“Who are you?” Asks Thomas Burrell to Sheriff Ray Owens.
“I am the Sheriff.” Sheriff Ray Owens.
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Arnold
Schwarzenegger plays the role of an old Sheriff in the small town of Sommerton
Junction in The Last Stand. He is a retired hand from an elite force of crime
fighters from L. A. He does not regret his decision, though. Searching for
peace and a life with ‘less’ blood and violence, the old Sheriff finds home in
Sommerton Junction. This is the background, upon which stands the plot of The Last Stand.
Sheriff Ray is
enjoying his day off at the start of the movie. Some people out there in the
centres of power, do not think he is worth anything else other than an old,
lethargic man. This thought gives those people a lot of stress when they
realise an escaped criminal, Gabriel Cortez (played by Eduardo Noriega) is driving his custom-made super-racer
into Sommerton Junction, in order to get out of the US, into Mexico, upon a
mobile assault bridge constructed by Cortez’s men at arms.
The race car used by
Cortez is undoubtedly one of the USP in The Last Stand, the other being Arnold
Schwarzenegger himself.
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The sleepy town
realizes nothing, even after the Sheriff warns the folks. They are mostly
holding on to their daily lives without even bothering about anything else
other than their cholesterol and blood pressure, which in case could be more
fatal than Cortez’s racing car and merciless bullets.
Fortunately,
Sheriff Ray could not continue with his off day, as he learns that a poor
milkman had been shot. From that moment onwards, things go racy in the small
town and back to tumult in Ray’s life. Arnold and his team of three policemen
confront a prominent member of the Cortez gang, Thomas Burrell (played by Peter Stormare). In the fire
that ensues, one of the policemen gets killed.
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What Sheriff ray
confront in the open under the stealthy cover of night was an army ready to
wipe out anything that comes across, with manpower and machine guns. No, do not
think Sheriff Ray has Terminator model machine guns too. On the contrary,
Sheriff Arnold Ray has just some shotguns and pistols, and of course, two
officers, to fight this army.
The Last Stand
is the first movie after the 2003 Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, in which
Arnold Schwarzenegger takes his avatar as a machine. If you ask him how he
feels in The Last Stand, though, he
would say, “Old.” However Sheriff Ray does not give up easily. He is equal to
three men in strength, mental ability and dignity, and thus the total strength
of police officers available in fighting Burrell and his men are five.
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Ray receives the
news that a drug lord had tricked the FBI, and was successful in moving towards
the border near Sommerton Junction. What is interesting about this escape
scenario is that as a viewer we are given a chance to see that side of the
story too, along with the calm life in Sommerton. The story swings from one
narrative to another and then back. Raunchy car races, car Vs helicopter
sequences, SWAT Vs Cortez, etc add the perfect masala to The Last Stand.
The challenge in
front of the Sheriff is to stop the criminal with the very few resources he
has. The Sheriff promotes two more men into deputy positions. The vintage arms
collector Lewis Dinkum joins them and Ray finds the necessary arms in his
collection.
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The only question
is would Sheriff Ray be able to stop the Gabriel Cortez’s getaway through
Sommerton Junction, with as less number of men at his help as the arms for
defense? With cars as barricades and a Vickers machine gun as his weapon, the
old Sheriff and his deputies are the last stand of a nation against an escaped
felon.
The Last Stand
is written by Andrew Knauer, who seems to be an ardent fan of Arnold and has
executed the same fanaticism through the script. There are areas where this
film could have done better, like the scenes in the arms collection garage.
Sheriff Ray’s life too is not worked out properly. Director Kim Ji-woon seems
to have a passion with ear busting sounds, and perhaps due to this very reason,
every fire shot echoes into one’s skull with a thunderous ricochet.
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Things can’t get
any bloodier with Arnold and a Vickers. Indeed, in The Last Stand, one can find a lot of blood spilled around, with
each gunshot that finds its destination. This movie is not Arnold’s best, but
for his fans, The Last Stand would be
a disappointment.
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