And, when I say ‘officially,’ I basically mean I think it is and that I’ve seen a fair few other people say that too on the internet. But, anyway, back in the late eighties and early nineties Arnold Schwarzenegger really couldn’t do much wrong in terms of Box Office revenue. Then, from out of nowhere (and fresh off the back of arguably his biggest hit ever – Terminator 2) came ‘The Last Action Hero.’ How could it fail, people asked. It did. Well, it did... sort of.
It wasn’t a huge commercial disaster and probably made its money back and, when you factor into video sales (and probably DVD and Blu Ray by now) it pretty much did all right. It was just it was hyped and many felt that it didn’t live up to its hype. And, when I say ‘many’ I kind of mean the film critics of 1993. Basically, they didn’t like it. And they made their feelings clear.The plot of Last Action Hero is a little more complicated than Arnie’s millions of fans were used to. Normally, he just kills one bad guy after another, pausing only to say a dry quip before carrying on the slaughter. Well, Last Action Hero certainly follows suit there – he probably kills more people that in Commando, Total Recall and Predator put together (not to mention more witty one-liners). However, the difference here was that the film was a parody of what Arnie was known for. And it just didn’t seem to sit right with the critics. Arnold Schwarzenegger plays ‘Jack Slater’ – a fictional super-cop in an action movie inside this action movie. Confused yet? The ‘real world’ is inhabited by Arnold/Jack’s biggest fan – a young boy named Danny who comes into the possession of a magic ticket which allows him to be transported into the ‘Jack Slater film’ itself and ride along with his on-screen hero, literally ‘in-screen.’ Then, just when we’re secure in the ‘movie world’ Danny has found himself in, the ‘baddie’ of the Jack Slater film only goes and gets his hand on the magic ticket, allowing him to cross over into our ‘real’ world, forcing Danny and Jack to follow him through. And, once in the ‘real world’ things work differently and Jack finds punching through glass windows slightly more painful than he used to on screen.
Therefore, we’re treated to countless ‘in-jokes’ and movie references that you’ll only really understand if you know, love and generally appreciate that action movies are pretty far-fetched at the best of times and very over the top. In fact, rather than being an all out no-brainer action movie, the Last Action Hero is actually quite a clever satire (wrapped up in explosions and car chases). There was a theory thrown around in 1993 that critics didn’t like seeing film itself mocked on the big screen. I don’t know whether that was true or whether Last Action Hero was just a little bit too different, or too ahead of its time.
Plus I think people did tend to wonder who the film was aimed at. If you look at the cheery marketing poster that famously accompanied the film, it kind of looks like a happy-go-lucky action romp, similar to Indiana Jones, i.e. something for all the family. It’s not. It’s much darker. There’s plenty of killing and references to films that no younger audience would appreciate. Therefore it’s a film starring a kid that’s for adults. And that’s always a hard sell.
But, as I sort of alluded to at the beginning, Last Action Hero has kind of matured over the years. Now many regard it as a classic. Granted it may not be ‘pure’ action like many of Arnie’s fans were used to, but it is action better than that. It combines great actions sequences with clever humour and pokes gentle fun at its own genre. Quite a rarity really. If you like Arnie you should like this. Also, if you like action films in general, you’re going to get double out of it. It seems that Last Action Hero does have more than just a few loyal fans out there who refuse to let it be forgotten. Hercules in New York it will never be. And I for one am glad of that.
9/10 almost as perfect as The Godfather
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