A step up from Old West, small town gunfights.
Schwarzenegger proves that he is still around in action movies. Photo from Google Images
Seeing the first ads for The Last Stand, I had low expectations and medium hopes about Johnny Knoxville (Jackass) and Arnold Schwarzenegger (Terminator) in a movie together. Even if this movie was bad, it would still probably be funny, because it has Johnny Knoxville. I walked into the theater with pretty low expectations for the plot but was expecting decent acting and some adequate humor. Expectations were met, however, they were not exceeded. I thought The Last Stand was an overall decent movie; that may have been due to the low expectations I had for it, though.
The Last Stand takes place in a small town in close proximity to the Mexican border, an unlikely place for a fight with drug cartels, right? In The Last Stand, Arnold Schwarzenegger plays the sheriff of the small town that the film takes place in. Near the beginning of the movie, the majority of the town leaves to attend an important event for the town. It was the sheriff’s day off, and he wasn’t expecting too much to happen. His day off was unexpectedly eventful. What are the chances of an escaped high profile drug cartel slipping out of FBI custody and coming through your town anyways? Living in an action movie universe, it’s a miracle that this doesn’t happen everyday in this town. The small and poorly equipped police force has one hell of a fight coming at them.
When I went to see this movie, it was a pre-screening; there was an interesting crowd at the theater watching the movie with me. These “interesting people” helped add to the movie, whether it was pointing out the very obvious or saying things like “Oh” or “Dayum.” An example of this would be at the beginning of the movie when a very perceptive member of the audience said, “He’s eating a donut.” While this commentary was annoying at times and may have damaged certain parts of the movie, it was funny sometimes and added to my realization that this movie wasn’t really holding peoples’ attention.
Knowing Johnny Knoxville was in the movie led me to believe that this would be a pretty funny film. Though it wasn’t as funny as I had hoped, it was still fairly humorous. Having seen a few of the Jackass movies, I generated an idea of what to expect from Johnny Knoxville. Although his antics were somewhat different from what I expected, they were still pretty funny and fairly common place for him. Knoxville had interesting names for some of the weapons/items in his arsenal used to repel the antagonists from the town near the end of the movie.
Being an action movie, this film didn’t have too much of a plot or story. So if the viewer is looking for a movie with an elaborate storytelling and advanced character development watch something else. But what the movie lacked in this, it made up for with decent action and humor. I liked the action in this movie because it wasn’t too graphic and was more gunshot and explosion based rather than being blood and gore based, like in some Quentin Tarantino films where characters are practically turned inside out multiple times. While there was still a fair amount of blood, the movie wasn’t an absolute bloodbath. Although The Last Stand lacked story and plot, like many action movies do, it wasn’t just some mindless shoot-‘em-up movie with no real story or characters, relying almost entirely on CGI’s and explosions to make the movie even slightly watchable.
I should be clear though, while I may have said this movie was funny at certain points, it was not a comedy. The Last Stand just happened to have some funny parts in it, partially because of the presence of Johnny Knoxville. The majority of it wasn’t very funny; in fact, it wasn’t even very lighthearted, and at times it was fairly serious. Without the other people in the theater providing their wise words of insight and astute observations on what was happening during the movie, I don’t think the viewing experience would have been as funny as it was.
This movie met, but did not exceed, my expectations in any way. This movie could be classified as a mediocre action movie. The plot was okay, with action movie standards, and the action, which is the most important part of an action movie, was pretty good. The action wasn’t too graphic, which made it easier for me to enjoy. I wouldn’t strongly recommend this movie to anyone. If, however, the viewers are looking for an alright action movie, they may enjoy this. The movie wasn’t bad, but it definitely wasn’t a skillfully done action movie able to strike a perfect balance between plot and action, setting a new standard for what action movies needed to be.
Rating: ★★★
