It's the second half of the film, as the preparations intensify and then the big attack comes to Sommerton Junction (even the name is out of a Sam Fuller western or something) that the film REALLY picks up steam. And the first half does build, somewhat decently if predictably, the pieces of the characters, the basic set-ups of who may die (or will) and what betrayals are happening and who knows what (and what, really, Forest Whitaker can do as the Man in Charge in the suit - powerful, but he's not a Schwarzenegger).
I know what's coming," says the not-quite quipping Arnold. Think about it - a Sheriff in a ponam town with not many residents at all (and those that do stick around all day won't leave cause of some gunfire - there's a cheese omelette cooking after all at the diner), and has some good deputies, and some others he has to recruit not by his better judgment but by lack of other good officers, and has a Big Bad Motherflipper coming right his way. matter of fact, it's Rio Bravo on steroids!' Well, that's my suspicion anyway. He must have read the script and said 'I can do this, this is a Western to the bone just in 21st century garb. But what got him the job, I suspect, was The Good, the Bad and the Weird, his wild homage to everything Western - Spaghetti, yes, but good ol' American variety. How do I simply say "I got thrilled by the action, laughed at the craziness in the set-pieces, and loved seeing Arnold tear it up and have one-line retorts: "How do you feel?" asks a towns-person - "OLD!") But aside from the story, which seems to be fairly cookie-cutter with the Mexican cartel kingpin who is getting across from Nevada down to the border to get back to his safe land, and with various tropes that can be read from not too far away (given some heft by the fact that Eduardo Noriega cuts a very sharp figure as a madman with a zest for stunt- driving - like a character one might find almost in Rodriguez/Tarantino's Grindhouse, or a hybrid of such characters they write), what is there? How about that the director, Kim Jee-Woon, has a track record from back in South Korea as being a hardcore, awe-inspiring action and genre director, who can make them very, very intense and harrowing (I Saw the Devil), or truly spooky and harrowing in a quieter, more sinister way (Tale of Two Sisters). But over time, as super glossy and hyper-kinetic and chaotically-shot cinema floods theaters, this almost comes as something of a refreshment. You know you can't defend seeing lots of nameless guys in black suits and machine guns mowing down people and that there's only a bullet here or there that might get one of our good guys (and I mean, y'know, Luis Guzman, who is always fun to watch in that very familiar character-actor way by the way, same for Harry Dean Stanton's walk-on), and it hearkens back to that time in the 1980's and 90's when Arnold Schwarzenegger dominated cineplexes with this kind of action trash. If you have an open mind for this stuff, give it a shot. I mean, come on, that's the point! But it's smart stupid. "The Last Stand" has the advantage of not taking itself seriously, and so it's great fun and well done fun all along.
This is in contrast to a movie I saw a couple days ago along the same lines (loner man against evil), "Jack Reacher," which was filled with such strained dialog and absurd plot conditions it was irritating. It's not realistic, but the characters are believable. It works the same way a "Die Hard" movie works-fast plot, do good hero, nasty bad guys, and jokes. I didn't expect to like this, but ended up captivated. So the bad guy on the loose is on collision course with Owens with his rag-tag friends in his Arizona border town.
ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER MOVIE AFTERMATH PROFESSIONAL
They are a professional team led by the ever-enjoyable Forrest Whittaker, but of course they are a bit too professional, and arrogant, and they make constant little mistakes of misjudgment. Who would? In this hyped up against-the-odds yarn, we have some excellent if well-worn clichés.
When a bad boy drug lord (a very cute one) is set to be blast through in his Corvette, this sheriff, Ray Owens, won't tolerate it. Because Schwarzenegger is playing a sheriff in a lonely western town. In a way, this is Arnold trying to be a bit like Clint. And Arnold Schwarzenegger is true to form, even joking once about his getting old. It's fast, well done, and appropriately preposterous. It's a comedy, and if not quite a parody of a tough lawman against the odds plot, it pumps up all the clichés nicely. The Last Stand (2013) Well, if you take this too seriously you're missing the point.
0 kommentar(er)
