The Garden Filled With Weeds


[Movie Review] The Last Stand – Another Action Movie That Tried Too Hard February 25, 2013


IMDB: 7.0

Rotten Tomatoes: 69%

I’m usually a person who don’t say much during movies, and I hate it when people around me talk, but for this particular movie, I almost banged my head on the floor as this movie unfolds it’s terrible logic.

First, I must mention how robotic Arnold Schwarzenegger reads his lines.

I’ve not seen much of his movies, except Terminator 2, which was awesome, and suits him perfectly.

Then I watched this movie and I realised, he is just like that, it wasn’t his acting.

Look at him, how is this not T-101?

I was half expecting him to say ‘Hasta la vista, baby‘ at the end of the movie after he captured the bad guy.

That wasn’t the big problem, we all know Arnold Schwarzenegger, and so we’re not especially surprised by that.

The one thing that got me very annoyed was how the movie tries too hard to be serious.

It was trying to reach a level like Mission Impossible or James Bond, when in actual fact, no one came to the movie to watch that.

I can tolerate, in fact, even enjoy a brainless movie, I can look at bad guys getting kicked in the ass for no apparent reason except to be simply told that he is evil, I don’t need to know his background story to enjoy watching him getting hit by the main protagonist.

So when the main antagonist of the movie tries to explain about death, about a story how his niece, who was very close to him, tries to shoot him in the head, hesitated, and instead got killed by him, I couldn’t help but wonder, was that really necessary?

There was no conclusion to the story, he didn’t explain why did his niece do that, maybe he killed her best friend’s parents? Or she found out about what he had been doing and couldn’t get over her own moral values?

But the story ended there, he killed her.

The bigger problem was the entire concept of the hostage in this movie.

The leader of FBI can let a whole SWAT team go face the criminals and die, yet couldn’t get over the fact his own FBI agent was captured and might be killed.

The movie would have ended in just 20 minutes, if he had done the right thing, which is to blow the car up.

That guy at the back who knows about cars, that guy you assume is a small character(and he is), was the only person who made sense in the entire team of ‘elite’ agents.

Why can’t you kill her? You have to answer to her parents? Dude she is a FBI agent, you don’t become a FBI agent and not expect death to come to you sooner or later.

If she was a civilian, okay, I understand, she would be an innocent soul trembling, but… she happens to be an FBI agent, I believe she’s went through enough training and seen enough things to not act like a normal civilian.

This movie once again made FBI looked like the most useless team of people on the planet, 5 people could do the task that an entire team of elite made up of at least 50 men couldn’t. Really?

Also, the FBI hostage, did she get the job by having sex with the leader? Because her level of intelligence definitely seem lower than a normal human being.

Was she really expecting to be living happily ever after with the antagonist? Did she really not know that he was going to push her down the car? She’s dealing with one of the most dangerous criminal on record, yet she lets her guard loose to the stage she’s asking for sex from him.

I was hoping that she was just working undercover, pretending she sides with him after receiving the money, but instead later kicks his ass.

But that never happened, she was a bimbo even till the end of the movie, playing hard to get, flirting furiously.

Once again, how did the leader of the FBI suddenly suspect that she was working with him? I thought a moment ago you still couldn’t bear to plant a bomb on the car because she’s in there.

The death of the young police officer was unnecessary, I get it, you want to make it seem sad, serious, a huge issue.

Come on, we all know that at the end of the movie, Arnold Schwarzenegger is gonna kick that guy’s sorry ass, why? Because he is Arnold Schwarzenegger.

It’s also ridiculous, how his two best friends, after winning the battle, started spinning in circle, happily in love again, completely forgotten about his entire existence.

It would have been more appropriate if he only ends up in the hospital, telling them to go get that bad guy, and at the end of the movie everyone visit him, he would be happy to see his two best friends happily together again, and his respect for the sheriff multiplied, becomes a determined youth, striving to be just as awesome as the sheriff.

You don’t mention a youth with aspiration, then let him die in the lamest way possible, without even saying any last words that meant something.(no wishing you two lover best friends back together is not meaningful)

That’s one thing Jackie Chan actually does well, he knows who to keep alive, he make sure his movies are pure action, no matter how bad the story is, the ending makes the audience happy.

They also didn’t make good use of the two comic relief characters, Johnny Knoxville’s character didn’t live up to the expectation, except the flair gun part, that was awesome. However I was still expecting him to showcase how passionate he is about guns, how these knowledge become a huge advantage… but that didn’t happen.

From the moment Luis Guzmán’s character took swords, I was hoping, he’s gonna slice the enemies and stab them, showing them that traditional weapons can be just as deadly and bad-ass, but that didn’t happen either.
(Correct me if I’m wrong about these two parts, maybe the cinema in my country cut out certain parts of the movie)

Overall the movie was a pathetic attempt on all aspects.

I heard that this movie was the director’s Hollywood debut, and that it’s pretty important to him. But if you ask me, his past movies were a lot better than this. Maybe he just lacked a good script, as I noticed that the directing didn’t have any problem, the graphic visuals was pleasant. I really hope Hollywood give him another chance.

This was also Arnold Schwarzenegger’s first lead role since Terminator 3, not a good start if you ask me, but he is Arnold Schwarzenegger, and his name itself would bring people into the theater.

Overall, 6/10.

Worth watching for the action, but just try to tolerate the stupid logic from the script writer(s).


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