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http://entertainment.time.com/2013/01/18/hero-glock-dirty-arnolds-back-guns-blazing-in-the-last-stand/

Hero Glock Dirty: Arnold’s Back, Guns Blazing, in The Last Stand

Schwarzenegger returns in an NRA vision of America the Beautiful that even a pacifist could enjoy — because it's a Movie

By Richard Corliss Jan. 18, 2013Add a Comment

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Image: The Last Stand

Merrick Morton/Lionsgate

The Last Stand

Year: 2013

Director: Kim Jee-woon

Studio: Lionsgate

Actors: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Johnny Knoxville, Forest Whitaker

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“I told you I’d be back,” Arnold Schwarzenegger says in the promo that introduces The Last Stand, the Governator’s first starring role since Terminator 3 a decade ago. Never averse to reusing his trademark catchphrases or characters, the 65-year-old slab of Austrian beef returns to the private sector with the very definition of an all-American action film — guns, cars and a sexy hostage — that happens to be directed by Kim Jee-woon, a South Korean. It’s an enjoyably old-fashioned shoot-out, if you can shake off the current headlines and sink in to a fantasy of hyper-violence that plays like an NRA vision of America the Beautiful.

(READ: Corliss’s 1990 profile of Arnold Schwarzenegger by subscribing to TIME)

At an age when many Americans make do as Walmart greeters, Schwarzenegger nimbly hulks back into the movie spotlight after two terms as California Governor. Through graceful aging and the wonders of medical aesthetics, his face has achieved a granite gravitas suitable for the Mount Rushmore of movie studs where he belongs. From his first big movie, Conan the Barbarian in 1982, he created a dual image of a comic-book superhero and its perfect deadpan parody: muscles on muscles, a grim visage and the Teutonic grunt of a Wagner aria as sampled by Megadeth. The franchises he launched have spun on with other actors for decades, in updates or remakes of Conan, The Terminator, Predator and Total Recall. Yet there’s nothing to match the original Arnold for grand-scale serious silliness, as amply displayed in The Last Stand.

(FIND: Schwarzenegger on TIME’s list of 25 Greatest Movie Villains)

In Andrew Knauer’s script, Schwarzenegger is called Ray Owens — exactly the anonymous heartland name you’d give to the cyborg from another planet — and serves as the “pissant county sheriff” in the sleepy border town of Sommerton Junction. The locals take little heed of this judicious, soft-spoken Golem, leaving their cars in no-parking zones and ignoring his advice to be careful out there. Ray’s apprehension is on target. The Mexican drug lord Gabriel Cortez (Spanish heartthrob Eduardo Noriega) has escaped from maximum security in Las Vegas, taking a sexy FBI agent (Genesis Rodriguez) as hostage, and is headed back home in a souped-up Corvette ZR1 that can speed toward the border at 200 mph. From FBI agent John Bannister (Forest Whitaker), Ray learns that Cortez’s route is to pass right through Sommerton, where his gang has constructed a bridge across the narrow ravine separating the U.S. from Mexico. “I’ve seen enough bloodshed and death,” says Ray, who quit his job as an L.A. cop for the serenity of Sommerton. “I know what’s coming.”

(READ: Richard Schickel on Forest Whitaker in The Last King of Scotland)

So do any citizens who’ve seen the movies The Last Stand is based on: the 1959 Howard Hawks Western Rio Bravo and John Carpenter’s 1976 sorta-remake Assault on Precinct 13. Both films spent their first two acts assembling the team that would stand strong against an infestation of villains. Same here. To stop Cortez, Ray summons a motley posse: his game but untested deputies Mike Figuerola (Luis Guzman), Jerry Bailey (Zach Gilford) and Sarah Torrance (Jaimie Alexander), plus gun-museum owner Lewis Dinkum (Jackass’s Johnny Knoxville) and Frank Martinez (Rodrigo Santoro), Sarah’s erstwhile beau and a current resident of the local jail. Problem is that the small-town camaraderie here is perfunctory, short on dramatic juice. All the Sommerton stalwarts get too much face time, as if the movie were about human beings, not archetypes and artillery.

(READ: Joel Stein’s profile of Jackass Johnny Knoxville)

Slapdash in its character portraits, the movie is slambang in its action scenes; it springs to life whenever it promises death. Like an old Fred Astaire musical, Top Hat or Swing Time, where the dialogue scenes are feeble but the singing and dancing sublime, The Last Stand infuses its production numbers — the big chases, break-outs and face-offs — with a high thrill quotient. Cortez’s escape from Bannister’s FBI cortege in Vegas has the oversize showmanship of a David Copperfield extravaganza, as a giant magnet descends during a stop light and lifts the van to a tall building’s roof, whence the drug lord and three abettors ride wires across Las Vegas Blvd. to another building and vanish.

(SEE: A TIME.com slide show of David Blaine’s Greatest Hits) 

Even quiet, amiable Sommerton is a place where someone is less likely to say, “Good morning,” than “Get the Glock.” A Cortez enforcer named Burrell (Fargo’s Peter Stormare, looking here like Louis C.K. doing a Timothy Carey bared-teeth impression) has come to town, commandeering a farm by blowing ornery Harry Dean Stanton off his tractor and into the next life. When Sarah and Jerry show up to investigate, Burrell douses the field lights and engages them in a firefight with night-vision goggles; it’s Zero Dark Thirty, Homeland Edition. The Main Street showdown has Ray blasting a bad guy’s brains out as the two men fall from a three-story building, then using the town school bus — fortunately without kids inside — as a barricade.

(READ: Massimo Calabresi on the torture scenes in Zero Dark Thirty)

After the home team fends off the visitors by the simple expedient of shooting straight when the bad guys don’t, Ray borrows an illegally parked car to pursue Cortez in his ZR1 through a mature cornfield. Think of North by Northwest but in hot rods, and with Korean composer Mowg scoring the chase with a Bernard Herrmann Hitchcock-movie theme. (Oddly, it’s from Psycho.) Eventually, Ray will throw away his weapons to confront Cortez in a WWE slapdown. Last week’s Gangster Squad climaxed with the same curious retrenchment to caveman fisticuffs. A man’s gotta prove he’s a man with a gun and then without.

(READ: Corliss’s review of Gangster Squad)

Kim Jee-woon made a bunch of vivid melodramas, including A Bittersweet Life, I Saw the Devil and The Good, the Bad, the Weird, back in South Korea, where firearms are hard to come by. (The main character in A Bittersweet Life spends a good part of the film just trying to buy a pistol.) As the first Korean auteur to direct a large-scale American movie, Kim is ready to revel in the notion of a 24-seven gun show in a town with a larger arsenal than the director’s northern neighbor, Kim Jong-un. Everybody in Sommerton is packing, including a granny type who runs the antique shop. Among the cache stocked by Knoxville’s Lewis are all manner of assault rifles and a 1939 Vickers machine gun that he endearingly calls “my crazy little bitch.” When Ray flourishes the Vickers as Cortez’s men rumbles on to Main Street, he snarls, “Welcome to Sommerton.”

(READ: TIME’s brief on Kim Jee-woon’s The Good, the Bad, the Weird)

This is where I’m supposed to tut a liberal tut and blame the movie and its ilk for raising gun love to a theology. But what I’m thinking watching this scene is: An Austrian-born star aiming a British armament at a gang run by a Mexican played by a Spaniard — in a picture directed by a Korean! For good or for ill, you decide, The Last Stand demonstrates that the U.S. film industry is more than just a prime exporter of our movie values. In calling on Schwarzenegger, Noriega and Kim (plus two of his compatriots, Mowg and gifted cinematographer Kim Ji-yong) and setting them loose in a Wayne LaPierre wet dream, The Last Stand functions as a global outreach initiative for American values: the United Nations of blowin’ stuff up.

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http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-last-stand-2013

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When Arnold Schwarzenegger's "True Lies" sidekick Tom Arnold guested on Howard Stern's radio show earlier this week, he told of attending Arnold's 65th birthday party, which featured exotic wild animals that Schwarzenegger had rescued from a circus.

According to Tom Arnold, kangaroos were hopping about, and there was even a 600-pound tiger in attendance.

"Poot the tiger in dah pool!" commanded Schwarzenegger, according to the story, and indeed, the tiger wound up in the pool.

So basically Arnold Schwarzenegger celebrated his 65th birthday with a true-life rendition of "Life of Pi." Has anyone lived a larger, more cartoonishly voracious version of the immigrant American dream than this guy?

It stands to reason Schwarzenegger would return for his first starring role since 2003 with a BIG bang — in fact, an entire movie filled with one big bang after another. To call "The Last Stand" gratuitously violent is to pay the movie a compliment. It's sort of the whole point.

If you've got violent-movie fatigue, and you're too exhausted from real-life carnage on the news to enjoy an R-rated blood-fest in which a number of kills are executed as deliberately funny visual punchlines, you do not want to go anywhere near this film. But if you're a fan of stylish, relentlessly loud shootouts, questionable plot developments be damned, this is your ticket to weekend escapism.

Nearly 30 years after the original "Terminator" made him one of the most unlikely and most popular movie stars of our time, Schwarzenegger still has that thick Austrian accent, which somehow makes him more endearing, especially when he's playing a former highly decorated Los Angeles cop named Ray Owens. Really? He was given that name at birth?

At 65, Arnold in some ways resembles a cyborg more than ever. His skin is pulled back so tight, his eyes are mere slits; his shoulders are sloped with age but his arms are still huge. Schwarzenegger is still a formidable albeit self-deprecating presence onscreen. Responding to the deadpan question, "How are you?" after one violent dustup, Ray simply replies, "old." And in an exchange of insults and punches with a bad guy from Mexico, he says, "You give immigrants like us a bad name."

Ray is now in semi-retirement as the sheriff of the sleepy Arizona border town of Sommerton Junction, an outpost so small and inconsequential I'll bet even that the Google car hasn't driven through yet. Ray's three-person force of deputies includes human bowling ball Luis Guzman as Mike, ever ready with the comic relief; Jaimie Alexander as the tough and lovely Sarah, and Zach Gilford from "Friday Night Lights" as the earnest but bumbling Jerry.

With the high school football team playing a big game out of town, Sommerton Junction is conveniently deserted, save for a few stalwarts at the diner and maybe a farmer or two on the edge of town. Looks like a quiet weekend!

Yeah, right.

As we get to meet the town's likable cast of characters (including a zany gun enthusiast played by Johnny Knoxville), there's a parallel story taking place in Las Vegas, as FBI agent John Bannister (Forest Whitaker) marshals a team of elite law enforcement personnel tasked with transporting Gabriel Cortez (Eduardo Noriega), who we're told is the most notorious drug lord since Pablo Escobar.

Those transport-the-dangerous-prisoner missions never work, do they? Soon Cortez is behind the wheel of a souped-up CORVETTE, and if you don't know it's a CORVETTE, you'll get constant reminders it's a CORVETTE. Boy, is that CORVETTE fast!

The title tells us "The Last Stand" is a modern-day Western, borrowing elements of "Rio Bravo" and a dozen other films. Of course, there are myriad ways in which the government should be able to stop the drug lord from making it across the border in his CORVETTE, but we get a few throwaway lines (and more than a few explosions and car crashes) that pave the way for the big showdown pitting Ray and his ragtag deputies against the drug lord's heavily armed battalion of thugs, led by Peter Stormare.

"The Last Stand" marks the American debut of the Korean director Jee-woon Kim, who delivers a half-dozen quality kills that will leave audiences squirming and then laughing at the sheer audacity of it all. With all the high-speed chases and ear-shattering explosions, perhaps the most exciting and tense scene features two high-powered cars playing a game of cat and mouse while slowly rolling through a cornfield. (There's an overhead shot during this sequence that's just hilarious.)

This is what Arnold does best: big-gun violence and one-liner laughs. He's still got it. I don't know why Johnny Knoxville gets equal billing on some of the film's posters, seeing as how he has a mercifully short role. (Knoxville's fine at playing Knoxville, but a little of that cackling lunatic shtick goes a long way.) Maybe the studio figured the original "Jackass" would help pull in a younger audience.

Like the FBI agents and the drug lord in this movie, they shouldn't underestimate Arnold's ability to get the job done on his own.

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http://www.film.com/movies/the-last-stand-review

Review: ‘The Last Stand’ Is an Adequate Arnie Vehicle

William Goss January 16, 2013

LAST-STAND-615

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The bloodshed speaks volumes.

It makes sense why each of the main creative forces behind “The Last Stand” would have signed on to make it. With his first produced screenplay, writer Andrew Knauer has crafted an action-packed Western laced with comedic elements and propelled by a ticking-clock plot. For his first English-language production, director Kim Jee-woon gets to flex his well-established genre-hopping muscles, and for his first leading role in a decade, Arnold Schwarzenegger is offered endless ammo and quips with which to maintain his superstar status.

I’m not entirely sure if the end result is quite what any or all of these men might have set out to make, but it’s a sloppy bit of fun once it gets going, situated well between both the best and worst that all involved have had to offer audiences. (I’m giving Knauer the benefit of the doubt here.)

The fairly rough-hewn Schwarzenegger plays Ray Owens, sheriff of the sleepy border town of Sommerton Junction, Arizona, who’s alerted by FBI Agent John Bannister (Forest Whitaker) as to the coming threat posed by fugitive Gabriel Cortez (Eduardo Noriega, defined by bland swagger). The drug kingpin has a hostage and a souped-up Corvette at his disposal, and with the help of some well-armed lackeys, he’s making a beeline from Vegas to the Mexican border.

Cortez’ plan has already resulted in nearby bloodshed, thanks to the hard-at-work henchmen led by Burrell (Peter Stormare), so Owens plans on doing his part to prevent this bad man from making it through their town, backed only by his inexperienced deputies (Luis Guzman, Zach Gilford, Jaimie Alexander, Rodrigo Santoro) and the local gun nut (Johnny Knoxville).

The first half is burdened with no small amount of labored set-up, mostly doled out through gritted teeth by Whitaker’s character, as we wait for Owens and Cortez to actually come close enough to pose a physical threat to one another. The earlier action sequences are mostly defined by constant push-ins and the aggressive use of Dutch angles, often leaving matters a hectic blur in contrast to the remarkable lucidity of the director’s earlier work (“I Saw the Devil” and “The Good, The Bad, The Weird” in particular). In the meantime, old flames talk to one another as if it’s common to rehash one another’s entire backgrounds despite years of assumed familiarity, while Guzman, Gildford and Knoxville bumble around in the margins.

Things bounce back in the film’s second half, which opts for a little less conversation, a little more action, and proceeds to interpret classic Westerns like “High Noon” and “Rio Bravo” in the vein of proudly cartoonish violence. Knoxville gets to imitate “Weird’s” buffoonish bandit, Stormare’s accent selector goes on the fritz, and Arnie ensures that baddies get blown up real good. Plenty of lip service is paid to his character’s past as an LA narcotics officer, but Schwarzenegger knows how to take down thugs and bear the weight of age with equal ease. This isn’t his “Unforgiven,” but it isn’t trying to be, and God knows that his stiff delivery still can’t salvage the worst one-liners.

The bloodshed speaks volumes enough, though, even if it takes some time getting to the mayhem proper. “The Last Stand” may not be the glorious comeback project for its star or worthy crossover effort by its director that fans may have hoped for, but at the end of the day — and in the dead of winter — at least it does what it says on the tin.

Grade: C+

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Stand': Sheriff Arnold Guns Down Shaky Plot

By JOE MORGENSTERN

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Updated Jan. 17, 2013 6:12 p.m. ET

Watch a clip from the film "The Last Stand." A drug cartel leader busts out of a courthouse and speeds to the Mexican border, where the only thing in his path is a sheriff (Arnold Schwarzenegger) and his inexperienced staff. (Photo/Video: Lionsgate)

First he was the Terminator, then the Governator. Now Arnold Schwarzenegger has cast himself as the Rejuvenator, breathing huffs and puffs of new life into his screen career. Much of "The Last Stand" is a wheezy setup for an enjoyably preposterous showdown in a sleepy Arizona border town called Sommerton Junction. That's where the sheriff, Mr. Schwarzenegger's Ray Owens, represents this nation's last hope of stopping its most-wanted fugitive, a Mexican drug-cartel kingpin who is driving toward the border at barely subsonic speeds. The main source of dramatic energy is the fugitive's ride, a modified Corvette with a 1,000-horsepower engine. Still, the movie comes up with a couple of tender moments that could pass for human, and a mano-a-mano climax in which the superhero of yore, the glint in his eye dulled but not extinguished, functions as a weirdly touching tyrannosaurus.

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Arnold Schwarzenegger Lionsgate

In celebration of Arnold Schwarzenegger's return to the big screen in a starring role with Lionsgate's "The Last Stand," here are some of our favorite Arnold one-liners from over the years. (Photo: Columbia Pictures)

The best way to see this munitions-intensive action adventure, if you must see it at all, is in the context of a shrewd commercial enterprise. The production is far from lavish. Sequences play out in sub-TV settings; even Las Vegas, where the villain, Gabriel Cortez ( Eduardo Noriega ) escapes from his FBI captors, has more than its share of empty streets and blank walls. That said, the action component pays off with ritual car chases (in the context of product placements, they come down to the black Vette versus a red Chevy Camaro); heavy weaponry, such as a World War II Vickers machine gun from a historical-weapons museum that happens to be situated in Sommerton Junction's sandy outskirts, and a reasonably buoyant spirit that pits the drug lord Goliath, with his small army of tactical support troops, against Mr. Schwarzenegger's long-in-the-tooth David.

"The Last Stand" marks the English-language debut of the Korean director Kim Jee-woon, whose eye for graphic action is more reliable than his ear for English nuance; the ponderous pacing of dialogue scenes, and the frequency of barely audible lines, suggest that the actors were on their own. But the movie isn't about eloquence, it's about giving Mr. Schwarzenegger a chance to take on new enemies that include advancing age. Johnny Knoxville is likable as the goofy proprietor of the weapons museum, and the script provides such agreeably sententious nonsense as the kingpin's comment to a terrified hostage in the passenger seat when he puts the Corvette's pedal to the metal. "Death," he tells her, "is waiting in the kitchen when you get up at night for a glass of milk."

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http://articles.latimes.com/2013/jan/17/entertainment/la-et-mn-last-stand-review-arnold-schwarzenegger-20130118

Movie review: Schwarzenegger back in action in 'The Last Stand'

Director Kim Jee-Woon's border-town drama is the actor's return to form, with guns, explosions and good guys versus bad guys, plus a few jokes thrown in.

January 17, 2013|By Mark Olsen

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Casting the former governor of California as a small-town sheriff squaring off against a drug lord, "The Last Stand" puts Arnold Schwarzenegger back in the saddle as an action movie hero. But don't expect any winking nods to his years in public office — this freewheeling vehicle is strictly concerned with cars, firepower and massive explosions.

Johnny Knoxville offers comic relief as the goofball proprietor of a back-road gun museum, which conveniently allows for an odd assortment of weapons to be used in the climactic battle.

It's that kind of movie.

PHOTOS: Schwarzenegger's many sides: The good, the bad, the bad-ass

Schwarzenegger plays Ray Owens, a former L.A. cop who left the big city for a sleepy Arizona border town where nothing ever happens. That is, until a drug lord (Eduardo Noriega) slips free from a federal agent (Forest Whitaker) in a stolen custom muscle car, with only Arnold standing between him and escape to Mexico.

Luis Guzman plays a bumbling deputy, Peter Stormare the main henchman and the mighty Harry Dean Stanton has a brief appearance as a crotchety local.

"The Last Stand" marks the English-language debut of Korean director Kim Jee-Woon. Kim's sensibility pulses through the film, though it's toned down from his cult western "The Good, the Bad, the Weird" and certainly not as twisted and gruesome as his revenge thriller "I Saw the Devil."

INTERACTIVE: '80s action heroes reload

Kim isn't afraid to balance the action with eccentric humor — muscle cars barrel through a cornfield, Main Street becomes a Looney Tunes battleground and a loading-weapons montage is played for cheeky laughs. The obligatory "Arnold is old" gags are kept to a minimum.

"The Last Stand" may not herald a full-scale reemergence for Arnold the Action Star, but it's clearly a step in that direction.

In an age when even comic book adaptations have a dour seriousness about them, this is a movie content with just being good, old-fashioned fun.

mark.olsen@latimes.com

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http://www.villagevoice.com/2013-01-16/film/the-last-stand/

Shrewd ex-politico that he is, Arnold Schwarzenegger has made his comeback movie after a decade-long hiatus a modestly scaled action programmer—more Raw Deal than Terminator—that does exactly what it should: It leaves us wanting more. Still sporting (at age 65) the kind of Charles Atlas brawn not much seen at the movies in the no-carb era, and still able to deliver a catchphrase with deadpan savoir faire, Schwarzenegger here plays an ex-LAPD narcotics cop lying low as the sheriff of a sleepy Arizona border town. When a vicious cartel lord (Eduardo Noriega) escapes from FBI custody and heads for Mexico, only lawman Arnold, his posse of crooked-shooting deputies, and a local gun nut (Johnny Knoxville) stand in his way. A veritable feature-length advertisement for assault weapons and the Second Amendment, The Last Stand marks the Hollywood debut of prolific Korean genre director Kim Jee-woon (The Good, the Bad, the Weird, I Saw the Devil), who seems to have tamped down his florid extravagance for American consumption—particularly during the movie's dreary, expository first hour. Then Kim finally lets loose, and the imaginatively choreographed mayhem that ensues—culminating in two fast cars chasing each other across a pesky cornfield—can be a wonder to behold. Scott Foundas

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The Last Stand

JANUARY 12, 2013 | 06:00AM PT

Tossing together spare parts from "Rio Bravo," "Jackass," NRA promos and vintage muscle-car commercials, this thin, jokey Arnold Schwarzenegger vehicle elevates a back-of-the-bar-napkin script with a string of proficient and sensationally violent setpieces.

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Justin Chang

Chief Film Critic

@JustinCChang

Somehow looking at once blankly inexpressive and doggedly determined, a 65-year-old Arnold Schwarzenegger makes a creaky but reasonably commercial comeback bid with “The Last Stand.” Tossing together spare parts from “Rio Bravo,” “Jackass,” NRA promos and vintage muscle-car commercials, this thin, jokey star vehicle elevates a back-of-the-bar-napkin script with a string of proficient and sensationally violent setpieces. Although devotees of Schwarzenegger’s pre-gubernatorial heyday and helmer Kim Jee-woon’s gonzo Korean thrillers will find neither man at his best here, this Lionsgate release should capitalize on hardcore-fan interest to eke out solid theatrical and ancillary biz.

Schwarzenegger’s first star vehicle in the decade since “T3: Rise of the Machines” takes its sweet time setting up a bullet-ridden standoff in Sommerton Junction, a small Arizona town that’s about to get an unwelcome visit from Cortez (Eduardo Noriega), a fugitive drug lord fleeing toward the U.S.-Mexico border. With the feds (led by Forest Whitaker) trying in vain to recapture Cortez as he barrels down the highway at 250 mph in a tricked-out Corvette, it falls to Sommerton’s sheriff, Ray Owens (Schwarzenegger), and his motley crew of deputies to protect their town and apprehend the escaped convict.

Andrew Knauer’s first-produced screenplay lays out this standard setup with much drawn-out toggling between the useless feds and the scrappy Sommertonites, an assortment of thinly drawn types including a fresh-faced deputy (Jaimie Alexander); a scowling old coot (Luis Guzman); a studly, sensitive jailbird (Rodrigo Santoro); and an eccentric illegal-arms dealer (Johnny Knoxville). They’re a resourceful bunch, but, as is made clear in a deadly early skirmish with Cortez’s henchmen (led by Peter Stormare), which effectively kicks the picture into high gear, they’re ill-prepared for the looming bloodbath, with one crucial and obvious exception.

“I know what’s coming,” Schwarzenegger grunts, “because I have seen enough blood and death.” He sure has, and the weight of that legacy lends this often broadly comic endeavor the elegiac tone of a career salute, a quality that intermittently distracts from the slapdash construction of the story and the incongruousness of the actor’s presence in this sun-drenched Arizona backwater. There are some brief references to Owens’ past as a Los Angeles narcotics cop, and the traumatic baggage that sent him into self-imposed exile, but fleshing out these points convincingly seems to be the least of the pic’s priorities.

What happens, in any event, is at once predictable and largely beside the point. Cars run into, over and around each other; blood spurts, sprays and sometimes explodes in clouds of red smoke; good and bad guys alike run around brandishing dangerous weapons and intimidating accents; various one-liners land with a wink and a thud; Knoxville wears strange hats and enacts reckless stunts that occasionally intersect with the narrative; and Schwarzenegger, when he’s not plowing his way through reams of semi-intelligible dialogue, proves he’s still capable of firing off a few rounds and pulling broken glass out of his leg.

The cartoonish nature of the proceedings is at times heightened and at other times mitigated by Kim’s forceful action chops, which were recently demonstrated in his spaghetti-Western pastiche “The Good the Bad the Weird” and his merciless revenge thriller “I Saw the Devil.” His Hollywood debut isn’t nearly as visceral or unhinged as those earlier efforts, though it does offer numerous examples of his skill at staging mayhem on a grand scale, as well as in closer, more dangerously intimate quarters. The helmer is especially good at integrating his New Mexico locations into the action, from a key combat scene on a bridge to a car chase that unfolds, with limited visibility, in a cornfield.

Kim’s handling of his first English-speaking cast isn’t quite as assured, although everyone more or less gets by; the strongest impressions are made by Zach Gilford’s touchingly inexperienced cop and Noriega’s diabolical-looking goatee. Ji Yong Kim’s sharp HD lensing, Mowg’s neo-Western-flavored score and Franco Carbone’s well-mounted production design round out a classy tech package.

The Last Stand

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http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movie/last-stand/review/411727

negger is back in a paint-by-numbers Western from Korean director Kim Jee-woon.

The Governator is reduced to a border-town sheriff but still brandishes some big guns in The Last Stand, Arnold Schwarzenegger's first starring vehicle in 10 years. The title is already a misnomer: The 65-year-old action icon has completed two additional films and has two or three more in the pipeline as he attempts to engineer a viable comeback after his detour through Sacramento. Preoccupied with the the caliber and firepower of its arsenal of artillery to an almost weirdly obsessive degree, this often jokey and sometimes abstract shoot-'em-up also, under present circumstances, makes conspicuously tasteless use of a school bus in one of its most violent scenes. At one point in what is not the worst but is very far from the best film the star has made in his career, customers clear out of a diner after the lawman enters it and a waitress quips, “You sure are bad for business.” Lionsgate can only hope that the same will not be said about their star after such a long layoff. It seems most likely that this formulaic concoction will connect with a decent number of longtime fans curious to see if their man can still deliver the goods, but with better results overseas than domestically.

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There are moments when Schwarzenegger's Sheriff Ray Owens, still in strong shape but undeniably easing into the late afternoon of his life, resembles characters Clint Eastwood played back in the 1990s, physically capable guys who can still rise to the occasion even if they have slowed a step and will feel the bangs and bruises longer after the action's over. This is a direction the still-imposing former body builder could plausibly pursue for a few more years, but the extent of his big-screen return will depend in large measure upon whether or not his name still means much to younger audiences.

VIDEO: 'The Last Stand' Trailer Marks Arnold Schwarzenegger's Comeback

It's pretty certain he won't draw many newcomers to the cause on the basis of this contrivance, which is built around a car chase that mostly involves only one car, a Corvette ZR1 with more than 1000 horsepower and capable of speeds over 200 miles per hour. South Korean genre director Kim Jee-woon, who established his wild action credentials with the outlandish Korean Western The Good, the Bad, the Weird in 2008, launches his American debut in humorous fashion, but things quickly become serious when, in related incidents, malevolent baddie Burrell (Peter Stormare) guns down an old farmer (an unbilled Harry Dean Stanton) atop his tractor, and the biggest and baddest Mexican cartel leader, Gabriel Cortez (Eduardo Noriega), escapes from an FBI caravan led by agent John Bannister (Forest Whitaker).

Getting behind the wheel of the 'vette with a female FBI hostage (Genesis Rodriguez) in tow, Cortez zooms across the desert at night, busting blockades and going so fast that he's gone before radar guns can track him, on his way to a secret border crossing near Sheriff Owens' town, sleepy Summerton Junction, Ariz. Learning Cortez is heading his way, Owens enlarges his motley crew, initially consisting of the enthusiastic Figgie (Luis Guzman), the level-headed Sarah (Jaimie Alexander) and the inept Jerry (Zach Gilford), by reluctantly recruiting jailbird Frank (Rodrigo Santoro) and local nut job Lewis (Johnny Knoxville), who scampers around in a medieval helmet that makes him look like a refugee from Monty Python and who owns a 1939 Vickers repeating gun that's called the “Nazi Killer” for a good reason.

In a prolonged gun battle, these down-home characters dispatch Burrell's goons, but not before a big yellow school bus (empty of students, fortunately) becomes the focal point of much of the most intense shooting, which can't help but bring to mind thoughts of the recent tragedy in Connecticut. As Agent Bannister's crew lags far behind their escaped prey, all Owens has to do is wait and the arrogant handsome devil will come to him.

Kim's visual approach conveys no tension, just straight action with an assortment of shots that don't always cut together with natural grace or expressiveness but do sometimes grab the eye thanks to an inclination to move from the concrete to the abstract. Nowhere is this more true than in a climactic car chase that's set, of all places, in a dried-up cornfield, where the drivers' respective cars plow through stalks that make sweeping patterns, with their denseness preventing the adversaries from seeing one another. It's a weird concept with no attachment to realism whatsoever and passably memorable just for that, even if it merely serves as a lead-in to a classic Western showdown on a bridge above the border.

Looking leaner and rather more drawn than before, Schwarzenegger still conveys the old self-confident, humorous I-dare-you attitude toward his adversaries. He remains sufficiently powerful-looking to convincingly prevail in combat, but comedy might prove the most profitable direction for him to pursue in a general way in the coming years, as his kidding, sometimes taunting nature provides a good means for him to make light of his various reputations.

Shot in New Mexico, the production, unlike the star, has something less than a full-bodied look and lacks any kind of real distinction. It sort of does the job, but just barely.

Opens: Jan. 18 (Lionsgate)

Production: Lionsgate, di Bonaventura Productions

Cast: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Forest Whitaker, Johnny Knoxville, Rodrigo Santoro, Jaimie Alexander, Luis Guzman, Eduardo Noriega, Peter Stormare, Zach Gilford, Genesis Rodriguez, Daniel Henney, John Patrick Amedori

Director: Kim Jee-woon

Screenwriter: Andrew Knauer

Producer: Lorenzo di Bonaventura

Executive producers: Guy Riedel, Miky Lee, Edward Fee, Michael Paseronek, John Sacchi

Director of photography: Ji Yong Kim

Production designer: Franco Carbone

Costume designer: Michele Michel

Editor: Steven Kemper

Music: Mowg

[위클리 공감] 템플 스테이, 외국인들에게 인기있는 이유

전통이 살아숨쉬는 사찰에서의 하룻밤. 정갈한 마음으로 올리는 새벽 예불과 백팔배, 그윽한 명상과 자신의 내면 마주하기…. 진정한 나를 찾는 여행인 템플스테이(Temple Stay)가 어느덧 한국의 대표관광 상품 가운데 하나로 자리잡았는데요, 외국인들의 템플스테이에 대한 느낌은 어떨까요?

#1 “저는 역사와 문화, 종교를 포함해 아시아 국가들에 흥미가 있습니다. 일요일 아침 예불과 백팔배는 아주 인상적인 경험입니다. 
사람들은 매우 친절하고, 잘 도와주고 챙겨줍니다. 시간은 매우 짧았지만 사찰 생활에 대한 (첫)인상을 지금도 간직하고 있습니다….”
I'm interested in Asian countries including history, culture and religions. The sunday morning prey and 108bows are very impressive experience. The people are very friendly, helpful and supportive. The time was very short, but still I got a (first) impression about the temple life….

2009년 8월 서울 구기동 금선사 템플스테이 참가자

#2 “…사찰은 아주 평화롭고, 특히 아침에 더욱 그러했습니다. 저는 좀 더 자주 명상을 하도록 고무된 것을 느낄 수 있습니다. 제 자신에 초점을 맞추고 그 안을 들여다볼 것입니다. 할 만한 가치가 있고 고무적인 경험이었습니다. 제 친구들에게 권하고 싶습니다.”
…The temple is very peaceful, especially in the morning. I feel inspired to meditate more often. I will also look within and focus my mind. I think it was a rewarding and inspiring experience.

I would recommend it to my friends.

2009년 11월 부산 청룡동 범어사 템플스테이 참가자

위의 글은 한국불교문화사업단이 운영하는 인터넷 사이트 템플스테이닷컴(templestay.com)에 실린 외국인들의 템플스테이 체험 후기들입니다. 이름을 듣는 것만으로도 마음의 평안을 얻을 것 같은 템플스테이는 절집에서 자고 생활하며 자신의 내면을 성찰할 기회를 갖는 마음의 여행이죠.
 

한국불교문화사업단에 따르면 2008년 12월까지 전국 사찰의 템플스테이에 참가한 사람은 11만2천8백여 명. 이 중 외국인은 2만1백6명입니다.

올해도 10월 말 현재까지 11만9천7백84명이 템플스테이에 참가했고, 이 가운데 외국인은 1만6천9백65명입니다. 전체 참가자의 14퍼센트가량이 외국인인 셈. 템플스테이 참가자 수는 2004년 이후 매년 30~40퍼센트씩 증가하고 있습니다. 
 

올해의 경우 전국 사찰 약 1백 곳이 템플스테이를 운영하고 있습니다.

외국인에게 잘 알려진 곳 중 하나가 강원 평창군 진부면에 위치한 월정사인데요, 오대산 자락에 있는 월정사는 일본 여행사 JTB가 펴내는 여행 가이드북 <루루부> 등에 소개되고 외국인 체험객들 사이에 입소문이 난 곳입니다.
 

월정사 템플스테이의 가장 큰 특징은 연중무휴로 운영하고 있어 외국인이 언제 한국에 도착해도 참여할 수 있다는 점입니다. 서울 동서울터미널에서 버스로 2시간 거리, 영어와 일본어가 가능한 진행자가 있는 것도 매력적이고요.
 

월정사 연수국 김은미(41) 연수팀장은 “서양 관광객들은 명상과 요가에 관심이 많고 스님과 차 마시는 시간도 매우 좋아한다”고 전했습니다.

  

템플스테이의 성공은 당연한 귀결입니다. 우리 불교의 ‘관광 상품적 가치’를 바탕으로 하기 때문이죠.

대한민국에서 가장 기막힌 곳이 산중 사찰 아닌가요. 국토의 70퍼센트가 산인데, 불교 사찰은 대부분 산중에 자리 잡았습니다. 그곳은 자연과의 조화를 최고의 희열로 삼던 선조들에게 자연과 인간이 가장 잘 어울릴 수 있는, 사람이 깃들여도 편안하고 또 주변 경관이 아름다운, 대한민국 최고의 장소입니다.
 

일본, 홍콩, 대만, 싱가포르 등지의 불교 사찰은 우리 것과 다른데요, 노란 색 법의가 그렇고, 독한 연기를 내뿜는 거대한 향불은 더욱 그렇습니다. 
 

그에 비하면 우리 불교는 청징합니다.

출가 후 속세를 등지고 산중 사찰에 머무는 것도, 채식만 하고 결혼하지 않는 것까지. 잿빛 먹물 옷에 발우 넣은 걸망 하나 짊어지고 산길을 오르내리는 눈빛 밝은 운수납자(雲水衲子·스승을 찾아 도를 묻기 위해 여러 곳을 돌아다니는 스님)를, 면벽 1년의 고된 선(禪)수행에 용맹정진하는 선방 스님을 만날 수 있는 곳도 한국입니다. 다른 어느 나라에서도 만나볼 수 없는 한국의 스님을 만나는 것이 바로 템플스테이입니다. 
 

올 해 초 경제협력개발기구(OECD)는 멋진 리포트를 냈습니다.

‘각국 주요 관광지의 매력도와 경쟁력 강화를 위한 문화자원의 역할’에 관한 것인데 여기서 템플스테이가 좋은 평가를 받았습니다.

문화와 관광의 성공적 결합 사례로, 또 민간과 정부의 조화로운 협력, 그리고 외국인에게 한국과 불교를 알리는 효과적인 수단으로써 편리하고 깨끗한 숙박시설, 참선 체험시설 확충이 필요하다는 것도 잊지 않았습니다. 

전세계 한민족 커뮤니티의 중심 '한열사'

[paangel]

제가 요즘 일본과 중국인의 한국여행기를 블로그에 쓰고 있는데... 몇일전 일본인의 템플스테이를 쓰면서 느낀 적이 있습니다. 위의 글 내용과 모두 비슷하지만 제가 일본인의 템플스테이 체험기를 보면서 느낀건.... 외국인으로 하여금 꼭 해보고 싶을 정도의 프로그램이란 것입니다. 어설픈 투어나 정해진 루트보다 템플스테이가 훨씬 알차보이더라구요... 우리나라가 템플스테이 개발은 정말 잘 했다고 봅니다. 저도 해외여행을 갈때 저런 프로그램이 있으면.. 가격만 맞다면 꼭 참여 해보고 싶거든요(한국 템플스테이는 상당히 저렴하죠)

[Qnice]

禪은 중국이 종주국이지만 중국에서 禪은 맥이 거의 끊어졌고.... 일본은 젠이라고 부르는데..너무 격식위주로 변했다고 하더라구요.... 禪맥을 계속 유지하는건 한국 뿐이라고 들은거 같은데....
숭산스님 같은 분이 계속 나와야 하는데... 불교를 엄청 깐 도올도 인정하신 분이니..

[큰민족]

중국은 스님에게서 공무원냄새가 나는건 나만의 느낌인가요..종교의 자유가 있다는걸 대외적으로 과시하기위한 종교공정인걸까요

[solitas]

일본은 불교를 이용해서 일본을 포장했다 들통나 개망신을 당한적이있죠.2차대전이후 스즈키 다이세츠라는 사람이 미국에 건너가 선불교를 알립니다.불교가 생소했던 미국땅에서 스즈키의 강연으로 선불교를 선보이면서 센세이션을 일으킵니다.
이당시 미국사회 전반에서 최정상에서 활동하고있던 매우 많은 저명인사들이 충격을 받고 불교로 개종을 하거나 불교를 공부하게돼죠.여튼 스즈키에 의해 일본불교가 불교의 대표주자로 탈바꿈합니다.불교에 매료되었던 많은 사람들이 선불교를 배우고 깨달음을 얻기위해 일본에 건너가지만 스즈키가 말한 선불교는 일본에 존재하지않았죠.일본불교의 본질은 선불교라기 보다는 하나의 가업형태였기

[solitas]

때문이었죠.주지스님이 결혼을 하고 애를 낳고 나중애 자식에서 주시스님자리를 물려주는 형식의 한마디로 불교라고 뭐한 일본불교였습니다.이런 충격으로 스즈키의 강연에 실망하게 되고 이 틈을 티벳불교와 위파사나가 파고듭니다.그래서 지금 미국에서 티벳불교가 인기인거죠.여튼 스즈키는 불교라는 생소한 종교를 소개하며 미국에서 센세이션을 일으키는 계획 내면에 일본문화를 곁들여 소개합니다.그래서 미국에서 일본문화가 그래 널리퍼진거죠.철학적 깊이를 따지자면 한국 선불교과 티베불교가 가장 깊다고 생각이 듭니다.물론 대만불교도 무시하지못하지만요.

[가자미래로]

예전에 학교에서 배운기억으로는 불교의 승려는 3종류로 구분되며 고기도 먹고 처자식을 가질수있는 승려도 존재했던걸로 아는데요. 고려시대까지는 그런승려들도 있었다고 하더라구요. 따라서 처자식이 있다고 불교라고 말하기 뭐하다는건 좀 그런것같아요

[올인하자.]

고려 시대 당시 불교는 민중과 나라를 하나로 묶어야 할 접착제였습니다. 그리고 승려들은 그럴 의무와 동시에 권리도 상당부분 가졌죠.

[대한으로]

가자미래로 님/ 조선후기에도 사판승이라 하여 대처승과 유사한 스님들이 있긴 있었습니다.그러나 계율을 깨고 파탈하는 건 일부 예외의 문제이지, 스님들이 모조리 다 그런 식이면 그건 주객이 전도된 거고 이미 불교의 범주가 아닙니다. 일본에는 불교가 거의 없기도 하려니와 그런 점에서 보아도 solitas님의 비판에 일리가 있습니다.

[solitas]

철저한 무신론자지만 불교교리와 성경은 철학적 시각으로 접근해 공부해볼만한 작품이라고 생각합니다.

[토바기]

성경에는 신이 존재하지만 불교교리에는 일반적인 절대적 신이 없지 않나요??

[조녹스]

그렇죠. 부처는 인간입니다. 선각자죠. 그를 자신의 롤모델로 삼고 그와 같이 해탈을 할수 있다는게 불교가 아닌가 생각해 봅니다. 사람들이 부처에게 무엇을 이루게 해달라고 일방적으로 비는것이 아닌, 부처를 보면서 자신에게 다짐하는겁니다.

[hwin66]

저도 자세히는 모르지만 우리의 선은 자아.우주만물에 대한 근원을 찾기위한 깨달음의 방식이고, 일본의 선은 작은주제을 갖고 있는 화두을 중심으로 한다고 합니다. 그래서 초보자에게 우리는 생각을 비우라고,집착을 버리는 방식으로 시작하게 하고, 일본은 여러 화두을 주고 그답을 생각하는 방식으로 시작한답니다.. 저도 템플스테이을 경험해 봤는데, 마지막 가르침이 산에 올라올때 가져온 집착중 무엇을 버렸는지 생각하고 많은 집착중 한가지라도 떨어버리고 내려가라 하시더군요.. 확실히 큰스님은 심안이 뜨신 분이라 얼굴만 보시고도 마음의 짐과 근심을 아시더군요. 정말 좋은 경험이고, 추천해 드릴만 합니다.

[고양시민]

저도 선에 대해서는 잘 모르지만 선이 서양문화에 끼친 중요영향중 하나가 명상(메디테이션)이더라고 하더라고요. 제가 알기론 교육, 철학과 종교분야에선 명상이 주요 이슈고 대세라고 하던데 일본의 선문화론 설명이 안되지요.

[올인하자.]

테플 스테이가 뭐죠?

[새오름]

템플스테이=> 일정기간을 정해서 사찰에서 행하는 불교체험 프로그램을 말합니다. 검색란에 '템플스테이' 치시면 많이 나옵니다.

[새오름]

http://www.templestay.com/ 공식홈피

[hwin66]

불교체험이라고 거부감 갖을 필요없습니다.. 가부좌을 뜰고 앉는 참선이 고되지만, 자신을 돌아보는 것이 주된 목적이지요.. 저도 천주교신자지만, 굉장이 좋았습니다...

[우비비]

선원은 어디까지나 수행을 위해 존재하는 곳인데,,관광수입도 좋고 다 좋은데,,적정선만 잘 지켰으면 좋겠습니다,.가장중요한것은 선원이 존재하는 이유죠,,

[타이미]

뭐랄까.. 저는 전통이라던지 깊은 역사를 가진 것에 대한 별다른 의미를 두지 않았었습니다만
무더운 여름날 그 청량했던 나무 바닥이 기억에 남아있네요. 원래 누우면 안되는걸로 알고있었는데 스님이 안절부절 하는 제 얼굴을 보더니
한번 웃으시더군요. 그래서 발라당 엎어졌는데 그 느낌이 무척이나 좋았습니다.

[Dainz]

교회에서도 부흥회 스테이같은걸 해보는게 어떨까요... 1박2일 교회에 머물면서 울며 기도하며 혼절하는걸 체험한다면 외국인에게 각별한 기억이 될거 같습니다.ㅎㅎ

[안녕하하하]

ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ상상이되네요...ㅋㅋㅋㅋ

[최강블랙퍼플로즈마리]

ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅠㅠ

[hwin66]

ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ 팡터져버렸네요..ㅎㅎㅎㅎㅎ

[엄훠나 ?]

교회는 기도원이나 마음수련이 템플스테이랑 똑같은거임

[패기와지성]

후후후...한국 기독교가 미국의 오순절 운동에 큰 영향을 받은 교파로 부터 전도를 받은 탓에, 열렬한 면이 있죠. 아무튼 빵터지네요...ㅋㅋㅋ

[고고학자]

최고이십니다... 진짜 팡 터졌네요...ㅋㅋㅋ

[뱀시 리버스]

여유가 된다면 꼭 해야지~

[가자미래로]

라고 말하기보단 TBS에서 광고 주구장장 때려대기 때문이 아닐까요?ㅋㅋㅋ

[쑤오 카]

저는 기독교인이지만 템플스테이를 한번 해보고 싶습니다. 정말 좋은 프로그램인 것 같고 불교의 깊이를 느낄 수 있을 것 같아요. 더 많은 사람들이 참여했으면 좋겠네요.

[미라클2010]

템플스테이 정말 좋은 프로그램이네요...

[나방나방♡]

종교는 다르지만 저도 템플스테이 해보고 싶어요. 친구들이 그러던데 정말 좋다고 하더라구요. 시험 끝나면 도전해 봐야겠어요^^

[늑대와춤을]

한국의 사찰이 일본과 달리 산중에 있는것은 불교가 융성하던 고려시대가 망하고 유교를 채택한 조선시대에서 숭유억불정책때문에 산중으로 다 옮겨갔다고 합니다. 그후 임진왜란때에 산중에 있는 많은 사찰도 왜놈들에 의해 불태워지고 파괴되고 왜란후 다시 재건되기도하구요....

[삼족오가나는날]

이 하나를 통해서 한국의 자연과 문화와 예절과 종교와 웰빙체험까지 하니까 아주 좋은 프로그램인것 같네요. 실망할래야 할수없을것 같네요