The Movie:

Arnold Schwarzenegger's return to R-rated action movie stardom, his first starring role since his foray into politics, didn't exactly set the box office on fire but 2013's The Last Stand, directed by Korean filmmaker Je-woon Kim (the man behind the excellent I Saw The Devil), was a ridiculously entertaining movie. With the home video release now upon us, hopefully the picture will find the audience it deserved. If those involved with the picture aren't reinventing the action movie or in any way attempting to turn the genre on its head, they've nevertheless turned in a rock solid slice of over the top ultraviolent entertainment, the kind that made Schwarzenegger a star in the first place.

The story isn't complicated, but it is effective. When the movie begins, we see a cop at a speed trap with his radar gun out enjoying a donut. Something cruises past him setting his radar detector off like never before that he thinks might be some sort of jet. He calls it in and from there we meet a small town sheriff named Ray Owens (Arnold Schwarzenegger), a man in charge of keeping the peace in very rural Sommerton, Arizona. It's a sleepy little town that sits pretty close to the Mexican border. Owens used to be a big shot out in Los Angeles but he's decided he'd rather live a quieter, more serene life in the country.

It turns out that the really fast thing we saw in the opening scene is actually a supercharged experimental car that has been stolen but a wanted drug lord named Gabriel Cortez (Eduardo Noriega). He's planning on taking this thing over the border to evade further prison time and the best way for him to do that is to head through Sommerton. This leaves Owens in a bit of a bind - he's only got a very small staff working under him while Cortez has got cronies aplenty, and heavily armed ones at that. The Feds, led by John Bannister (Forest Whitaker), are after Cortez but one of his agents (Genesis Rodriguez) has been taken hostage and he can't quite seem to figure out how Cortez continues to stay one step ahead of them. It's all going to come to a head in Sommertown, with Ray and his crew, assisted by a local wingnut/gun collector named Lewis Dinkum (Johnny Knoxville), left to make a last stand in hopes of stopping Cortez from escaping and presumably wreaking even more havoc.

While The Last Stand might seem like familiar territory, that's half of its charm. This is a movie that borrows from pictures like High Noon and other classic western pictures and in terms of the story that it tells, despite the presence of plenty of quirky characters, it doesn't bring a whole lot of ‘new' to the table. With that said, it's quite effective in what it does and it very much has the feel of a classic action movie, albeit one with a modern sensibility in terms of how the technology of today is used. Realism isn't much of a concern here, it's tossed aside for entertainment value so expect a couple of great shoot outs, one amazing (though completely ludicrous) car chase, and of course, a pretty solid good guy versus bad guy battle before the end credits hit the screen. The movie tosses in a completely unnecessary romantic subplot between Owens' female deputy (Jamie Alexander) and her troublemaker ex-boyfriend that adds some attempts at drama to the proceedings but its' there because Hollywood wants it there, not because it makes the movie any better. This is one you watch for the action, for the ridiculous characters, for the over the top levels of violence, for the fun supporting characters (Harry Dean Stanton, Luis Guzman and Sonny Landham all pop up!) and, of course, for Arnold and all that he brings to a movie in terms of screen presence and likability.

As far as the Arnold factor goes, he's not quite as involved in all of the mayhem and destruction this time around as he was in some of the movies that he made in his prime, but he still gives as good as he gets. He's still a larger than life persona and he's still a lot of fun to watch. His back and forth with the supporting players, Knoxville's insane Dinkum being the best example, offers some great comic relief, the kind that indicates we're not to take any of this too seriously, and the movie is better for it. Je-woon Kim has a firm handle on the pacing and keeps things moving at a good clip, and on top of that he knows how to stage an action set piece. Borrowing elements from the filmographies of action movie experts like John Woo and Sam Peckinpah he ensures that the choreographed chaos is always a blast to watch, bombarding us with plenty of inspired lunacy while never losing that sense of humor that keeps all of this fun. And that's the key word right there - fun. This isn't deep, it's not reinventing the wheel and it's not a movie you'll spend a lot of time thinking about it but it definitely is fun in the best R-rated sense of the word.

Video:

The Last Stand arrives on Blu-ray in an excellent looking AVC encoded 1080p high definition transfer framed at 2.40.1, just as you'd hope for with such a recent movie making the move to Blu-ray. Detail is always very strong as is texture and color reproduction, when not intentionally tweaked for artistic effect (there are a couple of shots that look intentionally hot and have somewhat bleached colors), generally looks nice and realistic. Reds in particular really shin here, they're deep and rich and bold and bright without looking too garish - you'll notice this in the bloody shoot outs that occur in the movie. Skin tones are nice and natural looking here, no obvious waxiness by way of noise reduction to complain about, and plenty of pores and stubble and facial detail to take in. Black levels are and pretty much reference quality. There aren't any issues with compression artifacts or noticeable edge enhancement and all in all, the movie fares very well in high definition. There are a few scenes where the camera moves really quickly and things look just a tad bit jerky but this is related to the camera work, not the transfer.