The Last Stand finds Arnold Schwarzenegger returning to action in a big way after his expanded cameo in The Expendables 2. The action film lands on DVD, Blu-Ray and Digital Download, and does Movie Fanatic recommend it? You bet.
Honestly, we’re kind of surprised the film didn’t do better in its theatrical release as it got (surprisingly) good reviews, great word of mouth and well… it’s Arnold! So now that it’s arrived on home video, hopefully it will gain a larger audience and become the cult classic it deserves to be.
Shown off in The Last Stand trailer, Schwarzenegger stars as a small town sheriff who “retired” to the Arizona hamlet after serving as a highly decorated LAPD officer. His days are filled with petty complaints from citizens and the occasional traffic ticket dispute. But when one of the most wanted drug lords in the world (Gabriel Cortez) is arrested by the feds, he is in the middle of being transferred and escapes.
Along with his armed-to-the-teeth posse, he is making a beeline for the border, but first must drive through Schwarzenegger’s border city to achieve his freedom. You can probably guess that the lawman will not have it.
As we stated in The Last Stand review when it hit theaters, the cast is up for the challenge of supporting the legendary action star in his big-screen return to greatness. Starring as his deputies are Jaimie Alexander (Thor), Luis Guzman and a steely Rodrigo Santoro. But, stealing the show is Johnny Knoxville as the local gun nut who is deputized to aid in the battle that is speeding towards town.
Proof of how surprisingly good The Last Stand is is seen in the pudding that is the appearance of Oscar winner Forest Whitaker as the fed in charge of tracking down the drug lord. Although his scenes with Schwarzenegger are few, the two have an immediate chemistry that leads us to beg for more films pairing these two!
The extras for The Last Stand DVD and Blu-Ray are solid, but not extraordinary. The usual suspects are here including several deleted scenes that after viewing, it’s easy to see why they were cut. After witnessing the movie, checking them out is more of a curiosity feeding endeavor than a necessity. But, the extended scenes that take clips that made the cut of the movie and give us a little more actually enhance the entire story experience.
The Not in My Town: Making The Last Stand featurette is the most fascinating of the bonus docs. It takes viewers behind the scenes to show how some of the more intricate stunts were achieved. For anyone who is an action junkie, it is an absolute joy. One of the pivotal scenes in the film (so don’t watch this making-of until after watching the movie) is Cornfield Chaos. Ever wonder who to orchestrate a high octane car chase through a cornfield… well now you have your answer!
And as Knoxville’s character is a major gun nut (and we mean that in the most affectionate of ways), the featurette The Dinkum Firearm and Historic Weaponry Museum should feed the fancy of those like minded of you out there that are fascinated by the history of weapons and more importantly, it is congruent with The Last Stand story, which is more than we can say for most bonus features that seem unrelated to its movie.