Tuesday, October 1, 2013

The Last Stand

Kim Jae-Woon – 2013 – USA

Of course it never comes off as plausible that Arnold Schwarzenegger is a small-town sheriff, but otherwise this isn’t a bad little action film.  It’s certainly made out of pure nostalgia for the 80s/90s school of pre-superhero action films, which starred actual “action stars,” who were martial artists and body-builders, not really actors.  I enjoyed the lengthy set-up involving a criminal mastermind’s escape from FBI custody and his high-speed chase towards the Mexican border, which sends him right through Arnold’s sleepy town.  Well Arnold’s not going to have any of that, naturally, and tons of gunfire and car crashes later, it’s down to a showdown between the hero and villain.  So much time has passed since the heyday of Schwarzenegger, Stallone and Van Damme that the clichés of those films now seem like enjoyable, almost quaint traditions.  A major letdown, though, are the lame special effects that look like the most basic explosions and blood-bursts available in whatever software the editor used.

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