When an escaped fugitive is speeding towards the Mexican border in a stolen supercar, a small army clearing his path and no federal agents close enough to help, there’s only one man that can stop him. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

That’s right, Arnie has returned to Hollywood. He’s gotten the politics out of his system and is back to doing what he does best, filling the silver screen with his Herculean shoulders.

The release of a new Schwarzenegger movie won’t be good news to everyone, as he is one of those actors that tends to polarise audiences like cinematic marmite, but for fans of the Terminator star, this day is long overdue.

I don’t think those fans will be disappointed. Sure, this isn’t the best film to come out this year, and it’s certainly not Schwarzenegger’s best film, but it is a highly enjoyable, old school action movie, which ticks all the right boxes: thrilling car chases, ruthless villains, a wisecracking hero and deadly fights with a whole arsenal of weapons. It was fast-paced, fun, and had a good balance of comedy and action, reminiscent of much of Arnie’s earlier work.

Schwarzenegger plays a small town sheriff and his largely incompetent deputies are pitched as comic relief, which they achieve to some degree. But they tread a fine line between amusing and irritating, and do occasionally slip into the latter.

As for the main man himself, he doesn’t disappoint. His acting is as good as ever (interpret that as you will, his acting ability has always been a subjective issue), but you don’t generally watch an Arnie film for the acting. He maintains the tongue-in-cheek approach and comic timing that made him so popular in films, such as Total Recall and Eraser, delivering his trademark one-liners at the perfect moments. Unfortunately, I don’t think this film has one of those gems that people will quote for years to come, such as; ‘I’ll be back’ or ‘Get to the chopper’.

One of the main concerns I had going into the film was his age. Whilst he is still in great shape, he obviously isn’t the hulking He-man he used to be. For an actor whose films relied heavily on his physicality, I thought this could be an issue. I’m happy to say I was wrong. There might not be any inhuman feats of strength, but his role is certainly physical; he crashes through doors, leaps from roofs and wrestles with bad guys.

It might take a little longer than it used to for him to get up from the floor, but he can still throw a villain around with the best of them. It just goes to show, Austrian oak doesn’t weaken with age.