Plot: Once a narcotics officer in the LAPD, Ray Owens (Arnold Schwarzenegger) has settled into a peaceful life as sheriff of Sommerton Junction, a quiet border town. But that peace is shattered when Gabriel Cortez, a vicious crime lord, escapes from FBI custody and speeds toward Ray’s town with a band of mercenaries. Federal agents prepare to capture Cortez, and Ray is at first reluctant to get involved — but he soon finds he must rally his team and take matters into his own hands.
I thought I had reviewed The Last Stand when it came out back in 2013 however, I can’t seem to find anything on the site so, it must have been one of the casualties of the great site crash of 2017.
The Last Stand turns 10 years old this week which is hard to believe as I remember seeing it in the cinema with my dad like it was a matter of weeks ago. It wasn’t a huge hit at the box office which is a shame as it was the perfect vehicle for Arnold Schwarzenegger at that stage of his career and delivered exactly what was promised. It’s lighthearted fare with plenty of Arnie humour and one-liners as well as regular action scenes making it easily rewatchable.
The supporting cast includes Johnny Knoxville who I thought was going to be the annoying comic relief character from the trailers but he ended up being genuinely entertaining; we also have Peter Stormare, Jamie Alexander, Forest Whitaker, Genesis Rodriguez and Luis Guzmán.
At an hour and 47 minutes The Last Stand is well paced with some decent action set-pieces and a satisfying showdown between Arnold’s Sheriff Ray Owens and the villain Cortez played by Eduardo Noriega. Cortez himself isn’t an especially memorable antagonist but he does the job for this movie and is suitably nasty.
Like the classic Arnie movies of old The Last Stand has the obligatory sweet old lady and here she ends up killing one of the bad guys with Ray saying “obliged” which is my favourite scene of the film.
Keep your eyes open for David Midthunder who plays Cohan as he is Amber Midthunder’s (Prey) father in real life.
After 10 years The Last Stand is still an entertaining Arnie movie that delivers the right amount of laughs and action; it may not have been a box office smash but it apparently did well on home video and has developed a cult following. It’s not in my top 5 Arnold movies but it’s one of the better projects he did in the 2000s and deserves more love.
