The Last Stand (Jee-woon Kim, 2013)

[warren oates]

The Last Stand reminds me of nothing so much as the kind of big dumb action movies Michael Bay used to make before he signed on to Transformers for life, except somehow both more stylish and more human. The whole thing is a lightweight action cartoon, notwithstanding some pretty graphic R-rated violence. The script is by the numbers, but comes off better than it would in other hands. If I didn't know ahead of time I would never have guessed this was the work of versatile Korean auteur Kim Jee-Woon, whose work I know and admire from films like I Saw the Devil and A Tale of Two Sisters. Quite a solid outing for his first Hollywood film. I'll be surprised if he's not soon making another one, hopefully with a wider range of better quality genre scripts to choose from. So far, Kim Jee-Woon and Chan Wook-Park's time in Hollywood looks way more promising to me than, say, the films we got from John Woo's crossing the Pacific. Oh, yeah, and Arnie's back, a little rusty but no worse for having been the Governator. Don't even ask what Johnny Knoxville is doing in this movie.

[matrixschmatrix]

My understanding is that Kim isn't planning on making any more American features, as he felt during the process that he was being treated like "just another foreign worker"- and he's already working on another movie in Korea.

[warren oates]

I've heard similar gripes via friends who worked on the film. That the Hollywood system was a bit of a culture shock. Yet even in less than ideal conditions he's delivered the goods in a manner that's pretty definitive. I can't see other producers/actors not trying to court him for more English-language productions. Maybe the right solution for him would be some kind of Luc Besson-like set-up, with a little more control for the director, but access to similar financing.

[JMULL222]

Yeah, LAST STAND is pretty excellent - some John-McTiernan-on-his-best-day-other-than-DIE HARD shit. Well worth the $11.50.

[wigwam]

Sometimes the monotony of the oscillation between squibs and exposition gets punctuated by empty emotional beats, canted comicbook camera angles, and witless one-liners. The sportsfans in the auditorium with me loved all the racecarrin' and wrastlin' and rooftop tackle headkills, but they probably haven't been in a theater since The Sixth Day came out and don't remember how good real Schwarzenegger movies were before True Lies or Last Action Hero or whenever he became self-aware. The supporting cast is there solely based on the most superficial retreads of what worked for them in the past, minus any good characterization or writing. All the McBain jokes in the Simpsons cut together would be a better movie than Last Stand, and not just cuz their jokes actually work but the compositions, stakes, and understanding of physics are better too. This film has all the visual appeal of a leather vest and all the conceptual integrity of a cornfield racecar chase.

[matrixschmatrix]

how good real Schwarzenegger movies were before True Lies or Last Action Hero or whenever he became self-aware

Oh, for the glory days of Twins and Red Sonja...

[domino harvey]

This film has all the visual appeal of a leather vest

Great pullquote

[The Fanciful Norwegian]

All the McBain jokes in the Simpsons cut together would be a better movie than Last Stand, and not just cuz their jokes actually work but the compositions, stakes, and understanding of physics are better too.

See for yourself!

[James]

My understanding is that Kim isn't planning on making any more American features, as he felt during the process that he was being treated like "just another foreign worker"- and he's already working on another movie in Korea.

Glad to hear that he's not a sellout!

[flyonthewall2983]

And with this week's box office, it looks like he won't be welcome back either.

[Jeff]

Did anyone else think this silliness could have been wrapped up pretty quickly with a set of

Spoiler

spike strips?

[willoneill]

Did anyone else think this silliness could have been wrapped up pretty quickly with a set of

Spoiler

spike strips?

It's sad that that's barely a spoiler; I asked that question after watching the trailer.

[CSM126]

The whole scenario could, indeed, be easily resolved, but films like this rely on characters who do things the hard way - that's kind of how you come to admire a guy like Sheriff Owens. He's just too damn tough to do things easy. The Last Stand is light fare and far from Arnold's best, but it's pretty fun/ Not really something you need to run out to the theater for (and obviously people aren't), but it'll make a good rental and will almost certainly do better on home video. The cast is really fun (even Knoxville, who I normally find grating as all hell) and the set pieces are slick and often hilarious in their amusing absurdity (the SWAT van riding over the Corvette like it's a ramp!). I look forward to Schwarzenegger's upcoming films (Conan!).

[cdnchris]

I think the terribly underrated The Last Stand is also an interesting point of comparison

Spoiler

since it shows Schwarzenegger going by the book as much as the situation will allow and in fact does not kill the villain, but instead arrests him so that he can stand trial which I thought was an incredible choice by the film makers and one I respect tremendously when it is so much easier now a days for the villain to just be killed.

Spoiler

Agreed. I was also pleasantly surprised by the choice in that film, especially since I was still expecting a fairly by-the-book Schwarzenegger film, despite the director. The people I saw it with were disappointed by this fact, which I thought odd at the time, but now after reading through the last few posts makes more sense to me now.

[flyonthewall2983]

The best "bad guy doesn't get killed" ending for me is

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Black Rain

[colinr0380]

For me it's

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The Limey!

[knives]

I think the terribly underrated The Last Stand is also an interesting point of comparison

Spoiler

since it shows Schwarzenegger going by the book as much as the situation will allow and in fact does not kill the villain, but instead arrests him so that he can stand trial which I thought was an incredible choice by the film makers and one I respect tremendously when it is so much easier now a days for the villain to just be killed.

Spoiler

Agreed. I was also pleasantly surprised by the choice in that film, especially since I was still expecting a fairly by-the-book Schwarzenegger film, despite the director. The people I saw it with were disappointed by this fact, which I thought odd at the time, but now after reading through the last few posts makes more sense to me now.

Yeah, I was very surprised by how much the people I saw it with were confused at my joy over the ending.

[Murdoch]

I'll have to check that one out, based on the trailer and poster art I was expecting another Taken vigilante story with law and order portrayed as a burden to "real justice."

I've always seen the two Cape Fear movies as representative of the changing moral compass and the ability of the criminal justice system to deal with criminals. In the 60s Cady is horrified at the prospect of returning to prison and Bowden sees returning Cady to prison as a victory, for lack of a better word, whereas in the 90s Cady, done up with De Niro's over-the-top Southern twang, is chained to a sinking boat as he screams. The different endings are attributable to the differing filmmaking styles, after all Scorsese was at the helm of remake, but I think they reflect the differing eras far more than the sensibilities of the filmmakers. The 80s brought about the idea of the villain as some absolute bad that must be cleansed from the world in order for the protagonist - and by extension the audience - to prevail, and this mentality has become so commonplace in Hollywood that viewers feel jaded if they don't see the baddie get his comeuppance.

[John Cope]

I actually just watched The Last Stand last night prior to seeing these comments and the ending struck me as well for the same reason. It really does suggest how far away we've gotten from resolutions of that type being the standard.

There are also the occasions in which much more is being said by these actions and therefore their careful, sensitive implementation is crucial. There are implications, in other words, that reach beyond the boundaries of the immediate moment and its satisfactions. I always point to Noyce's Dead Calm, a film which I would argue is virtually perfect until the horrendous studio imposed ending.

Spoiler

As some may know this bit was a late addition at the studio's request, nailed onto the perfectly realized original final image of John and Rae reunited.This additional ending gives us some extra cathartic release as Hughie is definitively dealt with (with a flare gun no less) and that, I'm sure, was the studio's rationale. To say it cheapens the point of the film and traduces its significance is an understatement. Because what was overlooked here by those inclined toward only cathartic release of the most obvious kind was the film's whole point and reason for being. In the original ending Rae saves John and she is able to do so because she has been forced to disengage from the oppression of grief and take an active role in his rescue which is also her own salvation. She has to live in other words and this is why the measure of what she does is so important and carries so much weight. She is not depicted as the already established tough woman of so many female empowerment fantasies; what she does is done out of a desperate necessity and her strength emerges from that need. To have John immediately turn around and rescue Rae does not indicate some kind of assertion of equivalence or marital balance but rather just an re-establishment of the primacy of male heroics of the laziest kind, tied appropriately to the tired cliche of the killer's one-last-time reappearance. It also undermines the import of Rae's action, positioning it as just one act of heroism rather than the defining one. Beyond that, the studio imposed ending also trashes the delicate ambiguity suggested by Rae's earlier dispatch of the unconscious Hughie on a floating liferaft. To leave him so ambiguously adrift was proper because it reflected the precarious nature of Rae's own savagely won stability: that it was not definitive, that the spectres of trauma would always be there in the margins of her mind. The characters are in many respects abstractions or ciphers and this is fitting as they are primarily engaged in the acting out of a symbolic rehabilitation. This gets totally lost if the precious harmony of those elements is mishandled. I have been waiting for years for a "director's cut" of this film to make an appearance sans the ridiculous ending; to leave it in its present state maintains an unacceptable blight on an otherwise perfect picture.

[barryconvex]

The best "bad guy doesn't get killed" ending for me is

Spoiler

Black Rain

For me it's

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The Limey!

i think you're forgetting the ultimate...

Spoiler

chinatown