THE LAST STAND (Kim Jee-woon, 2013)
Ray
Owens (Arnold Schwarzenegger) experienced more than enough danger and
action for a lifetime as a Los Angeles narcotics cop, which is why he
gave it up to become sheriff of a sleepy southwest Arizona border town.
With its postcard-perfect Main Street, Sommerton Junction is the kind
of place where a local farmer delivers fresh milk to the diner and
strangers stopping for a bite to eat stand out. As almost everyone has
left town to watch the high school football team play in the state
championship, it promises to be another quiet weekend for Ray and his
three bored deputies in THE LAST STAND. Meanwhile,
drug kingpin Gabriel Cortez (Eduardo Noriega) escapes from the FBI
despite the high level of security and secrecy surrounding his prison
transfer in Las Vegas. Cortez’s subordinates supply him with a
supercharged Corvette boosted from an auto show. The one-time race car
driver speeds toward Mexico with an agent (Genesis Rodriguez) as his
hostage. Agent John Bannister (Forest Whitaker) and his team eventually
determine that Cortez plans to cross over in Sommerton but are
incapable of catching up to him in time. It falls upon Ray and his
ragtag crew, which includes a prisoner (Rodrigo Santoro) and a local
eccentric with an arsenal (Johnny Knoxville), to block Cortez’s road to
freedom.Schwarzenegger
eases into his full-fledged return to the movies after his terms as
California governor. Like an athlete shaking the rust off after time
away from his sport, he warms up with routine police work and
self-effacing humor in THE LAST STAND’s table-setting first half. When
the film smoothly shifts into non-stop combat, Schwarzenegger turns on
the charisma and brute force that made him one of the biggest action
stars in the world. His corny one-liners seem more obligatory than
amusing, but despite getting up there in years, the star’s
broad-shouldered brawn is still built for manhandling bad guys. He may
not be the superhuman he was in the ‘80s and ‘90s, but when
Schwarzenegger is wearing a badge, he can credibly claim to be the
roughest, toughest lawman on screen.
To
its detriment THE LAST STAND doesn’t provide Schwarzenegger with a
worthy antagonist. While the small scale of Cortez’s scheme is
refreshing in an age of action films with outlandishly high stakes, he
doesn’t do much, mainly because he’s isolated behind the wheel of a car
most of the time. Cortez is also less imposing or funny than his
henchman Burrell (Peter Stormare), who wallows in his sleaziness and
disregard for those who get in his way.Once
the bullets are flying director Kim Jee-woon shoots the barely
contained chaos with a clear understanding of physical space often
neglected in the hypercut, CGI-heavy spectacles of today. At its core
THE LAST STAND is a throwback film, an old-fashioned western updated
with 20th and 21st century weaponry and vehicles. The lengthy gun battle
in the middle of Sommerton delivers the simple pleasures of watching
heroes and villains exchange fire and trying to outflank one another.
The subsequent car chase through a cornfield and hand-to-hand fight
thrill with the one-on-one showdowns between machines and men.The
streamlined ticking clock plot pushes THE LAST STAND along during its
pokier moments, and the supporting characters, like Luis Guzman as the
comic relief deputy and Harry Dean Stanton as a crotchety farmer, liven
up the wait for the face-off with the bad guys. At a time when most
cinematic action stars receive significant special effects enhancement,
if not existing entirely in computers, it’s nice to have Schwarzenegger
back and practical effects showcased. THE LAST STAND doesn’t find him
in peak form, but it’ll suffice as a sturdy exhibition of his talents. Grade: B-
WHAT TO EXPECT WHEN YOU’RE EXPECTING (Kirk Jones, 2012)The
prenatal comedy WHAT TO EXPECT WHEN YOU’RE EXPECTING provides a
snapshot of contemporary anxieties about imminent parenthood, but it may
be more worthwhile as a document for future pop culture scholars to use
to understand what was trendy in 2012. Reality TV shows in the forms
of a weight loss program and a celebrity dance competition, Auto-Tuned
YouTube videos, and food trucks play prominent roles in the loosely
intersecting plots of five pairs expecting babies. Whether the film is
analyzed for the attitudes and fears particular to this time for
parents-to-be or what captured the mainstream’s attention, there are
more valuable details found in the margins than in the dull and
fragmented story. The
sets of expectant parents cover the spectrum. Celebrity fitness
trainer Jules Baxter (Cameron Diaz) thinks she can keep up her rigorous
schedule while pregnant and doesn’t need to consider the input of Evan
(Matthew Morrison), her partner in the relationship and on the TV dance
contest where they met. Holly (Jennifer Lopez) stresses over impressing
adoption officials so she and her husband Alex (Rodrigo Santoro) can
get a child from Ethiopia while he is wary of the major changes that may
be forthcoming in their lives. Alex is encouraged to hang out with a
dad’s group that is intended to allay his fears but may reinforce them
instead.Food
truck operator Rosie (Anna Kendrick) is upset to discover that she got
pregnant from a one night stand with Marco (Chace Crawford), a rival
cook she knows from high school. He commits to being there for her, but
they struggle with a relationship started out of a sense of duty. Baby
store owner and children’s book author Wendy Cooper (Elizabeth Banks)
and husband Gary (Ben Falcone) have been trying hard to get pregnant and
are elated when it happens, but the nine months aren’t as smooth as
they would hope. It’s all the more aggravating for them because Gary’s
young stepmother Skyler (Brooklyn Decker) and his dad Ramsey (Dennis
Quaid) are regularly one-upping them with the ease of her pregnancy.
Based
on a pregnancy guide, WHAT TO EXPECT WHEN YOU’RE EXPECTING ticks off
boxes on the checklists of things to be aware of as parents anticipate
the arrival of their babies. The four stories set in Atlanta and single
one based in Los Angeles reflect the diversity of experiences but play
out as perfunctorily told, mostly meaninglessly connected tales. All
but one of the subplots come straight off the romantic comedy assembly
line, reducing this major life event to strings of wacky hijinks and
dodged conversations by people who seem as though they’d be challenged
bringing a puppy into their homes, let alone a newborn child. The
scenarios didn’t need the gravity of educational role playing, just more
emotional heft, especially in Kendrick and Crawford’s unusually
featherweight section, and less broadly contrived nonsense. The
one thread that feels the most honest centers on Banks learning that
being armed with information and the best laid plans doesn’t mean
everything will happen easily or perfectly. Her scenes, particularly a
conference presentation, touch upon the range of emotions and complexity
of the challenges during pregnancy that the rest of the film tends to
gloss over. Grade: D
