Last Action Hero (1993)

User Rating:

5.8/10   

Director:

John McTiernan

Writers (WGA):

Zak Penn (story) &
Adam Leff (story) ...

Release Date:

18 June 1993 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Adventure | Comedy | Fantasy

Tagline:

Did Someone Say Action? [Theatrical]

Plot:

A young movie fan gets thrown into the movie world of his favourite action film character.

Plot Keywords:

Ticket | Hero | Magic | Projectionist | Action Hero

Awards:

14 nominations

Cast

Arnold Schwarzenegger	...	Jack Slater / Himself
F. Murray Abraham	...	John Practice
Austin O'Brien	...	Danny Madigan
Art Carney	...	Frank
Charles Dance	...	Benedict
Frank McRae	...	Lieutenant Dekker
Tom Noonan	...	Ripper / Himself
Robert Prosky	...	Nick
Anthony Quinn	...	Tony Vivaldi
Mercedes Ruehl	...	Irene Madigan
Ian McKellen	...	Death
Professor Toru Tanaka	...	Tough Asian Man
Joan Plowright	...	Teacher
Jason Kelly	...	Lieutenant Governor
Noah Emmerich	...	Rookie

Also Known As:

Extremely Violent (USA) (working title)

Runtime:

130 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Colour:

Colour (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.20 : 1

Sound Mix:

70 mm 6-Track (70 mm prints) | SDDS (8 channels) (35 mm prints) | Dolby (35 mm prints)

Certification:

Finland:K-14 (re-rating) | Finland:K-16 (original rating) | Iceland:12 | South Korea:15 | Netherlands:12 | Malaysia:U | Argentina:13 | Australia:M | Canada:14A | Chile:14 | Germany:12 | Ireland:15 | Norway:15 | Spain:18 | Sweden:11 | UK:15 | USA:PG-13 (certificate #32089) | Singapore:PG

Filming Locations:

1100 block of Angelina Street, Downtown, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Columbia Pictures Corporation

Trivia:

In the Blockbuster store and in the newspaper that is being read by Benedict, there is advertisement for Dracula (1992) and Single White Female (1992).

Goofs:

Continuity: After Benedict shoots Jack, he loads two bullets in the gun to shoot him again. Then, when Slater shoots his eye, one shot. But when Danny points at Death, the gun is full.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Dekker: This is one hell of a way to spend Christmas...

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "The Critic: Marathon Mensch (#1.8)" (1994)

Soundtrack:

Hangin' Tree

Say what you want about it . . .

but I actually liked it, and I'm not particularly an Arnie fan (he's not a very good actor and he's a terrible governor). Some of his movies are pretty good, some are pretty lousy, but this one isn't, IMO, anywhere near as bad as its reputation. I happen to think it's a lot of fun. Sure it's cartoonish, but ARNIE is cartoonish! That's what makes this movie so much fun; all of his movies--in fact, all action movies in general--are not much more than live-action cartoons, and this movie gleefully makes fun of them in general, and Arnie in particular, and the best part of it is that he's in on the joke. I don't know why it was savaged so much when it was first released; it really didn't deserve it. Several of his later movies ("Eraser" and "End of Days", for example) were far more deserving of that kind of treatment than this one is.

Anyway, I just like this movie. The action scenes were exciting, there were some very funny lines and a ton of clever in-jokes, some great cameos, and it was just an all-around fun flick. Try it, you'll like it.