The Last Stand is noteworthy for a few things. It’s Arnold Schwarzenegger’s first return to the big screen as leading man action star after his stint as the Governator of California. It indicates that elder Arnold can crank out action flicks as easily as he ever did as the Terminator. It also gives us a view of Arnold as Dirty Harry–the potential to play more characters who are grizzled, end-of-the-game, tired, but still wiser for it all, and not ready to let anyone ignore the fact that he is still the toughest guy in town.
Is The Last Stand any good? It depends on your angle and your expectations. Arnold is the only thing that makes the film worth watching. Johnny Knoxville replays the unlikely deputy sheriff sidekick character from the Walking Tall remake, yet far dumber and crazier, neither in any good way here. Forest Whitaker has his worst role to date, as a bumbling fed who loses the biggest drug kingpin this side of the Mississippi (Eduardo Noriega) and never can quite figure out how to stop kicking himself for it (a guy this good should be selecting far better roles). The always evil badman Peter Stormare (Fargo, Mercury Rising, Armageddon, Minority Report, Constantine, Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters, Monk, Leverage, Psych) delivers a solid performance as henchman for the kingpin, and if he were the actual kingpin the movie might have played better.
