The Last Stand

Arnold Schwarzenegger is back and nobody gives a damn, apparently. He plays a sheriff on 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’s 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.