featuring the human tank that is Arnold Schwarzenegger. Directed by the hugely successful Korean filmmaker Kim Ji-Woon and co starring Johnny Knoxville, Rodrigo Santoro, Forrest Whittaker and Luis Guzman to name a few, 'The Last Stand' is a bizarre concoction of gun pumping action, strange and offbeat humour and one cheesy liners. It is an explosion filled, bullet riddled, blood soaked farce; but God help me, one that I really enjoyed. Much like 'The Expendables 2' which I liked very much, 'The Last Stand' has it's tongue firmly in it's cheek and is directed surprisingly well. Sure it's not going to win any awards, but for a silly, ridiculous and overblown action movie, it is an absolute blast (literally).

The movie begins with an international drug lord escaping from FBI custody and after a bloody gunbattle, makes his way towards the Mexican border in a reinforced Chevrolet. However, to leave the country without being captured by customs, he must pass through the small town of Sommerton Junction, which is governed by Sheriff Ray Owens (Schwarzenegger) who is not willing to let a convicted felon get past without a fight. With the help of a loony gunnut, a petty criminal and the wife of a murdered cop, Owens battles to save his town and bring the bloodthirsty baron to justice.

Kim Ji-Woon is by far the most successful Korean director of all time. His twisted horror movie 'A Tale Of Two Sisters' was the first movie from the country to ever be distributed in the United States and his 2010 grisly shocker 'I Saw The Devil' was a critical and commercial success. 'The Last Stand' is his first English language debut and for a first try, it is pretty impressive. With the use of frenetic camera work, a grindhouse style aesthetic and a fondness for large geysers of blood erupting from a gunshot, Ji-Woon has made a very entertaining (and very silly) throwback to the overblown and generic action movies of the 1980's. Clearly a fan of the movies of Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez, he indulges in the use of big, heavy machine guns, long extended car chases and a hefty amount of unrealistic gore effects. Usually when a director tries to make a genre movie, they sometimes fail to realise and understand the conventions that made the movies so popular in the first place. However, it is clear that Ji-Woon is a fan of the daft 80's action blockbusters and as a result, 'The Last Stand' is a nuts and bolts genre film that invokes the ghosts of many of Schwarzenegger's biggest films; from 'Predator' to 'The Terminator'.

Arnold Schwarzenegger may be many things, but one thing he definitely isn't is a good actor. Even during his heyday, his German accent and wooden performances would bog down a film and as a result, I am not his biggest fan.  However, one thing he definitely knows how to do is deliver a good one liner and many of his quotes are some of the most famous and best loved in movie history. From 'GET TO THE CHOPPA' to 'IT'S NOT A TUMOUR', Schwarzenegger has shouted, screamed and gurned through some of the cheesiest dialogue ever written and 'The Last Stand' has an entire banquet of one liners for him to chew through. Clearly Ji-Woon is a fan of Arnie and as a result, he characterises him as an unstoppable force despite his age and bad hips. There are dozens of shots of the camera panning across a road only to end on the domineering silhouette of the towering Austrian carrying an impossibly large firearm, echoing an image from his 1984 hit 'The Terminator'. While he can't act for toffee, Schwarzenegger still knows how to hold the camera's attention and continues to be a powerful force of nature.

The supporting cast are all conventionally characterised; An eccentric gun nut played by Johnny Knoxville of 'Jackass' fame, Forrest Whittaker plays the headstrong FBI cop who believes that everyone is below him and Rodrigo Santoro is the underdog of the group who fiercely fights for his loves heart. While these archetypes are sadly very generic, every actor gives their all and each one plays their parts very well. Unfortunately, what 'The Last Stand' lacks is any type of interesting antagonist so any of drive or motivation that is meant to be felt throughout the film is lost relatively quickly.

For fans of Schwarzengger and lets face it, who isn't, 'The Last Stand' is a hugely entertaining, well paced piece of fodder that while not at all memorable, holds our attention well and diverts for it's entire duration. Usually with these types of films, there are moments which drag and lumber along like a dying walrus, but 'The Last Stand' zips along quite nicely towards it's fun and thrilling, if not highly generic climax. It is a movie that throws the laws of physics and sense out of the window and replaces them with a lively and kinetic balls-to-the-wall drive that really made me smile.