When I saw that this was on Netflix, I was super excited. First off, the people that made the trailer for this should be fired. The trailer was so hoaky, that even I had my doubts about the movie going into it. I was wrong. This movie was exactly what I could have hoped for. Arnold’s first full blown movie back from politics is nothing more than your typical Arnold action film. That’s all a guy like me can ask for.
One thing I noticed while watching this, was that it took me a little bit to get used to what Arnold looks like now. He’s not like other actors, where you didn’t really notice the ageing much because you have continuously watched their movies year after year. He was literally gone from movies for a very long time. The initial shock of how old he actually is goes away after a little bit. Once that leaves, its easy to get sucked into this simplistic but entertaining action thriller. It also helps that Arnold plays an old sheriff and isn’t exactly trying to be what Stallone makes himself out to be in the “Expendables” movies.
The movie’s plot is simple. Arnold plays an ex-cop from the LAPD who basically decided to go the simple route after being involved in some heavy shit back in LA. He is now the loved Sheriff in a wholesome little town full of old people, family diners, and hot country girls. Every girl under the age of 30-35 looked like a model in country clothes. The Police department consists of one Sheriff and four deputies. Johnny Knoxville also has an entertaining roll in the movie as a citizen of the town that is kind of whacky and just so happens to collect weapons (obviously). I think that this is were the trailer went wrong. It’s very Knoxville/Arnold heavy, almost as if its a buddy flick, when in reality, Knoxville isn’t even in it that much. Its like they made the trailer and didn’t care about getting the story across but only wanted to sell it by showing the only two stars in the movie in a sequence of scenes that made no sense.
The ball gets rolling when an escaped convict who just so happens to be very dangerous and has a racing background, escaped custody in an elaborate sequence of events, and is racing to the border of a bridge his men made, into Mexico. He is travelling in this modified Corvette that apparently has 1000 horsepower and can out run helicopters. So many of the scenes involving this car gave me flashbacks to the old Knight Rider show, I often laughed.
Of course on the way to this bridge that they made, the convict must travel through this town, where Arnold has just become aware of this guy and has basically told the FBI to eat it as he wants to handle it himself.
I enjoyed this film way more than I expected to! It was an awesome “welcome back” movie for Arnold and has gotten me even more excited for his future projects. The action scenes were awesome, the film was really violent, and the battle scenes involving Arnold were just as bad ass as they used to be. He’s still got it.
I definitely recommend this one.
