Yes, Arnold Schwarzenegger is back, out of politics and up on the big screen where he belongs.  Of course, one can read political meanings into this story of a tough Arizona sheriff determined to prevent a drug cartel kingpin (the charismatic Eduardo Noriega) from using his town as a path straight into Mexico, but that really isn’t the point.  In The Last Stand, he’s a sheriff who likes the peacefulness of his small town, so just like John Wayne in Rio Bravo and El Dorado, Schwarzenegger recruits a few inexperienced or misfit friends to help him stop the fugitive from escaping.

Guiding all this action-oriented mayhem is South Korean director Jee-woon Kim — in his first English-language film — but you’d never know that from the finished product. The movie is smart, occasionally brutal, sporadically funny and entertaining despite a rather formulaic story.  The humor is more amusing than funny but it is surprisingly prevalent throughout the film, even as Peter Stormare and his black-clad bad guys are shooting up Schwarzenegger’s town.  Had the violence been toned down this could have been rated PG-13, but it is certainly violent and profane enough to earn its R rating, which is what Schwarzenegger’s biggest fans really desire.

I’m not a huge fan of these big shoot-’em-up firefight fun-fests, yet this one displays some actual strategy, very impressive stunt work — especially involving a really cool speedy car — and takes the time to build its characters a bit before, during and after the well-paced shooting sprees.  Nothing grandiose, of course, but well enough so that the people seem to matter.  And although Schwarzenegger’s return to the silver screen is the main draw, the filmmakers don’t make him carry the film alone.  It is, I think, a fairly well-balanced movie with much to recommend it (for audiences who like this sort of thing).  There’s a lot of firepower, familiar faces in small roles (Luis Guzman, Forest Whitaker, even Harry Dean Stanton) and Arnold Schwarzenegger squinting in the Arizona sunshine just like Clint Eastwood.  Welcome back to the game, Arnold.  ☆ ☆ 1/2.  18 January 2013.