Letterboxd — Your life in film

I did not have high expectations for the movie before I watched it. I was in the mood for a movie with action, and the plot was not really important. The Last Stand delivered on that. It has a barely-held together plot, but it did not matter. I was in the mood for the type of movie I watched. The protagonist is the aging, low key sheriff of the small town played by Schwarzenegger. The plot involves an escaped fugitive on the run with help from his thugs, as they intend to get over the Mexican border. The last town that stands between their destination and the antagonists is the small town. The small town is guarded by the sheriff and a handful of deputies. The rest is just shooting, explosions, near misses, overly-dramatic lines during face-offs, etc; you get the idea. I enjoyed it, but I was in the mood for this type of movie tonight. I wouldn't hand out any awards for it though. Just a fun movie that does not take itself too seriously.

I can't believe it took me this long to finally watch this movie. My loss. It is a good movie with a few tricks that the directors play on the viewer. Overall, those tricks are just icing on the cake of this movie. The story is deep, yet believable The dialogue between Bruce Willis and Mos Def seemed very realistic. They worked well together, and I liked the combination. Mos Def really blew me away with how great he played his character; down to the voice. Willis was strong, but I'm not surprised by that. When Willis wants to turn in a deep and emotional performance, he will do it. In this film, Willis and Mos Def are solid. One of the antagonist, David Morse, does a decent job of being the "bad-guy" with all the power and options for Willis and Mos Def. It would've been a plus to see Morse play it a little more disconnected or sociopathic even, but that's just picking. I loved this movie, and will definitely give it a re-watch.

A completely forgettable movie, which is odd considering the amount of gunfight scenes were in Gangster Squad. The problem that I have with this movie is that it never made me really care for the characters. I actually found Sean Penn's character, the antagonist of the movie, to be the most interesting character. I would have liked to see more of his back-story; his character has some depth that was not explored. The other actors in the movie, specifically Josh Brolin, Ryan Gosling, and Emma Stone, did not bring anything special to the movie. Josh Brolin really overacted; I found his character the most unconvincing. It felt like Brolin was forcing every line. Gosling did not bring much, good or bad, to his performance in this movie. Gosling, like Emma Stone, seemed very out of touch with the movie, and it almost felt as if they were just reading lines. Their interactions together were pointless, although seemingly in the movie to create a cross-tension. That didn't work for me. Other actors such as Giovanni Ribis, Anthony Mackie, Michael Peña, Frank Grillo, & even Nick Nolte all had roles that were fairly one note. They were there to say some things, do some things, and that's about it. That's how the movie felt when I viewed it. It had plenty of action, but it had no tension. I never felt the roller coaster of emotions that I felt when I watched The Untouchables. Speaking of that, Gangster Squad did feel like a re-imagined and updated version of The Untouchables. It failed at being anywhere near the quality in storytelling, acting, and feeling of that movie. The one thing that I can say that I liked about Gangster Squad, is that Sean Penn plays his character well. It was not a great performance, but it is a pretty good performance of a power-crazed, murderous, organized-crime head with a boxing background acted with sincerity. Penn's performance in the movie was the only thing that felt serious or even attention-grabbing. I liked it enough, but only to the tune of 2.5 stars.