The Last Stand (2013) is Arnold Schwarzenegger's official return to top billing after his adventures as the Governor of California (2003-2011). However, his presence in this film isn't as prominent as one would expect as Forest Whitaker and him actually have almost as much screen time; perhaps this was a way to ease Arnold back into the acting game. What is even stranger is that the marketing campaign deemed that not only did Mr. Whitaker not deserve his name on the poster, unless you read the small print, but also should not be featured in the official trailer. Instead, as you can see clearly to the left, for some reason, the marketing team and the producers believed that Jackass (2000-2002) legend Johnny Knoxville would attract the crowd they wanted, even though he has only starred in two action films (Walking Tall (2004) and The Dukes of Hazzard (2005)) nearly a decade earlier. Not only is this excessively misleading as his total screen time tallies up to, at most, 6 minutes, but it ostracised people who cannot stand the antics of Mr. Knoxville and repelled audiences from the film. Perhaps this is precisely why the film only earned $12 million in the US market, placing it 27th on the list of Arnold's box-office successes. Worldwide, the trailers and marketing strategy chose to push Knoxville to the background and, as a result, the film earned over three times more. See film poster below.
Now as action films go, the overall set up and implementation is rather decent. When the real action hits, it's nearly all practical effects, filled with exploding cars and blood squibs. Though the film is disbalanced, as nearly half is about the efforts of the FBI trying to track down a cartel boss after he escapes custody, the development of our sheriff and his deputies in a small town near the Mexican border is rather fun and enjoyable to watch. Though it's sad to see Arnold with less swagger to his step, he eases up when film begins to focus more on his crew and the one liners start coming out. Sadly, one of them is "I'm old." The film's finale is filled with chaos, and over-the-top violence as if the film just woke up. From body parts to a henchman being riddled with bullets, some of the film deaths are worthy of classic Arnold.
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