The Last Stand

Arnold Schwarzenegger is back and nobody gives a damn, apparently. He plays a sheriff in a border town who finds himself squaring off with a drug cartel baddie and his cronies. Johnny Knoxville shows up as the kooky sidekick, and Luis Guzman shows up and does his Luis Guzman thing. Arnie is in good form; it’s the film that feels stale. It feels like 12 movies you’ve seen before cobbled together as a warm-up for a guy who has been out of the game for a few years. It’s too bad. Arnie should’ve made his comeback vehicle something where he was fighting aliens or trading quips with Danny DeVito. This mediocre rip-off of Assault on Precinct 13 doesn’t do him justice. Oscar winner Forest Whitaker plays an FBI agent who spends most of the film yelling into telephones and staring at computer screens. I seriously doubt there is going to be a sequel to this thing, and judging by its poor reception, I’m wondering if big studios are going to get behind Schwarzenegger again. He’s talking about more Terminator movies, a new Conan, etc. It might not be a good idea to bank on him at this point.