Last Action Hero is notorious action film that attempted to be a meta satire, being a box-office and critical flop despite it starring the biggest action hero of the time, Arnold Schwarzenegger and helmed by Die Hard and Predator director John McTiernan.
Danny Madigan (Austin O'Brien) is a movie obsessed kid who skips school so he can watch the over-blown action series Jack Slater, starring Mr. Schwarzenegger. When Danny's friend, the elderly projectionist Nick (Robert Prosky) offer Danny the chance to see the fourth Jack Slater film before anyone else the kid jumps at the chance and Nick gives Danny a magic ticket. But Danny ends up transported to the movie world where he tries to convince Jack Slater he is really a fictional character as the villainous Benedict (Charles Dance) sees an opportunity to be more then a Mafia hit-man.
Last Action Hero had a troubled production and post-production, from getting Shane Black to radically rewrite the script, having an awful test screening, being edited to the last minute and coming out a week after the hugely popular Jurassic Park. Added with the negative reviews Last Action Hero failed. But since its release Last Action Hero has developed a cult following and some see it as a misunderstood classic. I do not share that view point.
As you would expect from McTiernan the action is of a very high standard and wonderfully over the top. There are explosions galore and Schwarzenegger continued to be an action presence. Schwarenegger also did have some funny jokes. But the meta approach of the satire falls flat. The idea of satirising action movies of the 80s and early 90s was fair game and still serves a way to deliver an excellent action film, but it was affected by the framing device of the movie-within-a-movie, allowing Danny to break the clichés down for us instead of letting us figuring it out ourselves. It is a bit like the Scream series but the Scream series was able to get away with it more due to the universe created.
Some of the jokes in Last Action Hero really do fall flat like the cops getting mix-matched partners and it gets puts to extremes like someone getting partnered with a rabbi, another with a cartoon cat and a black-and-white Humphrey Bogart also gets in on the action. Another really ill-advised joke was when the police captain is yelling at Jack Slater so much that steam comes out of his ears.
Dance did make for a good villain and are some decent character actors in supporting roles like Tom Noonan and F. Murray Abraham, but O'Brien was a grating presence as the know-it-all child.
Last Action Hero is far from being Arnie's worst film, it wouldn't even be in the bottom five, but it is a wasted opportunity at satirising the action genre, being too meta for its own good. Hot Fuzz is a much better satire of the buddy cop and action genre.
Danny Madigan (Austin O'Brien) is a movie obsessed kid who skips school so he can watch the over-blown action series Jack Slater, starring Mr. Schwarzenegger. When Danny's friend, the elderly projectionist Nick (Robert Prosky) offer Danny the chance to see the fourth Jack Slater film before anyone else the kid jumps at the chance and Nick gives Danny a magic ticket. But Danny ends up transported to the movie world where he tries to convince Jack Slater he is really a fictional character as the villainous Benedict (Charles Dance) sees an opportunity to be more then a Mafia hit-man.
Last Action Hero had a troubled production and post-production, from getting Shane Black to radically rewrite the script, having an awful test screening, being edited to the last minute and coming out a week after the hugely popular Jurassic Park. Added with the negative reviews Last Action Hero failed. But since its release Last Action Hero has developed a cult following and some see it as a misunderstood classic. I do not share that view point.
As you would expect from McTiernan the action is of a very high standard and wonderfully over the top. There are explosions galore and Schwarzenegger continued to be an action presence. Schwarenegger also did have some funny jokes. But the meta approach of the satire falls flat. The idea of satirising action movies of the 80s and early 90s was fair game and still serves a way to deliver an excellent action film, but it was affected by the framing device of the movie-within-a-movie, allowing Danny to break the clichés down for us instead of letting us figuring it out ourselves. It is a bit like the Scream series but the Scream series was able to get away with it more due to the universe created.
Some of the jokes in Last Action Hero really do fall flat like the cops getting mix-matched partners and it gets puts to extremes like someone getting partnered with a rabbi, another with a cartoon cat and a black-and-white Humphrey Bogart also gets in on the action. Another really ill-advised joke was when the police captain is yelling at Jack Slater so much that steam comes out of his ears.
Dance did make for a good villain and are some decent character actors in supporting roles like Tom Noonan and F. Murray Abraham, but O'Brien was a grating presence as the know-it-all child.
Last Action Hero is far from being Arnie's worst film, it wouldn't even be in the bottom five, but it is a wasted opportunity at satirising the action genre, being too meta for its own good. Hot Fuzz is a much better satire of the buddy cop and action genre.