{"id":957,"date":"2014-10-07T22:46:51","date_gmt":"2014-10-07T22:46:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cinemacocoa.com\/?p=957"},"modified":"2014-10-07T22:46:51","modified_gmt":"2014-10-07T22:46:51","slug":"review-the-last-stand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cinemacocoa.com\/?p=957","title":{"rendered":"Review: The Last Stand"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
\nEven with the simplest premise imaginable, Arnold Schwarzenegger’s newest solo outing is surprisingly good fun.<\/div>\n

Now sheriff of a lazy, backwater town, Ray Owens (Schwarzenegger) used to be an LA cop and soon finds his old skills required once more when a drug lord makes a prison break for the Mexican border and only his small town stands in the way.<\/p>\n

Directed by Kim Jee-Woon (director of The Good, The Bad and the Weird<\/i>, which I highly recommend by the way! Very oddball) The Last Stand<\/i> benefits first and foremost from its good sense of humour.
\nOne cannot help but compare to Stallone’s solo reprisal Bullet to the Head<\/i> that came out this year, and unlike Stallone’s preachy, testosterone fueled medodrama, Schwarzenegger’s film feels a lot more entertaining and ever so slightly self-aware. He only complains that he’s old once. Once<\/i>! Plus his lines aren’t completely cheesy (he doesn’t even say “I’ll be Back”, in fact he says: “I’ll be right back”, twist!) and my favourite was surely: “You make us immigrants look bad,” with the stony irony only Arnie can deliver.
\nStrangely, Arnie is teamed up with a bumbling, insecure lot of small town police officers (shades of Simon Pegg and Nick Frost’s Hot Fuzz<\/i>) who include Johnny Knoxville. Wait, what? Knoxville is zany, but it only makes Arnold’s grim facade more amusing by proxy.<\/p>\n

It isn’t the most original of stories. There is a parallel story involving Forest Whitaker’s FBI trying and failing to stop the drug lord’s escape, but it feels a little repetitive and there’s no surprise in the payoff (except possibly the most underplayed “twist” I’ve ever seen). The soundtrack is average, the sound effects are stock, and there’s even a romantic couple thrown in for good measure just to tick all the necessary boxes.<\/p>\n

But, for a “welcome back Arnold” vehicle, it is great fun. You can tell he is happy to be back and doing his own thing, with plenty of subtle undertones for an ex-Governor. Recommended for action junkies and (obviously) Arnie fans.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nJust… do more of your own thing, Arnold. While I’ve not seen Escape Plan<\/em> yet, I can safely say The Last Stand<\/i> is better than The Expendables film (the first one, definitely) it probably helps that Stallone wasn’t directing here.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Even with the simplest premise imaginable, Arnold Schwarzenegger’s newest solo outing is surprisingly good fun. Now sheriff of a lazy, backwater town, Ray Owens (Schwarzenegger) used to be an LA cop and soon finds his old skills required once more when a drug lord makes a prison break for the Mexican border and only his… <\/p>\n

Read More<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[146,310,1140,1176,1675,2532,3071],"class_list":["post-957","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-action","tag-arnold-schwarzenegger","tag-film","tag-forest-whitaker","tag-johnny-knoxville","tag-review","tag-the-last-stand"],"yoast_head":"\nReview: The Last Stand - Cinema Cocoa<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/cinema-cocoa-e80a6e.ingress-haven.ewp.live\/?p=957\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Review: The Last Stand - Cinema Cocoa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Even with the simplest premise imaginable, Arnold Schwarzenegger’s newest solo outing is surprisingly good fun. Now sheriff of a lazy, backwater town, Ray Owens (Schwarzenegger) used to be an LA cop and soon finds his old skills required once more when a drug lord makes a prison break for the Mexican border and only his... Read More\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/cinema-cocoa-e80a6e.ingress-haven.ewp.live\/?p=957\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Cinema Cocoa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-10-07T22:46:51+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/cinemacocoa.files.wordpress.com\/2014\/10\/934c6-thelaststand.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cinemac0c0a\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cinemac0c0a\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cinema-cocoa-e80a6e.ingress-haven.ewp.live\/?p=957#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cinema-cocoa-e80a6e.ingress-haven.ewp.live\/?p=957\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cinemac0c0a\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cinema-cocoa-e80a6e.ingress-haven.ewp.live\/#\/schema\/person\/42647fa8810cea5c145c053c14e5509b\"},\"headline\":\"Review: The Last Stand\",\"datePublished\":\"2014-10-07T22:46:51+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cinema-cocoa-e80a6e.ingress-haven.ewp.live\/?p=957\"},\"wordCount\":404,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cinema-cocoa-e80a6e.ingress-haven.ewp.live\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cinema-cocoa-e80a6e.ingress-haven.ewp.live\/?p=957#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\/\/cinemacocoa.files.wordpress.com\/2014\/10\/934c6-thelaststand.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"action\",\"Arnold Schwarzenegger\",\"film\",\"forest whitaker\",\"Johnny Knoxville\",\"review\",\"The Last Stand\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/cinema-cocoa-e80a6e.ingress-haven.ewp.live\/?p=957#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cinema-cocoa-e80a6e.ingress-haven.ewp.live\/?p=957\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/cinema-cocoa-e80a6e.ingress-haven.ewp.live\/?p=957\",\"name\":\"Review: The Last Stand - Cinema Cocoa\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cinema-cocoa-e80a6e.ingress-haven.ewp.live\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cinema-cocoa-e80a6e.ingress-haven.ewp.live\/?p=957#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cinema-cocoa-e80a6e.ingress-haven.ewp.live\/?p=957#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\/\/cinemacocoa.files.wordpress.com\/2014\/10\/934c6-thelaststand.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2014-10-07T22:46:51+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cinema-cocoa-e80a6e.ingress-haven.ewp.live\/?p=957#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/cinema-cocoa-e80a6e.ingress-haven.ewp.live\/?p=957\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cinema-cocoa-e80a6e.ingress-haven.ewp.live\/?p=957#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/cinemacocoa.files.wordpress.com\/2014\/10\/934c6-thelaststand.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"http:\/\/cinemacocoa.files.wordpress.com\/2014\/10\/934c6-thelaststand.jpg\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cinema-cocoa-e80a6e.ingress-haven.ewp.live\/?p=957#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/cinema-cocoa-e80a6e.ingress-haven.ewp.live\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Review: The Last Stand\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cinema-cocoa-e80a6e.ingress-haven.ewp.live\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/cinema-cocoa-e80a6e.ingress-haven.ewp.live\/\",\"name\":\"Cinema Cocoa\",\"description\":\"Who doesn't like cocoa with their film journalism?\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cinema-cocoa-e80a6e.ingress-haven.ewp.live\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/cinema-cocoa-e80a6e.ingress-haven.ewp.live\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cinema-cocoa-e80a6e.ingress-haven.ewp.live\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Cinema Cocoa\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/cinema-cocoa-e80a6e.ingress-haven.ewp.live\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cinema-cocoa-e80a6e.ingress-haven.ewp.live\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/cinemacocoa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/title_image_new.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/cinemacocoa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/title_image_new.png\",\"width\":100,\"height\":100,\"caption\":\"Cinema Cocoa\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cinema-cocoa-e80a6e.ingress-haven.ewp.live\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cinema-cocoa-e80a6e.ingress-haven.ewp.live\/#\/schema\/person\/42647fa8810cea5c145c053c14e5509b\",\"name\":\"cinemac0c0a\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cinema-cocoa-e80a6e.ingress-haven.ewp.live\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/deceb154fb7939a1d7f2a77b64e2084c361a4e0afbe41f766e4258e6935b4b45?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/deceb154fb7939a1d7f2a77b64e2084c361a4e0afbe41f766e4258e6935b4b45?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"cinemac0c0a\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/cinemacocoa.com\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/cinemacocoa.com\/?author=1\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Review: The Last Stand - Cinema Cocoa","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/cinema-cocoa-e80a6e.ingress-haven.ewp.live\/?p=957","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Review: The Last Stand - Cinema Cocoa","og_description":"Even with the simplest premise imaginable, Arnold Schwarzenegger’s newest solo outing is surprisingly good fun. Now sheriff of a lazy, backwater town, Ray Owens (Schwarzenegger) used to be an LA cop and soon finds his old skills required once more when a drug lord makes a prison break for the Mexican border and only his... Read More","og_url":"https:\/\/cinema-cocoa-e80a6e.ingress-haven.ewp.live\/?p=957","og_site_name":"Cinema Cocoa","article_published_time":"2014-10-07T22:46:51+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/cinemacocoa.files.wordpress.com\/2014\/10\/934c6-thelaststand.jpg","type":"","width":"","height":""}],"author":"cinemac0c0a","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"cinemac0c0a","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/cinema-cocoa-e80a6e.ingress-haven.ewp.live\/?p=957#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/cinema-cocoa-e80a6e.ingress-haven.ewp.live\/?p=957"},"author":{"name":"cinemac0c0a","@id":"https:\/\/cinema-cocoa-e80a6e.ingress-haven.ewp.live\/#\/schema\/person\/42647fa8810cea5c145c053c14e5509b"},"headline":"Review: The Last Stand","datePublished":"2014-10-07T22:46:51+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/cinema-cocoa-e80a6e.ingress-haven.ewp.live\/?p=957"},"wordCount":404,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/cinema-cocoa-e80a6e.ingress-haven.ewp.live\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/cinema-cocoa-e80a6e.ingress-haven.ewp.live\/?p=957#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/cinemacocoa.files.wordpress.com\/2014\/10\/934c6-thelaststand.jpg","keywords":["action","Arnold Schwarzenegger","film","forest whitaker","Johnny Knoxville","review","The Last Stand"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/cinema-cocoa-e80a6e.ingress-haven.ewp.live\/?p=957#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/cinema-cocoa-e80a6e.ingress-haven.ewp.live\/?p=957","url":"https:\/\/cinema-cocoa-e80a6e.ingress-haven.ewp.live\/?p=957","name":"Review: The Last Stand - Cinema Cocoa","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/cinema-cocoa-e80a6e.ingress-haven.ewp.live\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/cinema-cocoa-e80a6e.ingress-haven.ewp.live\/?p=957#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/cinema-cocoa-e80a6e.ingress-haven.ewp.live\/?p=957#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/cinemacocoa.files.wordpress.com\/2014\/10\/934c6-thelaststand.jpg","datePublished":"2014-10-07T22:46:51+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/cinema-cocoa-e80a6e.ingress-haven.ewp.live\/?p=957#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/cinema-cocoa-e80a6e.ingress-haven.ewp.live\/?p=957"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/cinema-cocoa-e80a6e.ingress-haven.ewp.live\/?p=957#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/cinemacocoa.files.wordpress.com\/2014\/10\/934c6-thelaststand.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/cinemacocoa.files.wordpress.com\/2014\/10\/934c6-thelaststand.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/cinema-cocoa-e80a6e.ingress-haven.ewp.live\/?p=957#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/cinema-cocoa-e80a6e.ingress-haven.ewp.live\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Review: The Last Stand"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/cinema-cocoa-e80a6e.ingress-haven.ewp.live\/#website","url":"https:\/\/cinema-cocoa-e80a6e.ingress-haven.ewp.live\/","name":"Cinema Cocoa","description":"Who doesn't like cocoa with their film journalism?","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/cinema-cocoa-e80a6e.ingress-haven.ewp.live\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/cinema-cocoa-e80a6e.ingress-haven.ewp.live\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/cinema-cocoa-e80a6e.ingress-haven.ewp.live\/#organization","name":"Cinema Cocoa","url":"https:\/\/cinema-cocoa-e80a6e.ingress-haven.ewp.live\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/cinema-cocoa-e80a6e.ingress-haven.ewp.live\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/cinemacocoa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/title_image_new.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/cinemacocoa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/title_image_new.png","width":100,"height":100,"caption":"Cinema Cocoa"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/cinema-cocoa-e80a6e.ingress-haven.ewp.live\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/cinema-cocoa-e80a6e.ingress-haven.ewp.live\/#\/schema\/person\/42647fa8810cea5c145c053c14e5509b","name":"cinemac0c0a","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/cinema-cocoa-e80a6e.ingress-haven.ewp.live\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/deceb154fb7939a1d7f2a77b64e2084c361a4e0afbe41f766e4258e6935b4b45?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/deceb154fb7939a1d7f2a77b64e2084c361a4e0afbe41f766e4258e6935b4b45?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"cinemac0c0a"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/cinemacocoa.com"],"url":"https:\/\/cinemacocoa.com\/?author=1"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemacocoa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/957","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemacocoa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemacocoa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemacocoa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemacocoa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=957"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cinemacocoa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/957\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemacocoa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=957"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemacocoa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=957"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemacocoa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=957"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}