Back from the Governor's Mansion in Sacramento to the daily grind of Hollywood, Arnold Schwarzenegger is not only in an action movie that might have been designed for Clint Eastwood, he's also as slimmed-down, craggy-faced and ill-coiffed as his fellow Republican politician. Under the expert direction of Kim Jee-woon (this is the Korean film-maker's English-language film debut), Arnie plays former top LA cop Ray Owens, now in semi-retirement as a small-town Arizona sheriff on the Mexican border. What starts out as a cop movie turns into a western when a third-generation drug kingpin escapes from the Feds in Las Vegas and heads south to the border, where a gang led by Peter Stormare are installing a bridge to facilitate his return to Mexico.

There's an allegory lurking here. The FBI are led by decent-minded African American Forest Whitaker who doesn't trust the local sheriff, and when things go pear-shaped, the only man able to put the American hearse before the Mexican cartel is Arnie. Loudly echoing John Wayne in Rio Bravo, he swears in five trusted deputies to protect the town against the approaching Hispanic thugs. Fortunately they're not only armed to the teeth, but one of their number runs a historical weapons museum, and a local old lady is packing a rod. What do you call a place like this? Home – if you belong to the National Rifle Association, who might well have sponsored this film.