The Essentials: The Films Of ‘The Last Stand’ Director Kim Jee-Woon

“The Last Stand” (2013)
Kim Jee-woon, along with Chan Wook-park (whose “Stoker” opens this spring), makes his English language debut in 2013 with “The Last Stand,” a kind of arch splatter-western that pits a gruff small town sheriff (played, winningly, by Arnold Schwarzenegger in his first lead role since 2003’s “Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines“) against a ruthless drug kingpin (Eduardo Noreiga). Simplistic and hugely entertaining, it’s sometimes hard to pick out the Kim flourishes amongst the typical action movie clangor (Johnny Knoxville is essentially playing The Weird and there are flashes of explosive violence), although there are moments that feel like the director is making a pointed critique of American gun culture (something we’re all keenly sensitive to, especially now). There’s also a climactic car chase that takes place through cornfields that borders on the hallucinogenic, that feels totally in line with his previous movies. What really bums us out is that Kim Jee-woon felt like a filmmaker whose aesthetic and thematic concerns were so firmly rooted that it would have been nearly impossible to upend, even in a flashy American production. Apparently we were wrong. While there’s nothing “bad” about “The Last Stand,” we just wish it had been a whole lot more Kim Jee-woon-y. (There’s a reason he’s headed back to Korea for his next movie.) [C+]

What We Didn’t Include: Kim Jee-woon made a pair of movies in 2000. The first was “The Foul King,” a comedy that starred Kim regular Song Kang-ho as an out-of-work bank clerk who takes up professional wrestling, donning a Mexican wrestling mask and calling himself “The Foul King.” The other was a 45-minute short film called “Coming Out,” a sort of experimental, found-footage movie that professes to be the confession of a young girl who is also a vampire. Unfortunately, we couldn’t get our hands on them for deadline. However, those with region-free DVD players can watch “Coming Out” on the British special edition of “The Quiet Family.”