1. The Last Stand (2013) vs. Bullet To The Head (2012)
Coming in at the number one spot is the first solo effort the boys have made in years, following on from the success of The Expendables and The Expendables 2. Well and truly past their heyday, I wasn’t too sure what to expect from these films prior to them being released, but I was still excited to see them nonetheless.
The Last Stand was always going to be epic because it was the first time that Arnie has headlined a movie since completing his term as Governor, and I’m sure that fans were just as eager to see this as I was.
In the film, Arnie is Ray Owens, a small town sheriff who must spring into action when a notorious drug cartel boss makes a run for the Mexican border after he eludes capture from the FBI. Proving that he hasn’t lost his touch, the Governator slipped back into the action mold as if he never left.
What makes The Last Stand so brilliant is that it is well aware of Arnie’s age and it never attempts to ignore that fact by putting him in impossible action sequences that he might’ve been able to pull of 15 years earlier. In saying that, the action never lets up, with scorching car chases, shootouts and fight scenes. The seriousness comes in from the ever reliable Forest Whitaker as a determined FBI agent and Spanish export Eduardo Noriega as the edgy and dangerous drug cartel leader Gabriel Cortez. Throw in Luis Guzman and Johnny Knoxville and you’ll find yourself laughing out loud during moments of extreme violence, what a interesting paradox that creates. The film was met with a modest box office take and mostly positive reviews from critics and fans, but I still maintain that it deserved a far greater reception than it saw.
Welcome back Arnie, we missed you!
Around the same time as The Last Stand was released, Sly brought out his solo effort: Bullet To The Head. Unfortunately, it was met with complete financial failure and mixed reviews from critics. Veteran action director Walter Hill was at the helm of this one (his first feature in 10 years) and without a doubt, teaming him up with Stallone was the main drawing card for the film.
Sly plays hitman Jimmy Bobo, who is out for blood when his partner is brutally murdered by mercenary Keegan (modern-day Conan himself Jason Momoa). After realizing that they are looking to bring down a common enemy, Jimmy reluctantly teams with Detective Taylor Kwon (Sung Kang) and their investigation eventually leads them to shady businessman named Morel (Adewale Akinnouye-Agbaje).
Bullet To The Head is certainly a much darker film than The Last Stand, and while it certainly delivered on the action front, the chemistry between Bobo and Kwon just didn’t hit the high notes I was hoping for. The banter was clever at times, but these moments were few and far between. The plot itself moved things along nicely Sly definitely brings it here. When he isn’t insulting Kwon or brooding, he is bashing the living life out of nearly everyone who appears on screen. He is in incredible shape for someone who is 67, and pairing him with 32 year old Jason Momoa only further brewed the adrenaline for this action junkie.
My suspicion is that had Bullet To The Head been made anywhere between 10-20 years ago, it may have reached a larger demographic. Unfortunately, because of the evolution that action cinema has experienced up until now, unless the movie is an ensemble piece populated with the action legends of yesteryear, audiences just don’t seem to be interested in the traditional old school action formula anymore, and that’s exactly what this film presented.
The winner: The Last Stand. Arnie’s first post-governor effort injected loads of fun and interesting characters into a familiar formula. Bullet To The Head had lots of unfulfilled potential, but it just wasn’t what fans wanted. While it was still good to see Walter Hill back in the director’s chair and Sly carry a film on his own, it just didn’t match up to The Last Stand.