The Last Action Hero

Last Action Hero

(1993)
Directed by John McTiernan
Written by Shane Black & David Arnott (screenplay), Zak Penn & Adam Leff (story)
Starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, F. Murray Abraham, Art Carney, Charles Dance, Tom Noonan, Austin O’Brien, Antony Quinn, Mercedes Ruehl, Ian McKellan, Joan Plowright.
IMDB Entry
OK, I’ll admit it:  I love metafiction – stories that break the fourth wall and where the characters know that they’re in a movie. So I was predisposed to like The Last Action Hero and I wasn’t disappointed, even if the movie did terribly at the box office.

Danny Madigan (Austin O’Brien) loves movies, especially those with action star Jack Slater (Arnold Schwarzenegger). The friendly projectionist at the theater he spends his days at (Art Carney) gives Danny a magic ticket that transports him into one of Slater’s movies. He hangs round Slater, while trying to tell him about how this is all a movie world:  All the women are beautiful, there’s a cartoon cat as a cop, phone numbers begin with 555, Sylvester Stallone starred in Terminator, and Slater’s partner John Practice (F. Murray Abraham) killed Mozart. Of course, Slater doesn’t believe any of this and keeps spouting Hollywood-style one-liners as he goes about his business.

But Slater’s arch enemy, Benedict (Charles Dance) starts to believe and transfers to the real world, where he realizes that he can actually get away with murder. Slater and Danny have to find him.
Schwarzenegger has always had a good comic presence, and he plays Jack completely over the top, a parody of every action hero ever created. He’s clearly loving the role.

As the cast list indicates, there is a long list of big name cameos in the movie.

So why did it flop?

First of all, the production was rushed to be released on a certain date. Scenes shot after the test screening were rushed into the film, so didn’t look good. Also, the marketing* was confusing. The trailer showed Slater/Schwarzenegger as Hamlet (as an action hero).  It’s funny, but doesn’t really get across the message. Then the trailer concentrated on the action, not the humor, and, sadly many people did not get that the scenes were deliberately over the top for comic effect.

It also didn’t help that Jurassic Park opened the week before.

The movie seems to be getting a cult following, and probably it would have been better if it didn’t pretend to the a summer blockbuster. But I found it a lot of fun – very funny and with some interesting philosophical ideas.
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*Bad marketing can kill even the greatest of films.