The Last Stand

Arnold Schwarzenegger stars as an aging sheriff of a small town, that just happens to serve as the last destination point before crossing Mexico for a most wanted and recently escaped fugitive drug lord played by Eduardo Noriega.  I have to be honest here.  I naturally wasn't expecting a lot from this movie given that it was the return of Schwarzenegger as a lead actor after his notorious family scandal.  But I give this movie credit for playing it very smart and being surprisingly enjoyable.  I mean it's wise, for instance to pepper The Last Stand with a fairly talented cast in the humor of Johnny Knoxville,  the dramatic gravity of Forest Whitaker, and the outrageous villany of Peter Stormare.    Then add to the recipe for the first half of the movie generally without focusing on Schwarzenegger's character (this is a very good thing), action plot sequences that greatly mirror the recent success of the Fast and Furious movies.  Finally, stir carefully resisting the urge to abundantly dip the dialogue with generic action movie one liners, and let Schwarzenegger finish the film by doing his best version of a still tough squinty-eyed Clint Eastwood.  Of course, by this time, you really don't care about the increasingly washed over illogic of the plot.  It's just good  action entertainment which is something Bruce Willis and company should have learned better when they made A Good Day To Die Hard.