Last Action Hero (1993)

Not too long ago, I broke down my responses to rewatching a movie from childhood into three categories:

1. It's exactly how I remembered
2. It's nothing like I remembered: It's much better
3. It's nothing like I remembered: It's much worse

Last Action Hero is exactly how I remembered it. Just about everything that I loved about this movie back then remains my favorite things about it now. Last Action Hero is about this kid, Danny, who's obsessed with a series of movies starring Arnold Schwarzenegger as Jack Slater. Jack Slater, obviously a character invented just for this movie, possesses every action hero cliche you can imagine. After being given a magic ticket for a private advanced screening of the newest Jack Slater flick, Danny finds himself suddenly inside the movie. As a kid, I was fascinated with this idea. How cool would it be to join my favorite movie heroes in their struggles to win the day? I don't know that I would have chosen a Schwarzenegger film, but I still liked entertaining myself with the notion.

I just want to clarify right away. This isn't some movie that's so bad that it's fun to watch. I actually love this movie. I think the choices they made were smart. Speaking of which, John McTiernan brings a lot of experience having helmed both Die Hard and Predator. It allows for him to be especially aware of what the action movie formula is, so he can really play it out in all its ridiculous splendor.

And that's still what I love about this movie. Danny sort of represents the general population explaining just what they've come to expect in an action movie. From the fundamental (the main character can't possibly die) to the specific (why does everybody's number start with 555). There are also various gags throughout the movie that are fun to see. For instance, Danny tries to convince Jack Slater that he should be careful trusting one of his coworkers because 'he killed Mozart,' referring of course to F. Murray Abraham and his role in Amadeus.

Interesting points are brought up. In order to prove to Jack Slater that they are in a movie, Danny gets it into his head to visit the nearest Blockbuster to check out some of the Schwarzenegger films only to find out that Schwarzenegger doesn't exist in this different reality. This is a world where Sylvester Stallone is The Terminator. That only makes me wonder if he also becomes the governator in time.

The title for this movie is Last Action Hero, and I think that this was almost meant as a swan song to the extremely unbelievable action films that came before. It doesn't really work that way because these kind of movies continued to be made for a long while, and with Die Hard and Rambo coming back for another run, it really destroys the 'goodbye' factor that this movie might have had. Maybe there are no goodbye's for these guys. Maybe there are just I'll-be-back's.